The Elders 4 Climate Sanity and friends took to Supercrawl in September to let passersby know that TD Bank—the festival’s main sponsor—is the main banker for tar sands bitumen, an extremely polluting substance.
The Big Banks and the companies they service hope their greenwashing will distract customers and shareholders from their continued loan-making to companies such as Enbridge (Lines 3 and 5 in the US) and Trans Canada Energy (Coastal Gas Links) that routinely push projects through Indigenous lands without Full, Free, Prior, Informed Consent, harming them in the process.
But the Elders don’t only picket: we write lyrics and we sing them!
We’d like to share our greenwashing song lyrics tor a tune from Bye Bye Birdie. Young and old, we all thirst for the better world that is possible, one based on human and fellow creature need, not corporate greed!
There are usually at least half a dozen of us out, but several members were unavailable for Supercrawl for various reasons. In their place, we were so happy that our younger friends from Decolonial Solidarity were able to join us for some serious fun!
We don’t love you, TD!
O no we don’t
And RBC, don’t gloat!
Oh yeah, you both fund some nice stuff
But we’re here to call your bluff!
You blow your horn
You’re very slick
By 2050 you’ll be reborn!
Net zero you brag
But your greenwash is a drag.
No firm targets for 2030
Just more pipelines
Unjust and dirty
More mining tar sands too
Destruction’s what you do!
Though you’re so slick
You make us sick
‘Cos all the time you knew
Oh yes you knew, you knew
The harm fossil fuels would do.
You fund youth outreach
Oh yes you do
So caring, you two!
More greenwash to hide
The hypocrisy inside.
Coz all the time you knew the cost
Youth’s futures risked and lost
The poisoned rivers and wildfires
You’re just a pack of liars!
So here we are at Supercrawl
You the biggest sponsors of it all!
We love live music, every note
But your greenwash gets our goat!
Stop funding oil, stop funding gasses!
Stop being such dirty asses!
Get out of CGL and the tar sands
Then we’ll all enjoy these bands.
But till you do, we’re here to sing
With all the love and rage we bring
Don’t trust these greenwashing banks
Tell them Fossil Fuels—No Thanks!
