A few dozen people gathered at Phillips Square in downtown Montreal on Saturday afternoon to demand an end to fossil fuel exploitation. The protest was organized by the environmental group Dernière Génération (also known by its English name Last Generation), which has led several acts of disruption in the past week.
After environmental speeches, the march began around 1:30 p.m. and made its way through the surrounding streets, under police escort. The procession stopped at the corner of René-Lévesque and Robert-Bourassa boulevards, where three activists doused themselves in black paint. “Oil kills and we refuse to die,” they chanted.
The protest ended where it began after about an hour. No harm was reported, according to a police officer met at the scene.
The group made headlines earlier this week by blocking access to the Montreal-Trudeau International Airport landing stage, twice instead of once. “It’s certain that the tactics used by Dernière Génération are tactics that are disturbing […] “People’s daily lives,” acknowledges spokesman Jacob Pirro. While the group’s actions have been received in mixed terms by the public, they also receive support from many people who consider them “necessary,” he says.
“We wish we didn’t have to do this,” he said. [mais] “Social struggles are struggles that require disruption. It’s like an alarm that goes off, it’s not pleasant, but it’s for your own good,” Pirro adds.
An observation shared by Marielle, a protester met on site, who thinks that the methods used by Dernière Génération allow them to embody the urgency of the climate crisis. “As soon as it comes into play a little in people’s daily lives,” the message resonates in the media and on social networks, an imperative in our time, explains the activist.
“Nonviolent resistance”
The organization prides itself on leading a “nonviolent civil resistance campaign” in the vein of the international Oil Kills coalition, which opposes the exploitation of fossil fuels. It is calling on the federal government to create a firefighting agency made up of 50,000 firefighters and “for Canada to implement legally binding citizens’ assemblies to combat the climate crisis within two years.”
It also demands that the country support the Fossil Fuels Treaty, an initiative that aims to “complement the Paris Agreement” by “providing the global roadmap needed to end fossil fuel expansion,” while ensuring “a just transition” away from fossil fuels for workers in the sector. Thirteen countries, mostly Pacific Island countries, have backed the treaty so far.
In mid-June, the group released a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau demanding that the Canadian government sign “a legally binding treaty to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.” The group said that if it did not get its way by July 12, it would “engage in a coordinated international campaign of nonviolent civil resistance.”
The group has carried out several acts of disruption over the past week targeting Montreal-Trudeau International Airport. Last Wednesday, activists blocked access to the airport by gluing their hands to the ground with sand and glue, causing a traffic jam. Last Thursday, they sprayed paint on the airport’s exterior windows, and on Friday, they blocked access to the airport again.