MEDIA RELEASE: Thousands of Canadian Youth Striking Again for their Future

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –  May 21, 2019

CANADA: On Friday, May 24, thousands of students will again be participating in a national day of climate action. At least 65 Fridays For Future Climate Strike events will take place in Canada. From Nanaimo BC to Eastport NL youth will be demanding climate action.

The October 2018 IPCC Special Report on 1.5 C shows that limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5C is achievable but will require unprecedented transformation in all aspects of our society. The world has already warmed by one degree. Currently, with business as usual actions, the world is on track to a world warming above 3C.

The youth are literally fighting to save their future.

We are in a climate emergency. Currently, over 10 million Canadians live in cities and municipalities that have declared climate emergencies. And now, parliamentary motions have been introduced in Ottawa in the House of Commons and by the New Democratic Party of Ontario at Queen’s Park for Canada and Ontario respectively to declare climate emergencies.

FridaysForFuture is a movement that began in August 2018, after 15-year-old Greta Thunberg sat in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for three weeks, to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis. She posted what she was doing on Instagram and Twitter and it soon went viral. On the 8th of September, Greta decided to continue striking every Friday until the Swedish policies provided a safe pathway well under 2 C and line with the Paris agreement – and the Fridays For Future movement was born.

Fridays For Future Canada History: Canada was the first country in the Americas to conduct a Fridays For Future strike in solidarity with Greta Thunberg on Friday, November 2, 2018 .  By Friday, December 7, 2018, there were nine youth groups in Canada conducting Fridays For Future strikes.  The Canadian youth strikers in Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Sudbury made it onto the CBC National News and Greta shared her appreciation on Twitter and Instagram.  Currently, there at least 30 weekly  Fridays For Future events in Canada.

On Friday, May 3, 2019, over 10,000 youth in 98 communities conducted Fridays For Future events in Canada on our National Day of Action. On March 15, 2019, youth in 92 communities in Canada joined the international climate strike.

Fridays For Future Canada is a grassroots organization.

The next big international strike is Friday, September 27, 2019 called EarthStrike and it will be a general strike by everyone to save the planet.

To find your local contact please use the map: https://fridaysforfuture.ca/event-map/

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