“I was inside the COP15, where we are negotiating. And them outside, pounding the fences. But we wanted the same thing: a better world,” says Jack Hancock, a young Scandinavian activist. Last Friday, he found himself facing demonstrators his age, separated from them by the security perimeter fence of the Palais des Congrès. A gripping experience.
At 21, Jack Hancock is not at his first manifestation on environmental issues. He even once organized a Fridays for Future rally in Åland, the autonomous province of Finland where he comes from.
But when he found himself face to face with hundreds of demonstrators against the COP15 on biodiversity last December 9, in Montreal, the roles were reversed.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Jack Hancock, 21-year-old Scandinavian activist taking part in COP15
“I felt like it was them against me. I was standing there, in a suit, wearing a badge that said I had a right to be there. And I looked outside, people from Montreal, from all over the world, who were decrying what I was doing,” he recalls.
From inside COP15…
Friday evening, hundreds of demonstrators, including students from all over Quebec, joined the Saint-Louis square in Montreal in a vast mobilization against capitalism and COP15. They then took the street to go to the Palais des Congrès, under a declining sun.
“I am very skeptical of COP15. As long as the States will prioritize the [produit intérieur brut], in relation to the living, we will never be able to preserve biodiversity. There is a contradiction between capitalizing on spaces and protecting them! “, had indicated in particular to The Press Marc-Antoine Desrochers, a 21-year-old student from Sherbrooke.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
COP15 speakers had to stay inside the Palais des Congrès for at least 30 minutes, while protesters walked around it twice last Friday.
At the same time, Jack Hancock wanted to leave the Palais des Congrès to pick up his saxophone from his accommodation, located near Place des Arts. The police told him that if he left now, he couldn’t come back, because of the protest. The young man chose to stay put.
He therefore remained within the perimeter of the Palais des Congrès at the corner of Avenue Viger and Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle, the only civilian among the police. The perimeter has been closed and secured. Then he heard, and saw, the wave of protesters coming. “Many were dressed in black, which usually means they don’t want to be identified,” he said.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Several hundred people gathered last Friday in the city center to denounce the inertia of the leaders gathered at COP15 on biodiversity.
Hundreds of protesters gathered shouting and banging the metal fences surrounding the Palais des Congrès. In a great cacophony, several demonstrators held up signs, and one person also raised an orange cone. On the other side, a few meters away, Jack Hancock filmed the scene with his phone, before being evacuated by the police.
It was fascinating, exciting and a bit scary all at the same time. It was like watching a thunderstorm: you are not afraid, but you are in awe of the force of nature.
Jack Hancock, on the demonstration last Friday near the Palais des Congrès
From outside COP15
Outside, protesters marched around the Palais des Congrès for around 30 minutes, effectively locking the COP15 speakers inside. The demonstration ended a little further, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, around 5:30 p.m.
Ce face-à-face a été un choc pour Jack Hancock. Une piste de réflexion aussi. « Dans mon cœur, je suis divisé, parce que je suis aussi en colère, affirme-t-il. Mais pour moi, ça dépend de la façon dont on utilise la colère. On doit aussi travailler, coopérer, jouer le jeu [des négociations]. »
He believes that what he experienced last Friday reflects the experience of many other young participants at COP15, more accustomed to citizen mobilization.
Jack Hancock himself took part in the Great March for the Living, organized the following day, at the foot of Mount Royal. “At that time, I was the one on the outside,” he reflects. And who looked inside [de la COP15]. »