Trudeau needs a Climate 101 Crash Course.

Details: Published on Wednesday, 21 September 2016 12:00; Written by editor

Friends,

It’s Climate 101 that meeting the commitments Canada made in Paris means keeping fossil fuels in the ground -- that means rejecting the Kinder Morgan pipeline this December.

That’s why we, along with dozens of other youth and students, are headed to Ottawa in late October to teach the Prime Minister the most basic lesson of climate science: climate leaders don’t build pipelines.

Justin Trudeau promised to respect Indigenous rights, listen to communities and lead on climate action. He will fail to do all of this if he builds another tar sands pipeline.

So here’s our plan.

On October 24th, throngs of young people from all over the country will converge in Ottawa for a march and civil disobedience action. Emboldened by our passion, our hope and our frustration with politics-as-usual, we will partake... in an unprecedented action to call on the Prime Minister and self-appointed Minister of Youth, to reject Kinder Morgan and commit to move away from pipelines and fossil fuels towards clean, renewable and just energy policy.

You can sign up to join us, or to support this action, by clicking here.

We are taking this action because we know that during the 2015 election, young people turned out in unprecedented numbers. We know that youth turnout helped to elect Prime Minister Trudeau, and we know that young people across Canada want to see real climate action and respect for Indigenous rights -- not more pipeline politics.

We are young, awaiting a future fraught with uncertainty. This will not deter us from participating in an act of civil disobedience. Indeed it has compelled us to organize one. We may inherit the impacts of climate change and fossil fuel expansion here in Canada, but around the world people are already feeling those impacts, losing their homes and losing their lives.

It’s time for real leadership on climate, it’s time to move past pipelines. Click here to sign up to join or support the ‘Climate 101’ action.

Signed,

Amanda Harvey-Sanchez, University of Toronto ‘18

Gabriel D’Astous, University of British Columbia ‘15

Sophie Birks, McGill University, ‘18

Bilan Arte, Canadian Federation of Students President, University of Manitoba Alumni ‘14

Anne-Marie Roy, Canadian Federation of Students VP, University of Ottawa ‘14

Laura Cutmore, University of King’s College ‘15, Dalhousie University ‘18

Megan Bowers, University of Ottawa ‘16

Kevin Settee, University of Winnipeg, ‘17

Jed Lenetsky, McGill University ‘18

Mitchell van Ineveld, University of Winnipeg ‘19

Tinah Yeonju Oh, Mount Allison University ‘18

Sadie Phoenix-Lavoie, University of Winnipeg, ‘17

Kristen Perry, McGill University ‘16

Kiki Wood, Director of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, University of King's College '12

P.S. in case you missed it, yesterday Students in New York City confronted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking him if he would reject the Kinder Morgan pipeline -- he promptly skirted the question. Watch the video here.

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