On Friday, September 23, the world march for the climate took place in Montreal. Nearly 146,000 students and 15,000 workers were on strike for the occasion. This march is part of the international “Fridays for Future” movement and is the largest march in Montreal since the one that marked the arrival of Greta Thunberg in 2019. According to its organizers, around 15,000 people gathered to ask governments to more ambitious measures on the environment which will really make it possible to curb the climate crisis.
However, all that the general public will retain will be only the hostile reception of certain people with regard to the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, and two other CAQ MPs. An event that the vast majority of walkers were unaware of.
Indeed, daily newspapers like The Press or Montreal Journal succumbed to electoral sensationalism by politicizing a civic event.
It is quite deplorable that the mainstream media devotes most of its reporting to this popular march and shines the spotlight on the politicians and their remarks.
Many saw in this demonstration the tangible proof that Quebec activism was coming back in force since the pandemic. Contrary to what several dailies claim, the crowd was not only made up of young people, but rather people of all ages and backgrounds, citizens collectively committed to a greener future.
To imply that all the demonstrators are young people in solidarity who intimidated Benoit Charette and his colleagues is a pure and simple aberration which fuels without foundation the pejorative caricature of young leftist extremists and which takes away all its credibility from the event.
In addition, the choice of certain media to present a video of people booing the caquists even before the start of the article offers the readership a glimpse of an incident which concerns only a small part not representative of the whole group. of male and female walkers and which, moreover, takes place over a short period. In other words, it is a highly biased representation of the manifestation.
Moreover, can we really accuse young people who are campaigning for climate justice of not looking favorably upon the arrival of members of a party that supports the construction of a third highway link that is devastating for the environment without support regarding its necessity? To express through cries their dissatisfaction with a figure who represents what the march for the climate denounces?
After two years of militant lows due to COVID-19, this infantilizing caricature of an event of notorious importance simply amounts to throwing the work of people and organizations working for social and climate justice in the trash.