“One woman in our caravan said she was talking to her grandchild, saying something like, ‘Oh, you’ll understand that when you’re my age.’ And her grandchild said, ‘Well, I’m never going to get to be your age.'”
Walking Eagle News @theeagleist.bsky.social:
Feds tout trickle down reconciliation
Analysis: Just be glad it’s Liberals fucking you over, and not Conservatives – because those guys are REAL assholes
@aster-verite.bsky.social:
I’m astounded, I really am how Canadians fell in love with such an obvious sociopath devoid of any empathy.
There are a lot of Nazis in Canada, cruel racist misogynistic bigoted Nazis.
He doesn’t even have any for his own grandkids.
… Carney’s policies will ONLY benefit O&G & will be paid for using tax payer’s $ We voted for climate protection & got a O&G dictator , liar and thief.
@aster-verite.bsky.social:
God I hate the lies.me too. Carney lies like Smith and Trump, non stop.
The Dude is hastening mass extinction with his massive fossil fuel expansion and slashing emission regs.
How can yhe say this with a straight face?
He must love your grandkids eh…
@204queenb0574.bsky.social:
So there it is. Apparently it’s now a crime to protest. Fuck Carney.
@emmettmacfarlane.com:
Funny, because the Truckers got three weeks to hang out before police lifted a finger. Interesting.
@dkmunro.bsky.social:
The lesson here is that if the police think you might be armed, you get a three week window of patient “de-escalation”, timbits from the Leader of the Opposition and occasional help carrying your stuff.
If you’re a quiet senior citizen who couldn’t hurt a fly, you get an immediate boot.
@stauers.bsky.social Replied to Mark Carney:
You’re arresting seniors for protesting now dude. You’re a corporate weasel with emotional intelligence of a donut. Go back to the private sector and stop selling us to your investment gods
@summersandwiches.bsky.social Replied to Mark Carney:
Who hurt you, Mr PM? When is enough enough? Why are Cdns and innocents being punished in your pursuit of more? You need therapy.
@susankiddie2.bsky.social Replied to Mark Carney:
“Building Canada Strong”
Translation: selling Canada to foreign investors so they can strip it for parts.
@northhopper.bsky.social:
Side stepping environmental regulations in the name of progress is already what’s been done for the entirety of humanity’s existence. Sorry, but I want a world myself, my children, and my grandchildren will actually be able to live in. Can’t have an economy if you don’t have an environment
@canadiancynic.bsky.social:
JUXTAPOSE! Right-wingers who relentlessly defended a violent, three-week Freedom Convoy occupation of downtown Ottawa will now shriek that this sort of leftist day-long criminal activity cannot be tolerated.
Come next federal election, if a Liberal shows up at my door looking for support, I will have pepper spray at the ready. Or possibly a Taser.
@christinesepsis.bsky.social:
That is Harper’s playbook…
@janetm28.bsky.social:
100%. I have a friend who works for a government department and has for decades and they told me that morale is worse now than it was under Harper.
@notabot1.bsky.social:
This is really fucked up. Really fucked right up.
@okori7.bsky.social:
WTF the liberal govt is OK with arresting seniors who are legally protesting the terrible environmental policies that this govt is implementing???
But go Carney right??
This is shameful!!!
@productofbc.bsky.social:
This isn’t his first time doing it and it won’t be his last time.
Carney is a conservative that ran as a Liberal. Liberal party members won’t bash him because he is their guy & Conservatives will remain muted in response because he is passing their policies.
@leeram.bsky.social:
Looks like we elected a fascist.
@idonthaveacoolname.bsky.social:
Have they thought about driving massive trucks and parking them downtown Ottawa for weeks causing massive disruption?
Terrorism worked for the convoy but with seniors, the police have the riot squad out.
@rachelwales.bsky.social:
Guess it must have been embarrassing for the powers that be to see peaceful protesters that happen to be senior.
@suzrau.bsky.social:
What Carney is doing to the environment is bad; what he is doing to labour, in this country, is even worse.
@paulchamplaw.bsky.social:
I researched this last night and concluded Canada would have the most regressive legislation on the right to strike in the EU or G7. Who’s advising these guys? This is a miscalculation by Carney.I think Carney is fully aware he’s going full on Trumpian Harper, cruel and polluting as can be.
