Protesters Occupy Cabinet Minister’s Office Demanding Environment Action
Posted December 4, 2009 7:33 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Just days after camping out in Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s office, protesters occupied the constituency centre of another federal cabinet minister Thursday, hoping to get the government to change its tune on the environment before the Prime Minister heads to Copenhagen for an important climate change conference next week.
The protesters occupied Transport Minister John Baird’s office, demanding he work for a deal at the Denmark summit next week. They also asked him to hold a town hall meeting on climate change.
Similar demonstrations were held at Flaherty’s Whitby office and the Calgary office of Environment Minister Jim Prentice.
No arrests were made Thursday, but a man and woman were issued trespassing warnings by police.
Canada has been derided by international experts, who claim the government lags behind several other nations when it comes to climate change issues and reducing emissions. Prime Minister Stephen Harper initially refused to attend the summit in Denmark, but changed his mind shortly after U.S. President Barack Obama said he’d be there.
A coalition of scientists, activists and politicians wants to see Canada suspended from the Commonwealth due to its inaction on environmental issues and its pursuit of dirty energy from the Alberta tar sands.
The World Development Movement claims Canada, as one of the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters, is directly responsible for droughts, floods and rising sea levels in other Commonwealth nations including Bangladesh, the Maldives and Mozambique.
Just before last month’s Commonwealth Conference in Trinidad and Tobago, the coalition said it believes failing to address climate change issues is tantamount to breaching human rights.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last week that Canada needs to adopt a stronger strategy on climate change and should set an example as the host of the G8 and G20 meetings this summer.
The Conservative government wants to lower Canada’s greenhouse gases 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020. The Tories’ mid-term goal is to get emissions 60 to 70 per cent below 2006 levels by 2050.
Many other countries, particularly the Europeans, use 1990, when global emissions were lower, as their benchmark.
With files from the Canadian Press
