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After months of mixed signals, HSBC, one of the largest banks in the world, informed Canada’s energy sector this month that it will officially stop providing financial services to a large portion of our industry in the fight against climate change.

It’s hard to ignore the selective targeting of Canada’s oil and natural gas industry with this new policy.

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In outlining its new policy, HSBC did everything but mention Canada by name when it singled out its new policy against financing oilsands mining and also “in situ” operations that extract bitumen underground using heat. No other country in the world has an oilsands industry.

It would have been nobler — and more transparent — to mention the countries impacted and, even more importantly, those who are not.

HSBC is effectively joining forces with countries like Russia, an oil-producing jurisdiction with lower regulatory standards, more concerned with weathering economic sanctions than developing energy responsibly.