Friday’s For Future Toronto Global Climate Strike Organizers with Climate Strikes Canada (see the website here), are planning the next global climate action on September 25th!

Call to action for Canada to act now to secure a just and livable future for all. We at Toronto350 call on the Canadian government to follow through on its recent commitments to “build back better” and invest in a green recovery in the wake of COVID-19. This moment presents a critical opportunity to shift our course toward a better future. Either we plan to meet our Paris Agreement targets, and invest in the health and wellbeing of our communities, or we leave a legacy of defeat in an ever-warming future. As COVID-19 lays bare the appalling inequalities and injustices ever-present in Canadian society, our demands grow more urgent. Paying lip service to the issues that impact us is not enough. Dangerous climate warming leading to more extreme weather events; a growing socioeconomic gap; the rights of workers to sick leave and other basic entitlements; access to affordable and decent housing; respect for Indigenous sovereignty – these are just a few of the issues we face that are crucial to address. We cannot and will not return to the “old normal”- we know that building back better means prioritizing people before profit and investing in ways that safeguard the health and well-being of all.

Yet again, the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations near Caledonia are being invaded by developers and the authorities in the municipality of Haldimand. The developers, Mackenzie Meadows, want to build a housing development on unceded Haudenosaunee land, profiting from territory that does not belong to them. To do this they must steal the land from the rightful owners, the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee.

When the current Ontario government came into power with a majority, the first thing they did was reverse the climate initiatives that were well underway. They cut funds to energy efficiency programs, rolled back renewables and clean industry projects and put out a climate plan with significantly less ambition. The new plan reduced greenhouse gas emission cuts by about a third, allowing for 30MT more pollution! Now, the Ontario government wants to ramp up Ontario’s gas-powered plants, undoing a third of the gains made from coal plant closures and increasing Greenhouse gas emissions 300% by 2025 and 400% by 2040. In fact, they just spent $2.8 billion on 3 gas plants to do so!  To supply the plants, Enbridge wants to build a new pipeline through Hamilton to import fracked gas from the U.S.