Rain Cabana-Boucher
Signed RCB
acrylic painting - 2022 - 2.6'x3.4'
About the Artist: Rain Cabana-Boucher is a Michif/British settler interdisciplinary artist raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, treaty 6 territory. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria. Rain’s practice explores autobiographical themes in relation to place and politics. Rain is a recent recipient of the 2022 Takao Tanabe Emerging Artist award & FPCC Individual Artist Award. She is currently living and working on the stolen land of the Songhees, Esquimalt, W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ, and xwməθkwəy̓əm Nations.
This work explores my frustration with Canada's banks investing in fossil fuels, specifically RBC. RBC is Canada's largest bank & largest fossil fuels funder. The bank also happens to be the fifth largest fossil funder in the world. Despite setting its own net-zero targets as part of its Climate Blueprint, RBC continues to fund the Coastal Gaslink project. Coastal Gaslink has been called a ‘carbon bomb’ & continues to fail to meet B.C’s Enviormental Assesment Office’s orders from 2020; to fix sediment and erosion problems on watercourses and wetlands. Coastal Gaslink is set to cross about 625 streams, creeks, rivers, and lakes.
Hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs have opposed the project that will cross through their territory. In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized in the landmark case Delgamuukw v. British Columbia. Canada did not extinguish Wet’suwet’en title to the land & in doing so, acknowledged the nation’s hereditary governance structure, meaning Wet’suwet’en law is recognized by Canada’s highest court & authority over Wet’suwet’en's land lies with the hereditary chiefs. In continuing to fund Coastal Gaslink, RBC continues to invest in not only the climate crisis, but colonization.
RBC is not committed to a net-zero future when they continue to fund a project against the wishes of Indigenous peoples who protect the land. By releasing plans to lower emissions, while actively funding/defending the Coastal Gaslink, RBC is not making efforts to create a sustainable future. We need action now. RBC has the power to divest & set a new standard.