OTTAWA - Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist whose global crusade sent tens of thousands of Canadians into the streets Friday to join others around the world in demanding action on climate change, says the nasty backlash she has faced from some leaders is proof positive her message is getting across.
Thunberg has been mocked and ridiculed by some of the world's most powerful people, including U.S. President Donald Trump, who dismiss her calls to climate action as the musings of a silly schoolgirl. In Canada, People's Party Leader Maxime Bernier called her a mentally ill pawn of adults.
But if adults are mocking children, they must be feeling the heat, Thunberg said during a news conference in Montreal where she continued to be the focal point of a massive, international day of action.
"I don't understand why grown-ups would choose to mock children and teenagers for just communicating and acting on the science when they could do something good instead," she said.
"But I guess they must feel like their worldview or their interests or whatever it is, is threatened by us. We should take as a compliment that we are having so much impact that people want to silence us. We've become too loud for people to handle so they try to silence us."
This entire week has become known as the "Week for Future," starting with an emergency climate session at the United Nations on Monday where Thunberg lashed out at world leaders for not taking the climate crisis seriously enough.
Thunberg began weekly sit-ins outside the Swedish legislature last year, which over the course of a few months grew into a global phenomenon. One week ago, millions of people around the world marched in protest against governments not taking drastic climate action. Another day of global protest took place Friday, including in more than 85 cities and towns in Canada.
From St. John's to Vancouver, and as far north as Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, tens of thousands of Canadians came out in force. They came in strollers and on skateboards, on bikes and in army boots, wearing knee braces and leaning on crutches and canes. From babies to baby boomers, grandkids to grandparents, they filled parks and the lawns of legislatures and Parliament, toting papier-mache Earths and trees, some with full potted plants on their backs.
Their message was clear: bolder action is urgently needed to save the planet from the crisis of climate change.
The grassroots groups behind the Canadian marches have some specific demands, including refusing any new oil and gas projects and cutting emissions to be just one-quarter of what they were in 2005 by 2030.
In Halifax, several thousand people marched through the streets and ended their protest at the headquarters of Nova Scotia Power. In Toronto, thousands more filled the front lawn of the provincial legislature and the streets around it.
In Ottawa, the crowd size exceeded most Canada Day celebrations, filling the streets for more than a dozen city blocks as the marchers wound their way through downtown from city hall to Parliament Hill. Some added a truly Canadian flavour by putting their placards on hockey sticks and insisting their chants be delivered in both official languages.
Many of those who came out called Thunberg their inspiration.
"I think she has revolutionized how we look at activism," said Pascal Morimanno, a 17-year-old marching in Fredericton. "She is one person but there are millions of youth out here now because of her. She is the face of new activism."
"This movement has been built around children fighting for their future," added Roy Bateman, a 13-year-old marching in Toronto. "(We're) also fighting for those who are less fortunate and also those who will be more harshly effected by climate change."
He said politicians could address climate change but are making the wrong choices.
"It's a matter of priorities," he said. "They want to have their comfort but who says they get comfort and we get a dirty, unclean, messed up planet (in the) future."
Coming as it has in the midst of Canada's federal election campaign, many candidates and four of the six mainstream party leaders joined events in their cities Friday. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, Green Leader Elizabeth May, and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet all marched in Montreal, while NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh marched in Victoria.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said there would be Conservative representation at the Montreal march, but he was not personally attending any events. In fact, he flew over many of them Friday as he made his way on his campaign plane from Montreal to Vancouver for an announcement in British Columbia.
Bernier, the only national party leader to deny climate change is a crisis caused by human activity, is campaigning in his home riding of Beauce in Quebec.
Trudeau marched with his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and two of his three children, Xavier, 11, and Ella-Grace, 10, as well as several Quebec candidates. He was met with some cheers and some hostility. Several protesters shouted at him that he was a hypocrite because he is promising climate action but expanding a pipeline to extract more oil from Alberta.
One protester attempted to throw an egg at Trudeau but was promptly wrestled to the ground by his security detail. Xavier appeared visibly upset and Trudeau stopped to comfort him for a few moments.
Jaggi Singh, one of Canada's best-known anti-globalization activists and a self-proclaimed anarchist, followed Trudeau along the march route, yelling at him for buying the Trans Mountain pipeline.
"As a man born in blackface, I denounce you," Singh shouted at Trudeau, referencing the recent revelation that Trudeau put on blackface makeup multiple times when he was younger.
Trudeau smiled and waved through most of the event, shouting, "Thank you for being here" at those who decried him, while his supporters around him chanted in French, "Moving forward for the planet."
Earlier Friday, Trudeau sat down with Thunberg for a private meeting. Trudeau's quest for re-election next month depends heavily on convincing Canadians that his party's climate plan is enough to do Canada's part for the planet; his rivals on the left argue the Trans Mountain deal undermines any climate action he is taking. Thunberg said she told Trudeau the same thing she tells all world leaders.
"Just listen to the science," she said.
Marches already took place earlier Friday in dozens of countries around the world including in India, the Netherlands and Italy. Thunberg said she believes 60,000 people took part in marches in her home country of Sweden, while 300,000 marched in New Zealand, more than three per cent of the country's entire population.
"The strikes have been very successful today," Thunberg said. "It is a very good day, I will say."
Some Canadian school boards and universities cancelled classes Friday or notified students they would not be penalized for missing class. Other school boards are being criticized for being less than fully supportive. The Winnipeg School Division is encouraging students to participate, but still marking them as absent if they don't show up.
Several retailers and workplaces were closed to allow their staff to participate in events, including more than 200 Montreal businesses and organizations alone.
— with files from Holly McKenzie-Sutter in St. John's, Michael Tutton in Halifax, Kevin Bissett in Fredericton, Morgan Lowrie in Montreal and Shawn Jeffords in Toronto.
