PBI-Canada participates in the Global Climate Strike march in Montreal

On September 27, Peace Brigades International-Canada took part in the Global Climate Strike march in Montreal.

CBC reports, “An estimated 500,000 people came out for Friday’s climate march in Montreal to take part in a global day of action. The march began at noon at the Sir George-Étienne Cartier monument in Mount-Royal park.”

That’s the statue you can see in the photos above.

That news article adds, “Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg addressed the crowd at the end of the protest.”

Greenpeace Canada has tweeted the number of those participating in other cities was also massive: Vancouver (80,000+), Victoria (20,000), Toronto (15,000 – 50,000) Ottawa (10,000 – 20,000), Halifax and Winnipeg (10,000) and Edmonton (4,000).

And Greta has tweeted that an estimated 7 million people worldwide took part in the climate marches between September 20 and September 27.

This Peace Brigades International statement highlights, “PBI accompanies environmental defenders and activists in different parts of the world as part of our commitment to protect the environment and prevent further climate breakdown.”

And this PBI statement adds, “These are individuals and organisations who defend their land and territory against the imposition of economic projects that will damage nature and contribute to climate change.”

It further notes, “These human rights defenders deserve the platform Greta Thunberg has, however, in the contexts PBI works in, these people are at huge risk and speaking out often brings with it threats, attacks, stigmatization and criminalization.”

The sad reality is that last year 24 land and environment defenders were killed in Colombia, 16 in Guatemala, 14 in Mexico, 4 in Honduras, 2 in Kenya, and 1 in Indonesia.

Peace Brigades International stands in solidarity with land and environment defenders to ensure they can continue fighting to protect the climate and planet.

It is our hope that the Canadian government and all governments around the world will commit to deepening their targets to reduce national emissions (nationally determined contributions or NDCs) in line with the Paris Agreement’s commitment to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

It has been estimated that the current NDCs would lead to warming in the range of 2.7 to 3.7 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels over the next century.

It is also vital that human rights and the protection of human rights defenders are reflected in the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement (the Paris Rulebook).

The next United Nations climate summit, the Conference of Parties (COP) 25, will take place on December 2-13 in Santiago, Chile