Dozens of celebrities sign petition calling on RBC to stop funding Coastal GasLink pipeline in B.C.

Dozens of celebrities have signed a petition calling on the Royal Bank of Canada to stop funding the Coastal GasLink pipeline project in northern B.C.

Dozens of celebrities have signed a petition calling on the Royal Bank of Canada to stop funding the Coastal GasLink pipeline project in northern B.C.

The campaign, "No More Dirty Banks," asks for the bank to withdraw its financial support of the pipeline immediately. It appears to have been signed by dozens of artists like Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson and Amy Schumer. Celebrities have signed the petition because RBC is parent company to City National Bank, known as the "bank of the stars."

In a video posted to the campaign's website, actor and producer Mark Ruffalo, spoke against the project.

"Right now major banks like the Royal Bank of Canada are financing a fracked gas pipeline, bulldozing through the land of the Wet'suwet'en nation in northern British Columbia, Canada," he said in the video.

"The Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs never consented to this pipeline being construction through their territories, which would risk the sacred headwaters of Wedzin Kwa River."

The Coastal GasLink pipeline has been a focal point of protests by Indigenous land defenders and those aligned with hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation.

The pipeline is being constructed on the nation's traditional territory, and while its owner has agreements with elected Indigenous governments along the route, many hereditary chiefs oppose the project. The conflict prompted nationwide blockades in solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en protesters in February 2020.