@enougheh.bsky.social:
Mark Carney hates Canadians and loves money.
It’s fact at this point. #cdnpoli #canpoli
@dianneinbc.bsky.social:
It is absolutely disgusting to arrest seniors who have travelled in EVs across Canada to deliver their message to the Carney govt. They deserve to be listened to, not silenced. Hopefully this arrest will amplify their message of concern for the environment.
@patrickcanning.bsky.social:
Charter s. 2(c), freedom of peaceful assembly:
Charterpedia – Section 2(c) – Freedom of peaceful assembly
Department of Justice Canada’s Internet site
www.justice.gc.ca
@qtainpfaulkes.bsky.social:
Exactly. It’s a Charter violation clear as day.
@judytrinh.bsky.social:
Seniors who were protesting Mark Carney’s Bill c39 and fast tracking of environmental reviews arrested and charged with trespassing on Parliament Hill.
@kylefromtheeast.bsky.social:
Hats off to him for standing by his principles and willing to get arrested for his cause
@kylefromtheeast.bsky.social:
And not whining about it like Pat and Tamara…..this guy should get a go fund me.
@laskinator.bsky.social:
I mean, I won’t walk down Wellington because there are so many right wing nut jobs hanging out protesting Trudeau and socialism.
But sure, get those pesky seniors!
@204queenb0574.bsky.social:
Bill C-9 in action, folks. We told them all it was happening and no one wanted to hear it. This is just the beginning.
Mary Grace #DefendTheRightToStrike @emgeekay.bsky.social:
Seniors for pity’s sake. Seniors fighting for a future for their grandchildren.
@quitabunnies.bsky.social:
But the idiots who held ottawa hostage for weeks got nothing
@lalegault.bsky.social:
This is a new low, even for Carney.
@dequesse.bsky.social;
We voted for an environmentally-conscious PM and he betrayed us and our children and grandchildrenWe can thank Herr Hideous Nazi IDU Chair Harper.
@globalcatastrophe.bsky.social:
The police could have just escorted these folks away from the entrance and prevented them from going back.
Mind you, the police could have done the same with the vile insurrectionist KKKlownvoy—but instead joked around with them, let them create mayhem for weeks, and even aided them with supplies.
@barbaramackinnon.bsky.social:
Protesters have to keep their distance on Parliament Hill ever since the Freedum Convoy Occupation :(
@ryderr9.bsky.social:
funny how they got arrested immediately, but truckers stayed there however long they wanted to
liberals fine with white supremacy, but not questioning their plans to sell of canada and destroy the environment so carney and his buddies at brookfield & blackrock can make more money
@malojack.bsky.social:
on the Parliament Hill website it does not say it bans protesting outside. Just states a permit is needed.
hill-colline.parl.ca/en/
@horn-slack.bsky.social:
How we are paying to subsidize anything that is grossly profitable, is insane.
@secularmoi.bsky.social:
And anyone supporting Mark Carney is complicit in genocide.Harper loves genocides of non whites, as does his evil twin, Carney.
@rachelgilmore.bsky.social:
This lawyer breaks down why the so-called guardrails Carney includes in this bill just create a cog in a machine built to deny workers their right to strike.
Then ministers, in deciding what the “national interest” is in quashing a strike, can consider the “impact on the Canadian economy.”
“To say to workers that you cannot go on strike if you’re going to have an economic impact is to say to workers that you cannot go on strike,” this lawyer says.
@peterlouwe.bsky.social:
The point of striking is to have an impact. Unions are seen by Carney as adjuncts to corporate power.
@gregtthemetis.bsky.social:
When the system doesn’t allow workers to use their power, workers need to break the system.
@yakkadoo.com:
Sir John A. MacDonald repealed the anti-union laws. Mark Carney is getting rid of the right to strike.
Without the power to strike, unions will die.Nazis hate unions. I bet Carney is killing Canadian unions to please the kid raping Trumpster.
@204queenb0574.bsky.social:
Remember when Carney was aghast at Pierre saying he’d use the NWC, saying where does it end? The same man is now just simply legislating our rights away with no need to even use the NWC and most Canadians are just shrugging it off, saying Carney’s the second coming of Christ so don’t criticise.
