Thousands of people walk for the weather

Thousands of young people, mostly young people, took part in the biggest weather protests in Quebec since Friday with Greta Th‌nberg in 2019.

Protesters marched through the streets of several cities in the province on Friday afternoon, along with Sherbrook, Quebec City and Montreal.

In the metropolis, they marched from a monument dedicated to Sir George-Etienne Cartier to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Offices in Westmount Borough, urging makers to make a decision on climate change.

“Because of climate change, we are not sure about our future. 14-year-old Alexia Lehouler-Bertieum is worried. [jeunes], Straightforward. “

“We want to combine social justice with climate justice,” explained Rosalie Thibault, event coordinator for the Student Alliance for Environment and Social Change (CEVES), which calls for zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Start the fight again

When Greta Th‌nberg came to Montreal to lead the 300,000-strong show, there weren’t as many people as there were in 2019.

A year and a half after the epidemic, many hope it will be a new livelihood for the climate change movement. Last year, in the middle of the second wave and without vaccination, only a few hundred people walked in Montreal.

“We stopped it,” said Mary-Noel Pilan, who came with her two children. The health crisis is important, but I think it stems from a much bigger crisis [la crise climatique]. ⁇

For Greenpeace Canada spokesman Patrick Bonin, there is every reason to worry about climate change because the population is worried about COVID-19.

“Climate change is particularly affecting health, and the sooner we reduce our emissions the more deaths will occur. We need to think about deadly heat waves and forest fires.”

Strike and education

While 112,000 students across Quebec were on strike for the weather, young people mostly set up demonstrators.

Many elementary and middle students also took advantage of Friday Teaching Day to join in March.

Nearly twenty teachers from Montreal were released to go along with them and perform.

Montreal police arrested three people during the protest, including one for assaulting a police officer.

Three generations of activists

“Climate crisis is a public health crisis. If we want to protect collective health, we must protect the health of the planet,” said Jerome Lecklerk, a clinical nurse and member of The Planet’s executive board.

“The environment is a family affair,” said his father, Richard Lecklerk, who took part in a weather show with his grandson Lucian.

Much more complicated than the pandemic

“The new generation is growing as a sentinel,” said Abdul, a member of the Solidarity Boundary who came to “stand up” for the climate.

“There is an epidemic, we have to be careful and respect the barriers, but we feel we are more at risk with climate change,” the activist said. We think it’s more serious and we see that nothing has been done. ”

His platform for the planet

“I want to make a difference. With a platform comes a responsibility, and it goes without saying that I will use it to talk about reasons that are close to my heart,” requested Jesse Nadeyu (center), an activist and content creator on social networks.

And she does not hide it, when she sees her 180,000 Instagram subscribers talking about an issue, she says, “They listen to me more than a person without a forum.”

Approval for beluga whales

Mederic Durant, 25, has the original motto on his mark: “put it” and play on words with cetacean (aquatic mammal).

“With the GNL Quebec project, we’ve come closer. There are all sorts of questions about the blogs they have found in the river,” explained a masters student in forest ecology.

Educational performance

Mary-Noel Pilan came to the show with her two children to take advantage of an education day.

“It is very important to me to provide for my children because it will make their struggle even more in a few years,” she explained. Her son, Theo Jolivet, 8 years old, worries that in the future the world will “run out of water and not happen properly”.

“I want to show them that this is our future and if they do nothing, it will affect our generation,” said her daughter, Flavie Jolivet, 12.