Montrealers march to demand climate action to mark Earth Day 2022
To mark Earth Day, hundreds of Montrealers marched to demand more action against climate change.
People gathered at Montreal city hall and walked towards Square Victoria in the Old Port.
Many were carrying signs and shouted slogans demanding change.
Kenya Adams, a student, says she joined the march because she believes people like her are not being heard.
“Wake up. Things are going on and nobody seems to be listening,” said Adams who was carrying a sign with a planet on fire.
Manon Massé, a Québec solidaire MNA, was marching alongside Adams and others.
“The youth need personalities like us to say ‘we understand what you feel, we agree with what you want and we’re beside you’,” Massé said.
“I believe they [the government] is listening but they doesn’t understand and they don’t act on what the planet needs.”
Louise Royer, a member of a Catholic Church social action group says the planet has “hit a wall,” and change is needed.
“We need an ecological conversion and we need this ecological conversion to not be at the expense of the poorest of the poor,” Royer said.
Speakers criticized what they deemed the government’s slow and insufficient action.
They also criticized the ultra rich, denouncing their lifestyles which they believe are bad for the planet. One example was space travel for tourism.
The march ended up at Victoria Square where several major corporations are located.
Protesters had a message to send, especially to Canadian banks: to stop investing in the fossil fuel industry.
The march was organized by different environmental and social action groups, including Greenpeace and Fridays for the Future, an initiative started by Greta Thundberg in which students across the world stage protests to demand climate action every Friday.
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