Chanting “The street is ours” and “Fossil fuels have got to go,” protesters marched from in front of George-Étienne Cartier monument.
Hundreds of people attended a climate demonstration that started at the foot of Mount Royal on Friday.
Chanting “The street is ours” and “Fossil fuels have got to go,” groups of students from several schools, including Dawson College, CEGEP St-Laurent and Concordia University, blocked Parc Ave. in front of the George-Étienne Cartier monument as they gathered for the “Climate Rage” march.
“I’m worried. I’m worried for my daughter,” said Heather Sheppard, who travelled by bike from Longueuil to join the march.
“End fossil fuels. Not our kids’ futures,” her sign said.
There was a heavy police presence. However, the protest was largely peaceful.
Marielle Lauzon-Poirier, an Ontario student, came to Montreal for the week-long Climate Rage events. She brought her dog, Tofu, and a sign to Friday’s demonstration: “I’m afraid for the future.”
“I came today because it takes a lot of people to have an impact. The more people we are, the more power we have,” she said.
“The media talks very little about the environment, about activists compared to the media in other countries. My impression is that Quebec is doing absolutely nothing (on climate change) because the media doesn’t talk enough about it.”
The demonstration was billed also as anti-capitalism and anti-colonization. Other cities staged their climate events last week, leaving some at Friday’s march to wonder why it wasn’t planned to coincide with the others.
Nicholas Barss hoisted a sign calling for a ban on cars. He said he was protesting against car infrastructure and “how we have to act faster” to help the climate.
“There’s this whole idea that electric cars are going to save people, but it’s a red herring,” said Barss, a software engineer. “That’s not going to save people. That’s just going to create more car-centric infrastructure. We’re just going to separate and divide more communities, tear apart more cities and basically make places a more miserable place to live.”