@westcoastconnect.bsky.social:
National strikes will last 1 day to 1 week tops. I’m sure his billionaire buddies wanted a total ban.
@f0rcryin0utl0ud.bsky.social:
Can we really be surprised Zionists are trashing Avi for speaking out against the genocide? Their entire purpose of belief is that they are some special little snowflakes that NO LAW applies to, who get to kidnap, rape, torture & murder WHOEVER they want while stealing their homes cuz GOD chose themCarney and his boss Harper, are Zionist Nazis
@enougheh.bsky.social:
Remember when an indigenous protester was at his speech and Mark Carney said he will “outlast” her?
Now you see elderly being arrested for protesting.
This is who Mark Carney is.
Look at the fucking rude smirks on old white men conmen in clip above. JFC!!! Trumpian indeed.
@sjonespoet.bsky.social:
They demonstrate the three ridiculous facial reactions that old white men make when you call them out on their bullshit: the squint and chuckle, the circular pie hole morphs to smile, and the rapid blink with turtle neck retraction.
@alisonborealis.bsky.social:
Goodbye environmental protections!
Hello soil pits sliding into rivers and faulty construction plans with very little oversight!
As a former environmental regulator of industrial sites, I can guarantee you that some projects require more than 1 year and more than 1 review before approval.
Do you know how many different kinds of expertise are required for a full and comprehensive review?
Every discipline is another person. 2/3
A review is NEVER one and done.
I was never the first nor only reviewer on a project. I would often have to go through multiple cycles of review, back and forth, with the proponent because they forgot to include things in their applications or they made mistakes or failed to follow the regulations.
@secularmoi.bsky.social:
@mark-carney.bsky.social is literally a piece of shit. Anyone who supports someone who treats our indigenous peoples so egregiously is complicit in genocide.
#FuckerCarney
AFN chief warns Carney against ‘abusing’ majority to pass major projects bill
@beatsie1.bsky.social:
you … we … cannot trust this man.
@enougheh.bsky.social:
If just once they could admit that some of the stuff Mark Carney has done was bad.
Just once!
It’s like if they say anything bad against the banker of the oligarchs they will get arrested.
@consbegone.bsky.social:
Mark Carney’s Climate Betrayal
When Bank of England Governor, he was hailed by climate advocates for working to steer global economy away from fossil fuels. Since becoming PM he’s fast-tracked oil & gas expansion while rolling back key environmental laws.
@wolfelake2002.bsky.social:
The agenda put forth by Carney in his election campaign is massively different than what is being done.
@lukelebrun.ca:
Stephen Harper’s biggest mistake was not running as a Liberal
Toronto Star @thestar.com:
The federal government tabled new legislation Monday to make sweeping changes to environmental and labour rules, in Mark Carney’s latest effort to remove what he sees as barriers to development in pursuit of his pro-growth agenda.
Carney government tables sweeping bill to overhaul environmental and labour rules
renmccormacksghost.bsky.social:
Stephen Harper the head vampire of the Ultra Conservative IDU Alliance owns the Liberals and the Conservatives it would seem, for quite some time now, I wish that Canadians would look at the worst of the worst on the IDU Alliance membership.
@tryangregory.bsky.social:
… It will be far, far worse than Harper.
Harper and Carney are besties, who pulled the ultimate coup on Canada getting ultra conservative old white man racist misogynistic fucker Carney voted in as a Liberal PM even though he’s a con. I believe because of Harper’s fury and venom at being punted out on his evil corrupt greedy old white man racist misogynistic ass by Canadians. First, destroy all climate and environmental laws, then kill workers’ right to strike, next, criminalize abortion and birth control (to please the fucking kid raping maniacs in the catholic church and kid raping Trump’s Nazi USA) and likely take women’s right to work and vote away too (to also please Trump and his Pedo Nazis.
@sovietmoose.bsky.social:
Worsening workers rights is a surefire way to ensure our country doesnt recover. No money in peoples pockets means no buying things, that means less ability to buy local, and that means we become reliant on foreign entities to sell us our basic goods which pulls money out of the country.
People are the very foundation of our country and economy, it all crumbles and crashes when people cant afford shit because the govt crushed every strike they could leading to wages falling even further behind both inflation and cost of living.
