climate action

a banner hangs from the top of a bridge. There are two people on the highest point on the bridge above the banner.

Release of climate bridge climber sparks debate over activist detentions

November 4, 2024 by Jules Bugiel

The second of two climate activists who scaled the Jacques Cartier Bridge was released from detention on bail Thursday.

Olivier Huard was detained for nine days following the Oct. 22 action. Six of those days were spent in solitary confinement after Huard began a hunger strike in protest of the conditions the Crown set for his release. Those conditions included a curfew, a ban on speaking to the media and on social media about the case, and a prohibition on appearing in public with more than three people.

At the bail hearing, Quebec Superior Court Judge André Perreault rejected many of those conditions, saying he “deplored” that the activist had been detained so long.

The Montreal-based Ligue des droits et libertés said the Crown’s conditions went “way further” than the minimal conditions that the law demands. Huard’s lawyer Barbara Bedont, who has a legal practice representing activists, said the increase in conditions marks a “different world” for activists today.

Detention of activists who shut down Jacques Cartier Bridge ‘abusive,’ says lawyer

October 28, 2024 by Jules Bugiel

Climate activist Michele Lavoie was released from detention on Friday, after being held since Tuesday in connection with the protest that halted traffic on the Jacques Cartier Bridge.

Jacob Pirro, 24, and Olivier Huard, 47, scaled the bridge early Tuesday morning. The action resulted in the bridge’s closure until the pair were arrested by the Surete du Quebec around noon.

CKUT later learned that another protester, Michele Lavoie, was also arrested. Activists’ lawyer Barbara Bedont said that Lavoie was acting as police liaison. Pirro and Huard remain in detention, awaiting an Oct. 31 bail hearing.

Bedont joined CKUT to speak about the detention of the three activists, which she characterizes as “abusive”.

Jacques Cartier Bridge protest raises alarm about ‘lack of government action’ on climate change

October 23, 2024 by Jules Bugiel

Climate activists halted traffic when they scaled the Jacques Cartier Bridge Tuesday morning. The activists, named in a press release as 24-year old Jacob Pirro and 47-year old Olivier Huard, belong to Montreal-based climate action groups Last Generation Canada and Antigone Collective.

Spokesperson for Last Generation Canada, Laura Sullivan, said the action was meant to draw attention to what they say is government inaction on the climate crisis.

Antigone Collective’s largest campaign aims to shut down Enbridge’s Line 9B pipeline within five years. Last Generation Canada is campaigning for Canada to sign onto the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty and adopt a national emergency management agency.

The Sûreté du Québec told CKUT the bridge was was closed from 5 a.m. until noon. They confirmed they had arrested the two activists, who were held in detention overnight.

Inaugural Climate Expo to provide Kingstonians with climate change tools

October 9, 2024 by Christena Lawrie

What started as an electric vehicle demonstration turned into the city’s first-ever Kingston Climate Expo, a running until October 20.

Hosted by the City of Kingston in collaboration with Utilities Kingston, the events are meant to give Kingstonians education and tools to combat climate change, while also being an opportunity for the City to showcase some of the steps they have been taking towards sustainability.

Russell Horne, Acting Manager of Energy & Asset Management with the City of Kingston, explained in an interview with CFRC, “I mean, the climate change realm tends to have a lot of focus in some positive and some negative ways. And the idea for this is to eliminate the noise and then really provide people with the tools that they need to make those changes for themselves.”

For more details on the activities, visit the Kingston Climate Expo page.

A women with short curly redish brownish hair is sitting on a chair outside wearing a bright red rain jacket. She is holding a cardboard sign that has the painted phrase "Act now for our Kids"

Seniors in Nanaimo rally for climate action

October 3, 2024 by Lauryn Mackenzie

Around 20 seniors took part in a rocking chair rally on October 1 (National Seniors Day) to bring attention to climate change.

The rally took place outside the provincial constituency office for Nanaimo as part of a cross-country day of action to pressure the government to take action on climate change.

CHLY spoke with some of the seniors taking part in the rally trying to make the earth a better place for their grandchildren and all children to come.

One of the organizers of the event, Mia Jongkind, with the Mid-Island Chapter of the Council of Canadians, told CHLY about how seniors make up a large mass of people and they need to vote thinking of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren’s futures.

CHLY also heard from the three candidates in the Nanaimo-Gabriola Island riding about their thoughts on climate change.

