Climate Strike To Take Over Canada With Greta Thunberg In Montreal

Hundreds of thousands are expected, including Justin Trudeau and Elizabeth May.

OTTAWA — Thousands of Canadians are hitting the streets Friday demanding “widespread, systemic change” to halt the scary impact of a warming planet

The massive protests will see students, climate activists and everyday Canadians who want a swifter government response to climate change marching on legislatures and municipal buildings, schools and parks, from St. John’s to Tofino, B.C., and as far north as Inuvik in the Northwest Territories.

Things started off in St. John’s, where a crowd gathered at Memorial University’s clock tower shortly before 11 a.m. local time, some people holding signs protesting the province’s oil extraction industry. The group plans to make its way to the provincial legislature on Confederation Hill….

Thunberg was also seen meeting with Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in Montreal on Friday. She revealed the meeting while speaking with reporters.

“I try not to focus so much on individuals. He’s, of course, obviously not doing enough … this is such a huge problem, this is a system that is wrong. So my message to all the politicians is the same: to just listen to the science and act on the science.”

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau speaks with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg in Montreal on Friday. RYAN REMIORZ/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Climate Strike Canada, one of the groups spearheading the marches, said in its mandate that it aims to “steer Canadian society off our current path of ecological and social catastrophe.” The group added: “Drastic climate action is the only option for humanity.” MORE

RELATED:

Coverage at Climate Strike Canada

Coverage on #climatestrike

 

Friday September 27 Is Canada’s Climate Moment

We’re in a Climate Emergency! And it’s time we start acting like it.

September is a month of climate action. The week of September 20-27 is packed with events and moments that will be pivotal in our efforts to take on the accelerating climate crisis. This  global #WeekForFuture will involve climate mobilizations in almost every single country with thousands of events planned globally.

Canada’s Climate Moment

In Canada, Friday September 27 will be our climate moment. Thousands are expected to demonstrate in cities across the country asking governments to react now with an urgency that matches the magnitude and severity of the climate crisis.

We’re calling for massive participation on the part of adults —  alongside young people — to show that adults too are concerned and want to join forces in this global effort to raise awareness and to motivate more stubborn leaders to face reality and to act. — FridaysForFuture.Org

Montreal is expecting a huge turnout as is Ottawa, the nation’s capital. Earlier this year, over 150,000 took to the streets in Montreal on the March 15th first global climate strike. With Greta Thunberg’s visit to Montreal on September 27, these numbers are sure to double. “I will be in New York on September 20th and in Montreal on September 27th,” she tweeted. “Spread the word!”

Greta Thunberg

✔@GretaThunberg

Sept 20 and 27 the World strikes again! Everyone is welcome, everyone is needed. I’ll be in New York 20/9 and in Montreal 27/9. Find or register your local strike at http://fridaysforfuture.org  or local websites. Spread the word! #fridaysforfuture #climatestrike #schoolstrike4climate

Climat GO – Climate Gatineau-Ottawa

In Ottawa, Climat GO is the regional umbrella group that is coordinating activities on Parliament Hill. A myriad of groups and organizations are pooling their resources to support what is hoped to be the loudest call for more ambitious climate action by the next government soon to be elected on October 21.

If you haven’t done so, please register for this historic event at the following Facebook Event page:

Act for the Climate, March for the planet – Ottawa/Gatineau

Climate Strike Canada

Climate Strike Canada is the overarching network of students, young people, activists, and allies, which connects all of the climate action surrounding the Canadian school strike movement. Its initial school strikes were inspired by Greta Thunberg’s “Fridays for Future” movement, in which children of all ages strike from school on Fridays to call for urgent climate action.

Because of Canada’s size and incredible diversity, not everyone who plans and attends a strike does it in the same way. Some strikes are not held on Fridays, some happen every month as opposed to every week, and some are planned and attended by parents, university students, and elementary school students, rather than just high schoolers.

However, we are united by a goal of climate justice, and we all empower, train, and equip one another with the goals and means to create change in our communities. Climate Strike Canada has 7 demands:

1 Bold Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Targets
2 Separation of Oil and State
3 A Just Transition to Clean Energy
4 Environmental Rights
5 Rights of Indigenous Peoples
6 Conservation of Biodiversity
7 Protection of Vulnerable Communities
For more details, click on Our Demands.

Greenpeace says “there’s something every one of us can do.” It calls for

Putting climate polluters on notice
Peaceful civil disobedience
Hold the car industry to account
Stand up for climate justice and human rights
Join young people striking around the world
Stand with us for forests
Help protect our oceans

SOURCE:

RELATED:

Helping Kids Prepare For A Climate Constrained Future

So How’s That Climate Emergency Thing Going?