@mightygodking.com:
it’s funny how “doing everything to make sure we survive” is exactly the same set of policies as “doing everything to make sure rich people aren’t inconvenienced by the interests of the working class”
Whatever good is in Mark Carney’s Building Canada Strong Act is poisoned by the toxic rest by Althia Raj, National Columnist, Sept. 21, 2026, Toronto Star
Althia Raj is a national politics columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @althiaraj
On the world stage, he dazzles.
Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks eloquently about shared values of democracy, addressing climate change, fighting for human rights, and walks his talk of like-minded countries banding together to preserve the rules-based international order. Whether its penning an op-ed in the Financial Times to announce Partners for Multilateralism with the presidents of Brazil, Kenya and the European Council, or sounding the alarm at the World Economic Forum in Davos, or at the European Parliament in Strasburg, Carney has made Canadians proud.
At home, he is praised for his stance against U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats. Because of the current political realities — and Carney’s capacity to lead — a significant majority back his agenda, recent byelections saw the Liberals win all three seats by more than 50 per cent of the vote.
But that agenda is increasingly different from the one the Liberals put forward in the last election: massive increases in defence spending, big subsidies to oil and gas, the abandonment of United Nations peacekeeping, net-zero climate goals that won’t be met, the selling off of Canada’s largest airports to private operators, and a loophole reform to Canada’s project approval process.
Monday, the Carney government tabled C-39, the “Building Canada Strong Act.”
Carney government tables sweeping bill to overhaulkill environmental and labour rules
It’s legislation that Conservatives can only dream Canadians would have allowed them to table. But Liberals who spent years saying their assessments wouldn’t result in lawsuits, and that science-based decision making that considered impacts on nature, climate, Indigenous Peoples, was required — now stand by watching it dismantled by one of their own.
Now, one can believe that it takes too long to get projects done in this country and reform is needed, and still conclude that what the prime minister proposes is a radical departure from what Canadians expect.
Unions hammer Carney government’s revamp of labour rules: ‘This bill neuters the right to strike’
Building Canada Strong Act is a 243-page omnibus bill that amends several pieces of legislation. It wasn’t given to journalists until 35 minutes into a 45-minute technical briefing. When ministers took the podium, reporters had no chance to thoughtfully review the bill. This isn’t the way sweeping legislation should be explained.
Setting that aside, what the bill does is vast in scope. It doesn’t just speed up timelines for reviews and permitting to one year, it amends the “Building Canada Act,” the controversial bill C-5, to allow for “regions of national interests,” essentially gives the government another loophole by which to fast-track projects, where it can pick and choose what laws to apply.
The new bill also gives a designated minister — for now, Internal Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc — the power to remove conditions from projects already approved.
“One of the things that’s holding Roberts Bank Terminal Two back from construction, are some conditions that were imposed under the environmental assessment to prevent harm to Southern Resident Killer Whales,” said Anna Johnston, a staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law. “The proponent had to come up with a plan for shipping at night so as to more minimally impede orcas when they’re hunting.
“The minister now, in this bill, will have the power to just remove that condition of approval,” she said.
The bill mostly follows what was presented last May for public consultation. Cabinet will pre-approve big pipeline projects before routing details or the Canada Energy Regulator’s review of environmental conditions and impacts on Indigenous Peoples is complete, for example. But one thing the government backed away from — after receiving 26,000 emails — are changes to Species At Risk Act that would have allowed cabinet to approve projects that could lead to the extinction of species. Unfortunately, the changes proposed Monday, and the change made in C-5 last year, allow the Carney government to do the same run around Canada’s environmental protections for species at risk, like the orcas, just without the public closely watching.
This is far from the only poison pill in C-39: the bill gives the CER — now the reviewer of major pipelines — the ability to remove conditions, to suspend a variety of laws from applying, including for example, now allowing a company to start constructing a pipeline without meeting the conditions set out in its certificate (those very conditions upon which the certificate was granted).
The bill also amends the Canada Labour Code to elaborate on the labour minister’s use of section 107 — a power that the Liberals have used several times since 2024, including last summer under Carney, to shut down strikes and impose binding arbitration.
