VANCOUVER — Swedish activist Greta Thunberg attended a climate rally in Vancouver on Friday when 15 young people announced their plans to sue the federal government because of the impact they say global warming is having on their lives.
The event was billed as a ‘post-election climate strike.’ Sustainabiliteens, a youth-led group, has been staging Fridays for Future rallies inspired by climate protests Thunberg launched last year outside the Swedish Parliament.
Organizers say they want Justin Trudeau’s government to create a ‘Green New Deal’ that puts science-aligned emission reduction targets into legislation.
Several Indigenous advocates spoke to the crowd. Cedar George-Parker of the Tulalip and Tsleil-Waututh Nations said the $4.5 billion the federal government used to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline would have been better spent on providing university education to young Canadians.
He said the pipeline expansion threatens the already endangered southern resident orca whales as well as, in the event of a spill, human health.
“That’s why we say no means no. That’s why we come out here and stand up.”
Kanahus Manuel of the Tiny House Warriors, a group of Indigenous demonstrators who have built tiny homes in the path of the pipeline in B.C.’s Interior, told the young people in the crowd that the future is in their hands.
“You take that courage. You keep on fighting, because the old people are going to be gone,” she said.
“Oil and gas, that Old Boys club, is going to be gone, out the door.”
Thousands of people, including many children and teenagers with their parents, crammed into a public square outside the Vancouver Art Gallery in the city’s downtown. They carried signs saying, “Greta thinks you can do betta,” and “You’ll die of old age, we’ll die of climate change.”
Manuel led the crowd in a chant of “Water is Life.”
Ella Scott, 16, was among the teenagers who attended the rally. She said it was important to stand up and show the Trudeau government that young people care about the climate.
“We need to fix it now or else it’s going to be too late,” she said.
“They’re worrying about money and the economics of Canada but we also need to worry about our future and climate. … If we destroy the climate it doesn’t matter how much money we have, because we can’t buy our way out of global warming.”
Scott also praised Thunberg for leading the climate movement despite some criticizing her.
“People say it shouldn’t be the youth of Canada and it shouldn’t be a teenage girl representing the climate,” she said. “But I think someone had to do it.”
The 15 young Canadians from across the country announced the lawsuit against the federal government alleging it contributed to climate change. The David Suzuki Foundation, a partner in the case, said the young plaintiffs each allege they have suffered “specific” injuries due to the changing climate.
The allegations have not been tested in court and the federal government has not commented on the lawsuit.
Thunberg is touring Western Canada and attended a climate rally in Edmonton last week that attracted thousands of people to the lawn of the Alberta legislature. The group calling for climate action vastly outnumbered oil-and-gas industry supporters who showed up.
A mural of the 16-year-old in Edmonton was defaced. James Bagnall said he wrote “stop the lies” and “this is oil country” on the painting because he was tired of people “bashing” Albertans’ way of life but he wasn’t taking shots at Thunberg as a person.
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on Oct. 25, 2019.
The Canadian Press
The Canadian Press
