Canada’s former image of being an amiable and lovable nation is being tarred at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15), where Canadian negotiaters are constantly blocking progress towards an international climate deal. At the UNFCC today, Canadian youth converged in the plenary hall, holding a banner saying: Stop Tarring Our Image. The Canadian Youth Delegation held the banner and held up copies of a report entitled Stop Tarnishing the Canadian Maple Leaf released today by Equiterre, Environmental Defence, Forest Ethics and Climate Action Network. The report and the banner were fuelled by the frustration with the Canadian government’s position on climate change and their preference to protect Canadian Tar Sands over people’s lives and the environment.
Canadian Youth Delegates hold up a report released by Climate Action Network. Photo credit: Yvonne Su
“Canada once had an international reputation as a clean, green country with progressive environmental policies. But when it comes to the positions and actions of the Government of Canada on global warming nothing could be further from the truth,” states the report. “The tar sands are the single largest contributor to growth in Canada’s emissions, and are preventing us from meeting our Kyoto commitments or making any meaningful progress on the climate front,” said Danial T’seleie, a member of the Canadian Youth Delegations from the K’asho Got’ine Dene First Nation located in the Northwest Territories. “Canada’s failing record on the climate and human rights, is not only hurting First Nations, Metis, and Inuit, it is also damaging our reputation internationally.”
Canada has received a Fossil Of the Day award every day in Copenhagen–an award given to the countries which are blocking negotiations most. This is unacceptable and as a G8 country, we know we have the resources to stop our dependence on fossil fuels. As youth, we know that a better future is possible and we will not accept fossil fuels to be part of that future.
Canadian youth are fighting for climate justice and they are not alone. Canadian youth were joined by youth from OPEC countries, the United States, and many others. The tar sands are a global threat. While they are currently located in the depths of the Canadian Boreal Forest, the destruction is spreading. Pipelines are approved to bring the Midas touch of oil to all over North America, and migrant workers are being shipped in as far as China. The tar sands projects are so large that people from all nations are involved without even knowing.
And those who do know it are the hardest hit. Downstream communities are showing increased rates of rare cancers, cardiovasuclar diseases, and asthma. As a young person in Canada, I cannot stand by while my government prioritizes the interests of destructive, extractive industries over people. This is not climate justice.
At COP15, we are discussing justice. How to move towards a future where people will not lose their homes and their lives due to climate change and those industries which are contributing to it. It was once our future we were negotiating. After 15 years, it is our present that we are negotiating. If there is no room for the tar sands in a just climate future–then there is no room for the tar sands in a just climate future now. There is no room for the tar sands.
1 Response to “Stop Tarring Our Image, Our Future, Our Climate, and Our Communities”