Labour groups had called on the Liberals to eliminate section 107 — arguing it was unconstitutional (four ongoing court cases may settle that). Instead, the Grits have codified it and offered conditions by which the minister’s power can be exercised.
The government frames this law as part of its “Canada Strong” plan — and frankly, some parts are good — but toxic with good is still bad.
@barbaramackinnon.bsky.social:
I just read this press release. The seniors were trying to get into the building to leave their flyers/pics in MP’s offices. Some of the seniors wouldn’t move away from entrance and they were the ones charged with trespassing. www.narcity.com/ottawa/seniors-arrested-during-climate-protest-on-hill
@lalegault.bsky.social:
It’s still disgusting.and terribly Trumpian and Harperian and unCanadian.
@peebsy0.bsky.social:
Hey @mark-carney.bsky.social, not one of your fans,
Harper’s second term is moving at a quick pace! Eh?
@charf.bsky.social:
I hope the Carney cultists realize they are in a authoritarian state. No more peaceful protesting against king @mark-carney.bsky.social.
@cvin.bsky.social:
Shame on the @mark-carney.bsky.social government for doing this. Is it now illegal to protest? Unbelievable.
@quitabunnies.bsky.social:
This is fascism
@russmendo.bsky.social:
occupy ottawa, they sleep
occupy parliment- this.
they should have used a ‘fuck trudeau’ flag to get pass from the authorities.
@redshan.bsky.social:
They forgot to set up a bouncy castle?
@abrainiac.bsky.social:
@mark-carney.bsky.social
this is really a new low for you, what were these people doing that somehow was WORSE than the idiot trucker convoy people, making noise and terrorizing Ottawa and allowed to stay for for 3 weeks?
Come on, man…
@uppertown.bsky.social:
this is hideous.
this is shameful.
this is what they do in Trump’s fascist United States,
it’s NOT how we do it in Canada.
SHAME, SHAME on you @mark-carney.bsky.social
i’m so sorry i voted for you 😞
you’re a horrible person after all.
@traveling4life.bsky.social:
Isn’t Parliament Hill owned by Canadians? How can one trespass on public property
@204queenb0574.bsky.social:
… The difference must be Bill C-9 and if that’s what they’re hiding behind then they’ve passed a law that violates the Charter. And know it.
I am stunned how ugly Carney is becoming since lying his way to PM; he isn’t bothering to hide his cruelty anymore, it rages out of his blood thirsty greedy Nazi mouth and cruel hate-filled eyes.
@williedustice.bsky.social:
Silencing protests, crushing collective bargaining, ignoring Indigenous voices altogether. It’s crystal clear what Carney is.
@writenrun.bsky.social:
Apparently, you think Canada is stronger when seniors who care enough about the future to show up for the planet & their grandkids are arrested. “Values”, my ass. You’re nothing but another disaster capitalist governing for the benefit of his oligarch friends & I deeply regret voting for you!
Fuck, he’s ugly with greed and hate. JFC, as ugly as Trump.
Seniors will ‘risk arrest’ to deliver climate-impact photos to MPs and Mark Carney by Joan Baxter September 22, 2026, Halifax Examiner
Last week, seniors with deep concerns about the climate emergency set out from the west and east coasts of Canada in the first-ever “climate caravan,” heading for Ottawa to make their concerns known to Prime Minister Mark Carney and MPs in the House of Commons.
The seven-person delegation from Nova Scotia headed off on Sept. 17 by electric vehicle and train, linking up with seniors from five other provinces in the nation’s capital. Among the climate champions and senior citizens involved in the caravan are renowned environmentalist and scientist David Suzuki, Greenpeace co-founder Bill Darnell, and co-founder of the Seniors’ Climate Witness that organized the caravan, Michael Polyani.
Nina Newington, president of Nova Scotia’s Save Our Old Forests (SOOF), is a member of Seniors’ Climate Witness, and she headed to Ottawa last week in her EV.
In a media advisory, Seniors’ Climate Witness says the seniors — many of whom are grandparents — will attempt to deliver climate-impact photos to MPs today. If they are unable to reach MPs to do so, “they are prepared to engage in non-violent civil disobedience and risk arrest.”
Seniors’ Climate Witness describes itself as “a group of concerned seniors, banding together to protect what we love. Our families, friends, neighbours, creatures, descendants, and nature in all its forms.”
