Several hundred people, politicians and public figures gathered on Sunday in Montreal, demanding a “just and viable energy future”, on the occasion of the 55e Earth Day.
“The planet is not for sale”, “No to Northvolt”, “Ecocide continues”, could we read on several posters of the demonstrators, who gathered shortly after noon at the George-Étienne Cartier monument, at the foot of of Mount Royal Park.
The crowd must go to Place-des-Arts, in downtown Montreal.
Four organizations, namely Pour le futur Montréal, Attac Québec, La Planète s’invite au parlement and the Chœur de la transition de Montréal were behind the organization of the event. In a joint press release, the groups notably deplored on Sunday that “the Northvolt battery factory and many other projects, presented as energy transition projects, raise many questions”.
“The imminent tabling of a bill on the supervision and development of clean energies would open the door to the denationalization of Hydro-Québec. The organizers of the demonstration deplore these government choices, which they describe as a false transition which continues the destruction of the environment by prioritizing the profit of multinationals over the well-being of the population,” they added on this subject.
The organizers also denounce “the government’s lack of transparency and its contempt for democratic processes” and call “for a real public debate which will allow us to create together a fair and viable energy future”.
The message we want to send is to emerge from the sort of torpor of recent years since the pandemic. We see forest fires and environmental disasters increasing. Here, we really need to get back on the path to fighting the climate crisis.
Claude Vaillancourt, president of Attac Québec
Less mobilization than before?
At a press briefing, the co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, argued that “the climate crisis is not going anywhere”, admitting however that the loss of steam in the mobilization of the past is perhaps due to the cost of living crisis which puts “financial pressure” on individuals.
“I want to send a message of hope. […] We are among the best placed in the world, we have clean energy to spare. We are capable of being the greenest country in the world,” argued Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, insisting that young people “must not be discouraged.”
“All crises combine, but the people who are impacted more closely, such as vulnerable users, the elderly and the most deprived, will also experience climate change more closely,” said the national spokesperson. of the Parti Québécois, Méganne Perry Mélançon.
All this comes after last March, a United Nations (UN) report confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded in the world, with an average surface temperature of 1. 45°C above the pre-industrial baseline. The 2014-2023 decade was also the warmest on record, exceeding the 1850–1900 average by 1.20°C.
Other environmental demonstrations were planned for this Sunday across the province, notably in Quebec, at the Parc du Musée near the National Museum of Fine Arts. The PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon was to take part in particular.