Climate March – Montreal has never witnessed such a massive gathering of people, led by our youth and Swedish anti-climate change activist Greta Thunberg. In a peaceful protest against the inactions of the world towards climate change, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in an unprecedented event. Students, teachers, activists, environmentalists, politicians, artists, parents with young children at their side and more, gathered at the George-Etienne Cartier Statue on Park Avenue on Mount Royal at noon. They soon began marching towards the downtown area and were joined by renowned environmentalist David Suzuki, Mayor Valerie Plante and Justin Trudeau. It was noted by many people that Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer and Quebec Premier Francois Legault were absent – for reasons unclear.
At a press conference in the morning Greta Thunberg said, To once again stand together, people from all around the world, for one common cause, that is very empowering.” She had a message for Canada to ‘take responsibility to protect the environment’ and spoke briefly during the march with Trudeau, then afterwards saying, My message to all the politicians is the same… listen to the science, act on the science.
What David Suzuki has to say about Climate March
David Suzuki also spoke about the march, “We’re talking now about a real revolution… we’ve built a society that is totally dependent on fossil fuels for our use. The transition to renewable energy is not going to be easy. This is a massive, massive revolution… politicians need to start making annual goals and not long-term reduction plans decades in the future. Of course we all need to do our bit, but we need some big decisions to be made now and the first one is we’ve got to set immediate targets every year for how much we’re going to reduce our emissions… it’s possible to make big changes in our own lives, and I’m convinced the Canadian public is prepared to do that. We just have to show them, how we do that.” After the march, Mayor Plante will be welcoming Greta Thunberg to City Hall – where it is expected she will honour Greta by presenting her with a key to the city.
Photo courtesy of David Stern
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