Hundreds of students are expected to demonstrate in front of the National Assembly on Friday afternoon in Quebec City, when more than 87,000 of them will be on strike across the province to protest climate inaction.
Similar events are also planned in Montreal, Sherbrooke and Joliette at the same time, as part of the World Day for Climate Justice.
More than 50 college and university student associations have come out in favor of lifting classes for the occasion.
“We have seen a rebirth of the student movement since this winter, student mobilization is picking up,” says Anaïs Gousse, student at Cégep de Limoilou and spokesperson for the Student Coalition for an Environmental and Social Shift (CEVES).
Student associations mobilized on Tuesday to demand free education, while many will meet again on Friday to protest against the inaction surrounding climate change.
Claims
In Quebec, young people will denounce the “inconsistency” of governments in the face of the climate emergency, while demanding the abandonment of the third link project and the East Coast Innovation Zone, as well as a better quality of the air for the inhabitants of the capital.
They will also demand a “climate justice plan” that would eliminate the production and consumption of fossil fuels by 2030.
This mobilization is particularly important in the run-up to the provincial elections scheduled for this fall, adds Anaïs Gousse.
“Our government right now is not making the right decisions. We want to raise people’s awareness so that, as voters this fall, they make a choice with the environment in mind,” she said.
The students are calling for actions as “radical” as those put in place recently to fight against COVID-19 and manage the health crisis since climate issues also represent a real “crisis”, adds Anaïs Gousse.
“It is not later that we must act, it is now. And even if we act now, we can only reduce certain effects of the climate crisis, ”she drops.
Reference-www.journaldequebec.com