Youth to Hand Ford a Late Slip with Release of People’s Climate Plan
Premier Doug Ford and Environment Minister Rod Phillips will receive late and absent slips from Ontario K-12 students this Monday morning, during the release of the People’s Climate Plan at a news conference at Queen’s Park.
The event takes place:
Monday, January 28
10:45 AM
Media Studio, Queen’s Park
The slip reads:
“This is a message from the people of Ontario. A minister in your government named Rod Phillips was marked late today on climate action. The consequences of this will be lethal heatwaves, more extreme weather events, floods, extended droughts, a rise in insect-borne diseases and a public health crisis. We wish this were just a joke. It's not.”
On January 11, youth delivered a letter to the Minister’s office asking for a meeting during the comment period on the provincial ‘Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan’, which ends January 28, prompting this additional absent slip:
“This is an additional message from the children of FridaysForFuture to Minister Rod Phillips. Your refusal to meet with the children to discuss climate action as per their request has been marked as an absence. This absence is being reported as an offence against democratic and accountable government."
“This plan is much too little, much too late. Climate change is threatening our future,” said Zoe Keary-Matzner, 12, speaking for FridaysforfutureGTA. “The recent IPCC report stated that we only have 11 years left to act on climate change before we cannot stop it anymore. We will only be in our 20s when the 11 years are up. Our future is being destroyed at this very moment.”
“What Doug Ford and Rod Phillips have given us is not a people’s climate plan. It’s a corporate giveaway. Rather than tightening emissions reductions targets, the ‘Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan’ will allow the province to emit 30 million tonnes more carbon by 2030 than the previous government’s plan,” said Colleen Lynch of citizens’ advocacy group ClimateFast, which developed the eight-point People’s Climate Plan.
The news conference will also feature Dr. Tomislav Svoboda of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), who will address the health impacts of climate inaction.
FridaysforFuture GTA is continuing to rally on the first Friday of every month to draw attention to the climate crisis, taking their inspiration from the words of 16-year-old Swedish high school student Greta Thunberg: “Why should we be studying for a future that soon may be no more? This is more important than school, I think.”
This week, an estimated 35,000 students in Belgium staged a school strike inspired by Thunberg.
Media contacts:
Anne Keary, fridaysforfuture@climatefast.ca, ph. 647 704 6171
Zoe Keary-Matzner c/o Anne Keary
Colleen Lynch, ClimateFast, co-author, Peoples Climate Plan, 416-858-3683
Lyn Adamson, Co-Chair, ClimateFast, 416-731-6605
Français: Sharon Howarth, 647-713-2423
Peoples Climate Plan: www.climatefast.ca/peoples-climate-plan
Facebook: FridaysforFuture #Climatestrike Toronto/GTA