Climate change activists in Ottawa are taking their advocacy to new heights and it involves gluing their hands to cement floors, setting strollers ablaze, spray painting museums and defiling government buildings.
Last Generation Canada (LGC), a group demanding the Canadian government do something about the environmental crisis, has been making headlines all week for its bold approach to getting eyes on its cause.
In fact, one of their supporters set fire to a stroller next to the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill and glued herself to the floor on Tuesday.
“We are the only country in G7 that’s raising our emissions. We are at a point where the younger generation is fighting for our lives and the government has made it clear that they don’t care about the young people of this country,” Gillian Graham said in a video, which captured the incident and was uploaded to Last Generation Canada’s X page.
“We won’t be able to have a future if we don’t act now. [Canadian politicians] are doing nothing while our children, our homes and our forests are burning to the ground,” she continued, before security put out the flames and handed her a notice of trespass.
The next day, LGC supporters smeared pink paint on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office door and plaque. They also sat in the middle of the street, blocking traffic. Five people were later arrested.
And finally, on Thursday, another supporter spray painted a dinosaur exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. The group says he was released after spending 24 hours in jail.
The LGC told Now Toronto that its supporters are facing “an array of charges.”
“This is to be expected and all supporters are aware of the risks they take engaging in civil resistance,” the organization said in a statement on Friday.
“This is just the beginning of Last Generation Canada […] until the government takes action on this crisis that is threatening everyone’s lives.”
Additionally, the group says their demands can be broken in two parts.
“Last Generation Canada is a nonviolent group that is demanding that the Canadian government implement a National Firefighting Agency that trains and employs 50 000 firefighters. This is a no-brainer demand: Canada’s wildfire season pushed 240,000 people out of their homes, and emitted 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide,” it said.
Right now, the federal government has a handful of initiatives to help address climate change. This includes programs like Net-Zero by 2050, Emissions Reduction Plan 2030 and Canada’s Climate Actions for a Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy.
The government also has an interactive map that helps Canadians track how it’s fighting climate change in communities across the country, in real time.
Since 2015, the Trudeau government has put $100 billion towards climate action and clean growth, according to its website.
Despite this, the LGC wants to take matters into its own hands by calling for a citizen assembly that will tackle the crisis.
“We can’t trust our criminal government to take the measures necessary to save us, as they’ve known about the climate crisis for decades. We must put power back into the hands of ordinary people to reach for the change that is necessary to secure us a livable future,” its website reads.
