22 February 2001
Unbearable truth about Toronto Dominion Bank’s role in rainforest destruction revealed

Toronto - A Greenpeace activist dressed as a grizzly bear chained himself to the door of a downtown Toronto TD Bank this morning to draw attention to the bank’s ongoing role in funding the destruction of the Great Bear Rainforest.

As recently revealed by Greenpeace, TD Bank is a major shareholder in International Forest Products (Interfor) and West Fraser Timber, the two logging companies responsible for the greatest level of destruction in BC’s ancient rainforests.

“Customers nationally and internationally are shunning logging companies that continue to clearcut pristine rainforest valleys,” said Greenpeace Canada executive director Peter Tabuns. “An increasing number of financial investors are using their investment power to press for destructive logging companies like Interfor to change their practices. TD Bank and its mutual fund division, on the other hand, are ignoring this important trend and conducting business as usual. “

As the mutual fund season approaches its frenzied conclusion, Greenpeace is asking individual investors to take a closer look at where their money is going.” The action comes on the same day that Greenpeace released new polling results which show that the majority of British Columbians do not want their mutual funds to support clearcutting of Canada’s rainforests.

Chained to the door of the TD Bank, Dylan Penner, 24, of Toronto said, “If you think this is uncomfortable, you should spare a thought for the homeless grizzly bears in Canada’s rainforest. TD claims its RSPs can ‘be this comfortable’, but when they help make grizzlies homeless and drive salmon stocks to extinction, TD Bank customers should not be comfortable. They should think about taking their hard earned money somewhere else.”

Since the launch of the Greenpeace investment campaign, more than 12,000 people have visited www.fundingdestruction.org to find out more about their mutual fund’s investment in rainforest destruction, and Greenpeace members have placed thousands of stickers on TD bank machines across Canada to warn customers about the bank’s role in the destruction of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Other mutual fund companies are actively in dialogue with Interfor and two funds (Ethical Funds, Inc. and Friends Ivory & Sime) have divested their shares in Interfor and West Fraser Timber.

READ MORE: Greenpeace Briefing - International Forest Products [An ADOBE document.]

For more information about Greenpeace's ancient forests campaign, email: guestforest@ams.greenpeace.org