The Mères au front group and the artist Marc Séguin co-created, with high school students, a “generations chair” intended for the National Assembly of Quebec. They hope that this symbol will encourage elected officials to make all their decisions taking into account the environmental crises that threaten future generations.
This chair is in fact “an old teacher’s chair”, explains the artist Marc Séguin, which was transformed into an “art object” with the help of young people from the Magdelaine secondary school, in La Prairie. , in order to symbolize the urgency of fighting crises such as global warming and the decline of biodiversity.
Ashes from forests that burned last summer were used as pigment to make the paint used to create this colorful chair. The students also drew burned trees, but also flowers, to demonstrate that “life is strong, but that it is threatened”.
The students also took the opportunity to denounce, by inscribing it on this element of symbolic furniture, “deforestation”, “the continents of plastic” and government decisions which prioritize the economy over the environment. “She represents all the children of Quebec,” said in chorus young people from the Magdelaine school present at the unveiling Wednesday at the Maison du développement durable, in Montreal.
“Embody” change
Co-founder of the Mothers at the Front organization, Laure Waridel now hopes that elected officials will agree to welcome this chair to the National Assembly, while taking note of the message it carries.
“We are asking our politicians and all those who make decisions to transform their ways of doing things and change their priorities, to scrutinize all of their decisions through an environmental lens. This is what will determine the health and quality of life of our children,” she summarizes.
“Politicians are used to putting all their decisions through an economic prism. This is what determines whether we move forward with a project. But before the economy, we need a living and healthy world. This must therefore be the priority,” adds M.me Waridel.
At the same time, she denounces the situation that still prevails in Rouyn-Noranda, where the Horne foundry, owned by the multinational Glencore, is still authorized to emit significant quantities of contaminants that are very toxic to the health of citizens. “Children are exposed to dramatically high levels of arsenic. It’s odious,” insists Laure Waridel.
Provincial initiative
Same story with Nathalie Ainsley, co-coordinator of Mères au front Montréal, who insists on the need to “take care of the living”. She cites the biodiversity crisis as an example, emphasizing that caribou populations continue to decline, but also that wetlands and forests are destroyed year after year in Quebec.
Elected officials from the four parties represented in the National Assembly were present on site. “We heard the message,” said the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks and MP for Argenteuil, Agnès Grondin.
The “chair of generations” initiative was born in Quebec, where Mayor Bruno Marchand welcomed the first of its kind to the Quebec City council. Such chairs now exist in municipal council rooms in 69 cities and towns in Quebec.