Here's why some university students are protesting Canada's big banks

Students across Canada are protesting the country's biggest banks, calling them out over climate change.

According to Dani Michie, a digital organizer at the student-led non-profit Banking on a Better Future, young people comprise a valuable demographic for banks.

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"When young people make decisions about where they're going to bank, those decisions tend to last their entire lives," she told CTV's Your Morning on Monday. "Youth have a lot of power in pressuring those banks to make different decisions, so that we will choose to bank with them and choose to work for them."

Previous reports have shown Canada's largest banks heavily invest in sectors including fossil fuels, and none are on track for net zero.

Michie acknowledges the banks have made some progress on climate goals, but says she doesn’t think they go far enough.

"It's mostly lip service, it's a lot of public relations. They really want us to think that they are environmentally friendly and that they're on our side," she said. "But we know that the numbers tell a different story."

According to a report released last year, six of Canada's big banks are pulling ahead on climate policies but still "have a ways to go."

Hoping to incite further action, the Banking on a Better Future organization held protests on 16 university campuses across Canada in 2022.

The protest prompted a response from one of the country's major banks.

In March, RBC told CTV News Windsor in a statement: "We are focusing our attention where we will have the biggest impact – helping our clients reduce their emissions and supporting initiatives that bring green solutions to market."

The statement went on to say, "We are committed to achieving net-zero in our lending by 2050, and have established interim emissions reduction targets that will help us drive action and measure progress. These targets are informed by science and reflect a measured and deliberate approach to climate action."

The turnout at the protests is linked, Michie says, to the sentiment shared by many young Canadians, who say they're feeling eco-anxiety, which is when a person feels a deep sense of depression, resentment and fear towards the changing climate.

"We're feeling those impacts, especially young people, as we prepare for our futures," Michie said. "People in school, they're trying to think about the world that they're going into and the reality is that Canada's big banks all have major investments in fossil fuel projects."

 

To watch the full interview, click the video at the top of this article.