2010-05-18 

Anarchists claim responsibility for Royal Bank firebombing

A group of anarchists have claimed responsibility for a firebombing at a Royal Bank of Canada at Bank and First Avenue in Ottawa.

The video posted at ottawa.indymedia.org around noon Tuesday shows two people inside the bank’s foyer at about 3:30 the same morning.

Soon after, a man leaves through the side door as flames flash at the front of the building shattering windows and littering the sidewalk with debris.

Police say it caused $300,000 in damage, and could force the bank to close for up to three weeks.

A message accompanies the video. It singles out RBC as a target for some of the following reasons:

• “Royal Bank Canada was a major sponsor of the recently concluded 2010 Olympics on stolen indigenous land.”
• “The 2010 Winter Olympics increased the homelessness crisis in Vancouver, especially the Downtown Eastside, Kanada’s poorest urban area.”
• “Since the Olympics bid, homelessness in Vancouver has nearly tripled while condominium development in the Downtown Eastside is outpacing social housing by a rate of 3:1.”
• “RBC is now the major financier of Alberta’s tar sands, one of the largest industrial projects in human history and perhaps the most destructive.”

The identity of the group is not clear. However, they have vowed to be at the G8/G20 meetings in Huntsville and Toronto.

The meetings will be held June 25-27, 2010.

Police say the video is part of their investigation.

On the website the group wrote “The Vancouver Olympic games are over, but a torch is still burning.”