Despite the COVID-19 global pandemic, international solidarity calls for an end to all construction, and an eviction notice by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, CGL and RCMP continue to illegally occupy sovereign Wet’suwet’en yintah. Their presence on the territory puts communities at risk; endangers Indigenous womxn, two-spirit, and non-binary people with the building of man camps along the pipeline route; and threatens land, water, climate, and air.
Onward!
-Unist’ot’en Solidarity Brigade
Tuesday May 26 Shut Down AIMCo Online Day of Action
More information about the event: Share
Details Join the #ShutDownAIMCo Online Day of Action and take a stand in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en nation!
AIMCo, a public pension fund manager in so-called Alberta, is set to finalize a deal with TC Energy at the end of this month to purchase a 65% share in Coastal GasLink pipeline alongside U.S. based investment firm KKR. Hundreds of thousands of supporters have raised their voices to let KKR know their violence will not go unnoticed through emails, calls, and tweets. Earlier this month a petition with over 200,000 signatures was delivered to KKR calling on them to cease funding of CGL.
Now is the time to tell AIMCo we are watching their investment in violent, colonial structures! Here’s how you take action today and let AIMCo know loud and clear: This pipeline will never be built!
🌿Check out the #ShutDownAIMCo toolkit for more information on AIMCo, the action, and how you can get involved: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t1FW1BbOnIfVHNm9MWIxmXeeHXv8-Ev4tc0SL7_7FU8/edit#
🌿Email AIMCo today with this messaging tool: https://bit.ly/messageaimco
🌿Sign your name to the petition calling for AIMCo to divest from CGL: https://bit.ly/2TtixY7
🌿Call AIMCo’s head office at +1-780-392-3600 and ask to speak to Kevin Uebelein. You will most likely be directed to his assistant’s line. Not sure what to say once you’re patched through? The toolkit above has sample call scripts that are easy to use!
🌿Text or call AIMCo’s director of corporate communication at +1-780-932-4013. See the toolkit for sample text/call scripts.
🌿Tweet at AIMCo’s director of corporate communication, Dénes Németh @denesnemeth. Need some help drafting the tweets? Click on the link to our toolkit above for some sample messages.
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Want to get more involved? Here are some resources which can help support further organizing in your community, ways to donate, and further information about the Wet’suwet’en’s upholding their rights and title:
Donate to Raven Trust’s Wet’suwet’en legal defence fund: https://fundraise.raventrust.com/give/269632/#!/donation/checkout
& the Unist’ot’en Camp Donation Page: https://unistoten.camp/support-us/donate/
Follow @Unistoten @Gidimten on twitter and https://www.instagram.com/gidimten_checkpoint/ on Insta
AIMCo, one of Canada’s largest pension fund managers, quietly started the paperwork to buy a 65% equity interest share of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
This is the same pipeline that Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have bravely and peacefully resisted for years. The same pipeline that led people across Canada to blockade rail, truck and ferry traffic in solidarity with land defenders on the frontlines earlier this year.
If built, the Coastal GasLink pipeline would bring us one step closer to climate collapse. Canadians’ retirement savings need to fund a renewable path, not the rapidly depleting LNG industry that is going to contribute to our warming planet.
Will you add your name to the petition calling on AIMCo to drop its risky investment in Coastal GasLink pipeline before the deal is finalized?
AIMCo is massive — it manages 30 pension funds worth over 100 billion dollars. And it’s getting bigger — AIMCo will soon manage the 18 billion dollar Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund.
It was in the news last month when it lost 4 billion dollars of Canadian retirement savings, due to its risky investment decisions — a far greater portion compared to other funds of its size.
There is no riskier investment than the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The pipeline risks the Wet’suwet’en communities’ health, safety, and way of life. It is also a huge environmental liability, as the oil and gas sector has been the largest industrial contributor to methane emissions in Canada. Finally, the investment is financially risky because natural gas prices are at an all time low and and also, the pipeline will never make a dollar because the leadership of Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders will stop it from being built.
When SumOfUs members like you have spoken up, we have stopped Canadian retirement savings from being invested in destructive and unethical projects. Together, we pushed the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to divest in prison corporations profiting from Trump’s disgusting border policies, and we pushed the Quebec Provincial pension fund (CDPQ) to divest from the company that is most responsible for the Amazon fires – all in the last year and a half.
And we can make sure Canadian pension funds are not funding this pipeline, but we need you to act fast as the AIMCo deal could be finalized as early as this week.
Photo credit: Amber Bracken
More information
Alberta pension manager loses $4-billion on investment bet gone wrong
Globe and Mail. 21 April 2020.
TC Energy to sell a 65% stake in its Coastal GasLink pipeline CBC. 26 December 2019.
Quakers, social justice and revolution 