A cardboard sign leans against a grey Canada Post mail box. On the sign reads "Save Earth. Children need a future" On the sign is around 20 faces of children that have been cut out of magazines collaged on the sign around the text

Two seniors are sitting on brown wooden rocking chairs. They are outside of an office building. The male on the left side is wearing a black jacket holding to knitting needles looking at his hands. The women on the right os leaning over with her own knitting needles in hand show the man what she is doing

Rocking Chair Rally on October 1st. Photos: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

City hall in downtown Kingston, a large white stone building illuminated at night.

Council delays increasing greenhouse gas emissions reduction target

January 26, 2024 by Christena Lawrie

At their last meeting, council was presented with the opportunity to determine whether they would increase the reduction target for corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 30 per cent to 40-50 per cent by 2030, or delay the decision until 2025.

The choice to push the decision to 2025 was proposed to give staff an opportunity to gather more information and evaluate the feasibility of the goal, as various studies are still underway to determine possibilities in transit and facilities.

Many delegations stood before council to urge them to increase the target.

At the end of the discussions, councillors chose to go forward with the delay, awaiting the results of staff’s investigations into the topic to make more informed decisions.

During the meeting, councillors also asked that staff share their current projects, stressing how the city is still pushing forward in reducing emissions, despite delaying the formal establishment of a new goal.

Three generations of a family stand in front of a green background holding signs that read "The oceans are rising and so are we" and "Planet before profit$"

Nanaimo climate activists march for an end to fossil fuels

September 19, 2023 by Mick Sweetman

On Friday over 100 people protested in downtown Nanaimo as part of the Global March to End Fossil Fuels in advance of the UN Climate Ambition Summit in New York this Wednesday. It was one of dozens across Canada and hundreds of protests around the world.

Georgie Holden, 12, marched with her mother Georgie Holden, 12, her mother Karistina Holden, and grandmother Missi Hegyes from Maffeo Sutton Park to Nanaimo City Hall.

“I want to have a future,” Georgie said. “I’ve always wanted to be a storybook writer and I don’t want my future to be taken away from me. I don’t want it to be taken away from my children and my grandchildren.”

The march’s demands included no new fossil fuel projects, an end to subsidies, a rapid phase out of fossil fuel use, an end to “greenwashing” and for fossil fuel corporations to pay reparations.

Climate activist Derek Menard helped organize the local march.

“We know that emitting greenhouse gases are warming the planet,” he said. “We know that we need to stop that. We know that if we don’t stop, it is going to make extreme weather and droughts, and floods and all host of other horrible things worse and worse on this planet to the point that it becomes unlivable.”

Nanaimo City Councillor, and former Green Party MP, Paul Manly told the crowd that he’s proud of his record on environmental issues.

“I say damn the torpedos,” he told the crowd. “I’m not ashamed of anything that I’ve done as a politician. I’ve stuck my neck out. I’ve said what I wanted to say, I voted the way I wanted to vote. [Let] the chips fall where they may.”

Manly says that the recent decision by city council to accelerate a Zero Carbon Step Code that requires strict emissions standards for new homes being built in the city was a small step towards lowering emissions but the province and federal government need to do the heavy lifting.

“What infuriates me is senior levels of government talking about climate change and the need for climate action,” he said. “But then continuing to build pipelines.”

Councillor Ben Gesselbaract, who attended the rally with his young son, says that it was the support of local climate activists that helped sway city councillors to pass the zero carbon step code.

“When Fortis came each time with a strong lobby, [with] a lot of misinformation, guess who showed up?” he asked the crowd. “This group showed up, filled the gallery, filled our email boxes, and you know what? That made a really easy decision for a lot of councillors.”

City councillor Hiliary Eastmure also attended the event.

Vancouver Island University student Jasmine Tomczyk told the crowd that she was marching because she was concerned about local food security.

“Nobody should go hungry in a world where we waste one-third of our food,” she said. “There’s enough for everyone and they will convince you that we don’t have the resources but we do. They just don’t want to give it to us.”

Menard, who has been arrested multiple times in acts of civil disobedience such as blocking roadways to protest climate and forestry policies, says that food shortages could lead to social unrest.

“We are in a position right now where we are barreling toward that cliff of insufficient food for everybody on earth,” he said. “And when people run out of food, violent protests happen.”