Crown attorneys withdrew a trespassing charge against Canon Michael Van Dusen Dec. 23, citing the arresting officers’ failure to provide their notes during discovery. Van Dusen was one of nine interfaith climate activists arrested during a sit-in climate protest at a downtown Toronto branch of the Royal Bank of Canada April 9, 2024. The court proceedings lasted about 20 seconds. Van Dusen had previously pled not guilty to the charge.
Van Dusen’s lawyer, Paula Rochman, told media and Van Dusen’s supporters outside the courtroom she thought the arresting officers did not want to spend the time putting Van Dusen on trial for his climate advocacy.
“Maybe the officer was a little bit sympathetic and didn’t provide his notes,” she said. “I don’t usually defend the police, but I do think this is not exactly what they want to be doing.”
Rochman added that Van Dusen and his fellow protestors caused little actual disturbance in the bank besides refusing to leave. Their conduct was peaceful and customers were able to continue their transactions while the protesters were there, she said.
Suffragan Bishop Riscylla Shaw of the diocese of Toronto, who showed up to support Van Dusen, said to the Anglican Journal, “I think it’s kind of good that the police aren’t speaking against climate action.”
Van Dusen and about 20 supporters arrived at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market courthouse for a pre-trial demonstration, displaying signs critical of Canada’s major banks for their investments in fossil fuels. Demonstrators, including parishioners from the Church of St. Aidan where Van Dusen is a vocational deacon, sang songs and handed out flyers to passersby.
If the trial proceeded, Van Dusen told the Journal, he and Rochman were prepared to make the issue a Charter challenge regarding his right to free religious expression. He gave an address to the assembled demonstrators in which he reiterated his position that the banks were participating in the destruction of the planet and the deaths of millions by financing fossil fuel companies. He does not believe their assurances that they are taking the issue seriously, he said, and slow success would be the same as failure when it came to human lives and environmental integrity. He did not want to go to jail or have a criminal record, he said, but he would not pay the fine if he was found guilty.
“The moral cost of compliance with the law that protects corrupt banks would be too high. My baptismal vow holds greater weight,” he said. He was prepared to incur a charge of contempt of court for refusing to pay, he later told the Journal, though he didn’t want to.
Following the Crown’s withdrawal of his charge, Van Dusen said he was slightly disappointed not to have had the opportunity to speak further to his convictions about climate change on the court record. He said he intended to continue protesting RBC’s fossil fuel investments going forward.
“This was not an event,” he said. “This is a campaign.”