350.org: This is how we end the era of fossil fuels

Yesterday, hundreds of people joined us for the Our Time to Strike for the Climate webinar to hear about our game plan leading up to the September 27th climate strikes in Canada.

I was joined by Climate Strike organizer Emma-Jane, an incredibly inspiring Grade 12 student from Victoria, BC and one of the lead organizers of Climate Strike Canada. We had an engaging conversation, and here are some key takeaways I wanted to share with you:

• • Students in Canada are striking from school on September 27th. Long before the global week of action was called for September 20-27th, students in Quebec issued a general strike mandate for the 27th. Quebec has a rich history of student organizing and we are following their lead.
  • The strikes are happening at a really critical time in Canada. Come September 27th, we’ll be entering the final stretch of the federal election campaign. It’s going to be so important to channel this energy towards brave, authentic candidates who are truly ready to tackle the climate emergency.
  • Campuses are walking out for the climate. Our Time organizers will mobilize tens of thousands of post-secondary students across the country to walk out of class to join the strikes in their communities to demand an end to the fossil fuel era. Join or host a campus walkout on September 27th.

Join the climate strikes online. Have a digital presence or a website? Anyone with an online presence has an opportunity to join in and “go green” with a digital strike. Join the digital climate strike.

Everyone is invited. Young people are organizing with unions, workers, parents, grandparents, and faith groups – we need everyone to walk out of your workplaces and homes to demand an end to the age of fossil fuels. Find or host a strike near you.

Millions of people around the world are set to strike for the climate between September 20th to 27th. Politicians and voters will be paying close attention, and since the climate strikes will happen just a few short weeks before the fall election, we plan to go big on September 27th to demand for an ambitious climate plan and a Green New Deal in line with the scale of the crisis we face.

Host or join an Our Time to Walk-Out for Climate action on your nearest campus this September 27th.

The youth climate strike movement in Canada

Image: Used with permission of Sustainabiliteens Vancouver.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST: The youth climate strike in Canada (28:42)

 

Emma Lim is 18 years old and is a high school student in London, Ontario. Rebecca Hamilton is 17 years old and also a high school student, and she lives in Vancouver, BC. They are organizers with Climate Strike Canada at both the local and national levels. Scott Neigh interviews them about what they are doing to build the Canadian wing of the international movement of young people periodically striking from school to demand meaningful action on the climate crisis.

Growing up in the 21st century means that the only reality you have ever known is life in the context of the growing climate crisis. Today’s guests — both born since the turn of the century — don’t remember a moment of learning, hey, there’s this thing called climate change and it’s a big deal. For them, it has always been there.

They have, of course, learned more about it as they’ve gotten older. As that learning has progressed and as the warnings from customarily understated and cautious scientists have taken on ever more apocalyptic dimensions, they have had moments of awakening to the true magnitude of what the crisis might mean for their lives, families, and communities.

Until recently, a lot of the most obvious options around them for taking action have consisted of standard school-based environmentalism, which mostly focuses on things like recycling and lifestyle change — in other words, on measures vastly inadequate to the scale of what we collectively face. And that meant that, in the autumn of 2018, when they started to hear about Greta Thunberg and youth in different places around the world going on regular strikes from school — walking out, taking to the streets, often gathering at some central point in their city — to demand climate action, they had another moment. It was a moment of, yes, finally, here we are being called to an action that might, if we draw in enough people, if enough people support us, begin to approach what is needed.

For Lim, she started out on her own — it was just her striking in London, by herself, with a sign. Hamilton — whose local climate strike organizing happens as part of Sustainabiliteens Vancouver — wasn’t quite on her own, but her first climate strike was a relatively small group of students who occupied the office of the B.C. minister of environment and Climate Change Strategy. And from there, both plunged themselves into organizing. They were constantly reaching out to other young people, having conversations about issues and logistics, making phone calls, holding meetings, and organizing more events — and, of course, more strikes.

Through the hard work of Lim, Hamilton, and many others, local organizing has grown and has coalesced into Climate Strike Canada. They have developed a common set of demands. School strike actions in recent months have involved hundreds of thousands of students in cities across Canada. As well, organizers have emphasized not only these periodic large-scale actions, but have intentionally built on the energy of those days to get growing numbers of youth going back into their schools and communities to engage in various forms of local climate action. For those at the centre of the organizing, like Lim and Hamilton, it has been an intense crash course in how to make a movement. MORE