About 20 Greenpeace activists blocked the street in front of the offices of federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault on Thursday afternoon at Place Dupuis in Montreal to paint a mural there, demanding a Canadian law on biodiversity. They want an announcement to be made on the sidelines of COP15 in Montreal, scheduled for December 2022.
It is therefore rue Saint-Hubert, at the corner of boulevard de Maisonneuve, which was blocked this Thursday afternoon. The Montreal police had not been informed of the progress of the event beforehand. However, she agreed, earlier today, to assist the activists in their efforts, and helped them block the street, while they paint a fresco there.
This mobilization effort by Greenpeace is part of a series of steps that the organization is undertaking with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of Canada, demanding that a Canadian law govern the protection of biodiversity.
“COP15, which will take place in Montreal in December, is the perfect opportunity for Canada to pass a federal law guaranteeing the protection of biodiversity, as is already done with climate laws”, maintains Salomé Sané, in charge of of the Nature and Food campaign at Greenpeace Canada.
The organization’s spokesperson also wants commitments to include indigenous peoples in the protection of biodiversity: “We want any legislation to include a decolonial framework, that is to say that indigenous communities are involved from the first drafts. »
“Minister Guilbeault supports protesters’ calls for stronger action to protect nature ahead of COP15. We must go further and faster in protecting more natural areas, because the loss of biodiversity on a global scale requires urgent attention and is one of the main drivers of the climate crisis. “replied the minister’s press secretary, Kaitlin Power, in an email.
When he announced that COP15 would be held in Montreal on June 22, 2022, Minister Guilbeault acknowledged that “nearly a million species are threatened with extinction on the planet, [et que] the decline in biodiversity has very serious consequences for humanity, leading in particular to the collapse of food, economic and health systems. »
Canada has therefore committed to protecting 30% of its land and oceans by 2023. For now, however, there is no legislation guaranteeing the application of this commitment. The question will also be debated at COP15 in Montreal in December. Some countries would like a firm commitment to this effect from all 196 participating States, but there was no consensus on this at a preparatory meeting in Nairobi last June.