VIDEO: 300,000+ Montrealers rally in Canada’s largest enviro protest
Courtesy: Steven Guilbeault, 2012
The biggest environmental protest in Canada’s history took place in the streets of Montreal today on Earth Day. People from all across Quebec rallied to tell Prime Minister Stephen Harper that they do not support his decision to withdraw from the Kyoto protocol. They assembled into one of the biggest human mosaic ever created.
People also gathered to protest against Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s plan to open up the province’s last wild places for industrial development.
Our partner Steven Guilbeault of Equiterre shared his experiences over email:
“We were hoping for maybe 100 000 people in the streets to tell Prime Minister Harper we care about Kyoto and climate… We were being told that the subway system was overflowing, that people couldn’t make it and were turning around… And then the numbers starting coming in: 150, 200, 250, 300 000… It was amazing!”
Watch a time lapse video of the rally below:
22 Avril – Tree timelapse from The NOMADS on Vimeo.
From the video description: On April 22nd 2012, Frederic Bach, winner of the Oscar for his film: The Man Who Planted Trees, a young, indignant man of 88 years old, bowed upon the earth in the heart of Montreal, to plant an oak tree, telling of his attachment to his generous and fragile Earth. And also to protest against the abusive and unjust exploitation of the natural resources of our country. Canada is the only country to have pulled out of the Kyoto protocol. The Province of Quebec is now launching one of it’s most important exploitations of it’s resources in it’s history. Everyday, the sharing of our collective wealth goes further toward inequality, to the profit of a minority and to the detriment of the majority. This way must change.
Because they refuse to be dispossessed of the future they are allowed to dream, with Frederic Bach, more than a hundred thousand citizens, man, women, and children of good will, went into the streets to create the most gigantic human tree ever. A way to tell their governments and to the rest of the world, the importance the give to the struggle against climactic change, and a just, sustainable, sensible, intelligent, and democratic use of our natural resources of the country they inhabit, and that are part of the common good. For the continuation of the world, and to liberate the future.
Comments (0)
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
There are no comments yet. Why not be the first to speak your mind.