Face of Nation : Hundreds of thousands of people, including Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, are expected to march through the streets of Montreal today in what could be the largest environmental protest in the city’s history. The driving force behind the march is students, and classes at many high schools, colleges and universities are cancelled for the day.
Friday’s event, part of a global climate strike, comes in the middle of the federal election campaign, and young people — many not old enough to vote — are demanding politicians adopt a climate action plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2050.
Thunberg, the Swedish teen whose environmental activism has made headlines around the world, will be in attendance, and that has created even more interest in the event.
Kah’hen:ientha Cross was among the students who gathered at Montreal’s Dawson College on Thursday to make signs to drive home their message. She said she had planned to attend even before Thunberg confirmed she would attend, but knowing Thunberg will attend gave her “goose bumps.” Marches are planned elsewhere in Canada on Friday, including in Vancouver and Toronto.
Ben Clarkson, a spokesperson for La Planète s’invite au Parlement, said the gathering in Montreal is the culmination of a yearlong series of climate strikes, which began in August 2018. La Planète is one of the groups organizing Friday’s climate march whose name translates as “the planet goes to Parliament.”
More than 150 countries have since participated in the #FridaysForFuture movement, launched by Thunberg. Clarkson said Montreal’s protest movement is particularly powerful, and he’s hopeful it will lead, ultimately, to significant change.
“We have a history of popular mobilization that the rest of Canada and maybe the rest of North America doesn’t have here in Montreal,” he said. “That’s been able to turn into and form into a very effective organizational group that has really grabbed onto this one day.”
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet are all expected to attend, while the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer will not.
