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Amara Possian - My Blog
Amara Possian - My Blog


It’s time to listen to the youth climate movement
Related to country: Canada


Written by Chris Connolly and Amara Possian.

The media response to the youth protest that disrupted Question Period in the Canadian House of Commons on Monday has completely missed the mark. As participants of Power Shift Canada, last weekend’s climate change summit that brought together over 1000 young Canadians to engage legitimately with our democratic institutions, we feel obligated to respond.

It would be easy to discredit the media’s representation of our fellow youth as an unfair caricature, but that would be beside the point. What’s striking is not that there was an eruption of overt civil disobedience. What’s striking is why.

A short 48 hours before this much-maligned protest, a decidedly more peaceful demonstration took place on parliament hill. On Saturday afternoon, a crowd three-thousand strong added their voices to the chorus of discontent rising from coast to coast over government inaction on the climate crisis. And yet, both our elected leaders and our national media outlets simply weren’t listening. Even as the uproar rose to a fever pitch, it fell on deaf ears. For the Canadians who tuned into their morning news, there was barely a whisper.

A silent vacuum of media and government neglect echoes throughout the country. It is a silence that speaks volumes more about the current state of environmental dialogue in Canada than the stifled cries of Monday’s protesters.

Two days ago, we would have been among those writing off the parliamentary disturbances as brash grandstanding. But the present reality of this great silence has made it abundantly clear that, without such outbursts of collective frustration, no one is listening.

Now that we finally have the national ear, what do we want? We want Canada to demonstrate a commitment to environmental justice and a sustainable, clean economy. We want an immediate reduction in carbon emissions. We want real investments in clean and renewable energy. We want the creation of effective green jobs. Most of all, we want real leadership. We want Canada to participate this December in the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen as a positive global force for a fair, ambitious and binding treaty.

Don’t ignore us any longer. It’s time to listen.

October 29, 2009 | 3:21 PM Comments  0 comments



Invitation: Montreal PowerShift Meeting / Rencontre à Montreal
Related to country: Canada

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

La coalition de la Jeunesse du Canada pour le Climat est sur le point d’organiser la première étape d’un événement historique : Powershift Canada. Après le succès de ce même événement aux Etats-Unis, avec la présence de plus de 12 000 personnes sur les plaines du Capitole, et les événements Powershift à venir en Australie et en Grande Bretagne, nous pensons qu’il est temps pour les Jeunes du Canada de rejoindre le mouvement global.

Du 21 au 23 Octobre 2009, plus d’une milliers de jeunes provenant de tous le pays se rassemblera Durant 2 jours pour participer à des ateliers fascinants et des sessions stratégiques dans la ville d’Ottawa (sur les plaines du Parlement) pour construire une journée pour faire pression en faveur de la cause environnementale.

C’est une énorme opportunité pour tous les Canadiens de se rassembler pour créer une transition dynamique et claire vers une Economie plus écologique. Le temps est venu d’organiser cet événement Powershift car la situation environnementale est critique. Notre rassemblement précèdera directement les négociations des Nations Unies sur le Climat qui aura lieu à Copenhague au mois de Décembre. La communauté internationale a le devoir de pousser les pays à réduire leur émission de gaz à effet de serre. Le Canada est bien connu pour être un acteur peu enthousiaste sur le front international et notre action a donc une double importance : Nous avons besoin d’une position clair sur la scène international dont nous pouvons être fier.

Nous vous invitons dès maintenant, que vous soyez une organisation ou des membres appartenant à des communautés à Montréal de venir rejoindre le mouvement Powershift! C’est en même très excitant et très important pour nous de commencer à nous rassembler afin de construire le meilleur mouvement possible, le plus vaste et le plus fort que ça soit dans le Canada et à Montréal.

Rejoignez nous à 18h30, Jeudi le 23 juillet à 3480 Rue McTavish (salle Lev Bukhman, 2e étage) pour une session d’information et de discussion, nous avons besoin de vous. RSVP à Amara (a.possian@gmail.com). À bientôt!

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The Canadian Youth Climate Coalition is in the early stages of organizing a historic event called Power Shift Canada. After the success of Power Shift U.S., where over 12,000 youth united on Capitol Hill, and the soon to be Power Shift Australia and U.K., we think it is time for Canada’s own youth to join the global movement.

From October 21-23rd, 2009 over one thousand youth from across the country will come together for two days of awesome workshops and strategy sessions in Ottawa that will build to a revolutionary lobby day on Parliament Hill.

This is a great opportunity for Canadians of all backgrounds to come together to create a clear, dynamic transition to a Green Economy. The timing of Power Shift is critical. It directly precedes the UN climate negotiations taking place in December in Copenhagen where the international community must pull together a post-Kyoto deal on emission reductions. Canada has been a well-known laggard on the international front, which makes this action doubly important - we need an international stance we can be proud of.

We are inviting you, as well as other organizations and members of the community across Montreal to come out to join the Power Shift movement! This is an exciting and important time for us to start coming together, to build a bigger, better, stronger climate movement in Canada as well as here in Montreal.

Please join us at 6:30pm on Thursday, July 23 in the Lev Bukhman Conference Room (2nd floor) at 3480 McTavish St. for an information and discussion session. RSVP to Amara (a.possian@gmail.com). See you soon!


July 15, 2009 | 7:27 PM Comments  0 comments

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