The Prime Minister needs to make a choice.
- Details
- Published on Monday, 09 November 2015 16:00
- Written by editor
Friends,
On the day that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was sworn in, he published an open letter stating that Canadians “need to have faith in their government’s honesty and willingness to listen.”
Over the course of the last four days, I joined hundreds of courageous people from across the country, including students, Indigenous leaders, grandparents, doctors, lawyers, mothers and everyone in between, who sat in to call on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to walk his talk on climate change.
It was, bar none, the politest act of civil disobedience I’ve ever been to. We were willing to be arrested because it’s critical to show this government that real climate action is important enough to take that risk. But we also showed up with gifts -- including five solar panels that the Prime Minister declined to accept. (Make... sure you check out our website for pictures, videos, stories, and media coverage from the Climate Welcome action.)
We know that he had to be paying attention. Our action was on the T.V. news every night and in the paper every morning. We sat in for hours on end -- singing, chanting, calling the Prime Minister's office, and in general making sure that we'd be both seen and heard. Three times the Prime Minister sent an aide out to meet us, and three times he declined to answer our demand for a freeze on tar sands expansion and a commitment to a justice-based clean energy economy.
It’s clear to me after the last four days that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a choice to make. He needs to choose between people and polluters, between big oil and real climate action. We need the Justin Trudeau that promised real change on the campaign trail, and inspired a real sense of hope that, with our pushing, he can do the right thing.
On the second day of the sit-ins, the Keystone XL pipeline was rejected in the United States by a President who admitted that we will need to keep fossil fuels in the ground to stop climate change. That’s going to require politicians to take action in line with what the science demands, and here in Canada that means leaving at least 85% of tar sands in the ground.
That’s why "Climate Welcome" was just that -- a welcome. Now we’re ready to dedicate ourselves to organizing a relentless follow-up that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cannot ignore.
This is just the start. This is the start of a new campaign to call for a freeze on the tar sands, and the first piece of that new campaign is here:
In respect and solidarity,
Clayton Thomas-Muller
P.S. Don't forget to watch the highlights from the action here!
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