Anti-Climate Change Rally Held At Queen’s Park
Posted December 8, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Hundreds of chanting environmental activists congregated at Yonge-Dundas Square on Saturday as part of the Global Day of Action on Climate Change.
The demonstrators later marched on Queen’s Park, after taking a roundabout route up Yonge to Bloor, west to Queen’s Park Crescent, then south to Queen’s Park.
“Canada, frankly, is dithering on the issue,” one protestor with the Canadian Federation of Students, named Joel said. “(Prime Minister Stephen Harper is waiting for other countries who are major polluters to sign on first, and I think that Canada should be a leader in Environmental sustainability.”
Harper has long stated he feels the goals set out in the Kyoto Accord are unrealistic and would not support any similar treaty, insisting developing nations should face the same sort of greenhouse gas legislation as developed ones.
The Toronto rally, just one of thousands of similar demonstrations in more than 70 countries around the world, was timed to coincide with a UN climate change conference being held in Indonesia.
In Tapei, Taiwan some 1,500 people marched through the streets holding banners and placards saying “No to carbon dioxide.”
In Berlin, ice sculpture artist Christian Funk carved a polar bear out of 15 tonnes of ice as a memorial to climate protection.
In London, demonstrators braved cold, rainy weather to descend on Parliament Square, holding signs that read, “There is no Planet B.” The protest singled out U.S. President Bush calling his administration the biggest obstacle to progress.
Rallies were also held in 36 other Canadian cities.
