{"id":68470,"date":"2021-11-09T18:11:06","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T23:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=68470"},"modified":"2021-11-16T10:52:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T15:52:15","slug":"outaouis-students-march-to-demand-climate-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/outaouis-students-march-to-demand-climate-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Outaouis students march to demand climate justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students from the Outaouais region in Ottawa-Gatineau gathered on Saturday to march for climate justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

The group was led by students from C\u00e9gep de l'Outaouais, a post-secondary institution in Gatineau, Quebec. They met at 1:30 p.m. at the statue of Maurice Richard at the intersection of Boulevard des Allumettieres and Rue Laurier, making their way to Parliament Hill.<\/span><\/p>\n

The students, joined in their movement by several other Outaouais-region post-secondary institutions and organizations, are answering a call-to-action made by UK-based group COP26 Coalition to demand action from world leaders at the COP26 summit. The group invited participants from across the globe to join in a \u201cGlobal Day of Action\u201d on Nov. 6. Their mandate is to raise global awareness surrounding climate change and includes a <\/span>list of demands<\/span><\/a> for world leaders attending COP26.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Olivier Rousseau, a math teacher at C\u00e9gep de l\u2019Outaouais, says that when his students wanted to organize their own march in solidarity with COP26 Coalition, he felt it was his responsibility to help.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI talked with a couple of colleagues and we thought it was our moral duty to help the students organize that,\u201d said Rousseau, \u201cand that's how the whole institution became involved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Monica Tonl\u00e9 is a student at C\u00e9gep de l'Outaouais. She says the message she and her fellow students are trying to send is \u201cvery simple\u201d: global governments need to adhere to the commitments made in the Paris Agreement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe're trying to diminish our emissions by 40 per cent,\u201d said Tonl\u00e9. \u201cWe're not even halfway there.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The COP26 Coalition march is one of many youth-led movements in recent years. Students and young people across the world have mobilised in unprecedented numbers to fight in the name of climate justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rousseau said that although young people are leading this movement, climate change is an issue that should concern people of all ages.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think all of society beginning to understand how important this is,\u201d said Rousseau. \u201cI think I'll see many difficult things in my life [due to climate change].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tonl\u00e9, who helped organize the C\u00e9gep de l\u2019Outaouais march, explained her generation\u2019s urgent response to the climate change crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo people care when their house is on fire?\u201d asked Tonl\u00e9. \u201cWe're young, we're not going to go anytime soon. And if we don't do anything, there'll be nothing to look forward to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The COP26 United Nations summit, held in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, began Oct. 31 and will conclude on Nov. 12. It is being attended by over 200 delegates from around the world, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a speech delivered on Monday at the summit, Trudeau praised his own government\u2019s efforts to mitigate climate change by implementing a tax on carbon emissions. He urged other world leaders to do the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe must work together to ensure it is no longer free to pollute anywhere in the world,\u201d said Trudeau. \u201cThat means establishing a shared minimum standard for pricing pollution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trudeau restructured the federal climate response in 2020 and 2021, but many of the proposed changes have not yet been implemented. Additionally, the prime minister committed to a cap on new investments into the international oil and gas industries last week.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>Climate Action Tracker (CAT)<\/span><\/a>, Canada is far off-track to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement. Currently, the CAT rates Canada\u2019s climate target, policies, and financial plan as \u201chighly insufficient.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe signed the Paris treaty in 2015,\u201d says Rousseau. \u201c[According to the 2021 federal budget] we said that we have to reduce our emissions by 40 per cent. In six years we've not been able to reduce our emissions. There will be a climate-temperature rise of more than two degrees, which will cause disaster on the planet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, even with the implementation of proposed policy changes, CAT predicts Canada\u2019s climate plan is \u201cconsistent with four degrees of warming by 2030.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tonl\u00e9 hopes that by joining a global initiative and marching on Nov. 6, she and her peers will encourage policy-makers to strengthen Canada\u2019s climate plan, and commit to the changes therein.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGo and listen to experts. I mean people who have \u2018doctor\u2019 in front of their names,\u201d advised Tonl\u00e9. \u201cListen to facts and data, and listen to the voices of the people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students from the Outaouais region in Ottawa-Gatineau gathered on Saturday to march for climate justice. The group was led by students from C\u00e9gep de l’Outaouais, a post-secondary institution in Gatineau, Quebec. They met at 1:30 p.m. at the statue of Maurice Richard at the intersection of Boulevard des Allumettieres and Rue Laurier, making their way…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":68477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,222],"tags":[1739,1201,10578,698,10579,10576,563,10577,813],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68470"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=68470"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=68470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}