On March 15, 2019, hundreds of thousands of young people marched around the world to demand more action on climate change. In Montreal, the demonstration drew 150,000 people, mainly students. Five years after this unprecedented mobilization, how is climate activism faring among Quebec youth?
Albert Lalonde on March 15, 2019 raises with vivid emotion. It's the feeling of collectively accomplishing the impossible.
says the 16-year-old at the time and co-spokesperson for Pour le futur Montréal.
2019 was a good year for climate mobilizations: on September 27, almost half a million people took to the streets of Montreal in an unprecedented scale demonstration with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. The movement had the wind in its sails until 2020 changed the course of history.
The epidemic destroyed the structures in the campuses, where thousands of us were engaged
Albert Lalonde, now laments as a law student at the university. These structures, which allowed for the most rapid and large-scale mobilizations, simply evaporated as everything was dematerialized by pandemic and distance learning.
At just 21 years old, Albert Lalonde already had more than five years of climate activism.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Violet Cantin
Damage from infection
Louis Couillard, head of mobilization at Greenpeace Canada, agrees. I think strong movements fall far short. This is what we saw with the pandemic. Campuses were closed and we stopped meeting.
We meet him in downtown Montreal as he takes part in a sit-in demanding an investigation by the Bureau of Public Inquiry into the Environment (BAPE) into the Northvolt battery factory project in Montérégie. A crowd of about 200; You can see lots of families and gray faces there.
Louis Couillard is quick to recognize that current environmental measures do not measure up to 2019.
“One day before March 15 and one day after March 15, Quebec and the entire planet will be,” Louis Couillard announced in 2019.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Violet Cantin
But behind the scenes, things are being organised, he explains. At the time, it was pretty cool, what was going on. There were attempts to organize, but it was chaotic, it was difficult to retain members, and to gauge whether we were making progress or not. Now things are more settled, but there is one Speed To be rebuilt.
On March 15, 2019, Louis Couillard was 22 years old and, like many of his peers, he was on the street. In our opinion, before March 15 and after March 15 Quebec and the rest of the planet.
He said then.
Today, here is his observation: A highly mobilized population is still there, but no longer the same bustle, that's for sure. This is no longer the case Speed– There.
A rally demanding a BAPE investigation at the Northwold factory project in Montérégie brought together around 200 people.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Violet Cantin
Diversification of causes
Ashley Torres, a support mobilizer at Mères au front and a student at Concordia University, believes young people are indeed mobilized, but for many different reasons.
We are currently experiencing uncertainty
she mentions. Students are experiencing a housing crisis that has worsened since the pandemic. Tuition fees for English-speaking students in Canada have also increased.
Louis Couillard quotes for his part Genocide in Palestine
As an issue of youth.
There are more struggles, which means we're a little more divided. But the potential is still there
Ashley Torres believes so.
The climate movement still has power, believes young mother and activist Ashley Torres.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Violet Cantin
Within Environnement Jeunesse, an organization that raises awareness among young people about environmental issues, we observe that many of them live out their climate activism through very concrete actions.
A commonality in your CEGEP is like setting up a fridge, for example, or a shared space where you can take food
Its general director Sarah-Catherine Lutz explains.
She believes the economic situation will limit some people's involvement. The rent is high, the groceries are high. […] Young people tell us clearly: they have to work more, which means they have less time to engage.
A “multiple ways” at work
Large-scale mobilizations for the environment have still taken place since the pandemic: in the fall of 2021, more than 100,000 Quebec students went on strike for the climate.
These expressions should be viewed as part of a set of instructions
Omar Kane, a professor of social and public relations at the University of Quebec in Montreal, recalls.
A few thousand people marched for climate in Montreal on September 24, 2021.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Etienne LeBlanc
He specifically notes that organizations are actively mobilizing to advocate for environmental issues with governments or in schools.
I don't think we have to look at 2022 or 2023 and realize that there aren't as many people as there were in 2019 and tell ourselves that's a failure. There are many mechanisms implemented by these highly active systems.
Also, he believes Quebec will witness new large-scale climate events.
In two, three or five years we are going to have a more favorable situation, a favorable moment. At that time, we're going to have something really big…but we can't expect that every year.
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