“Canada is at a crossroads,” says the group’s website. “Even as fossil fuel-driven wildfires force thousands of people from their homes and harm millions across Canada and around the world, the federal government is planning to spend tens of billions of public dollars on new fossil fuel pipelines while backtracking on key climate commitments, and disrespecting Indigenous rights.”
Polanyi, a grandfather, and a retired environmental policy researcher and advocate who helped organize the caravan, kindly took a few minutes to speak with me from Ottawa. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Joan Baxter [JB]: Can you tell us about the climate caravan, who is involved, and why you decided to travel from your home in Victoria, British Columbia, to Ottawa in this caravan?
Michael Polanyi [MP]: It grew out of widespread concern this summer about the wildfires. Some of us are from British Columbia, where there’s a province-wide state of emergency due to wildfires. The stark juxtaposition of seeing those devastating climate impacts on Canadians, and then also seeing the federal government moving ahead to spend billions on a new pipeline that will make the climate crisis worse, is what got a few of us together on a call two months ago. We felt we needed to raise our voices as seniors, as elders.
Seniors’ Climate Witness is an initiative of seniors from different provinces, who are deeply concerned about the climate crisis, and feeling they need to raise their voices to demand that the government protect us all, and particularly our children and our grandchildren. One of the ways we felt we could do that would be to travel to Ottawa from different parts of Canada, and bring the stories and experiences of the climate emergency as faced by Canadians across the country to Ottawa during the first week of Parliament. So that’s what we endeavored to do and have done.
JB: How many of you made your way to Ottawa and how did you travel?
MP: We travelled in electric vehicles because we wanted to minimize our footprint as much as we could. Two vehicles went from Vancouver to Kamloops, and four went from Victoria to Ottawa, and then one went from Digby, Nova Scotia, to Ottawa. Other people are traveling by train, bus, electric vehicle, carpooling from different parts of Canada. A bunch of people are coming up from Toronto, for instance, as well as those who are involved in the formal caravan.
So, it’s a small group, but I think we’ve touched a chord. We’ve had more than 200,000 Canadians visit our Facebook page. Judging from the experiences we had in the 20 cities we stopped in, there was a lot of emotion, and a lot of gratitude that we were trying to do something trying to raise our voice. I think there’s a lot of despair in terms of how rampant and profound the effects are from fires, floods, extreme heat, extreme weather storms, and just how much people feel that the federal government is not doing its job to protect us from the ravages of the climate crisis.
JB: How was the trip? When you were traveling, in your case from British Columbia, how did you interact with Canadians enroute?
MP: We interacted spontaneously with people when we were charging our vehicles, or getting a meal, or having a rest break. And then through our networks of environmental organizations, faith organizations, Indigenous rights organizations, we were able to link up with local groups in the different communities, who set up events to welcome us and send us off. They hosted us in their homes and provided food and meals for us, so it was pretty amazing.
We had many conversations. We heard many stories, and many tears were shed. Again and again, we heard the real stories.
I remember a woman in Ignace, just west of Thunder Bay, who told us that she had six minutes to get out of the home she was renting, to run down to the lake and then go into the lake to save herself from a wildfire. The house was burned to the ground, and she talked about how fast the fire spread, how hot it was, how much ash there was on the lake.
The vividness and reality and human impacts of the climate emergency were made so clear to us by travelling and hearing directly from people who had lost their homes, people whose grandkids were forced to stay inside because of widlfire smoke.
One woman in our caravan said she was talking to her grandchild, saying something like, “Oh, you’ll understand that when you’re my age.” And her grandchild said, “Well, I’m never going to get to be your age.”
There is profound trauma and sadness, and especially amongst young people, real mental health impacts. It was a privilege to be able to connect with people who are doing so much to build healthier, more sustainable communities, and who are feeling very disheartened that the government would spend scarce public dollars on building a new pipeline rather than all the things that could be done with that money to spur the transition to clean energy, to spur good jobs, and to protect us all.
JB: Whom are you hoping to meet in Ottawa, and what is your message for them?
MP: We wanted to talk to the prime minister. We wrote to him and didn’t hear back.Of course you didn’t, you’re not American Nazis, corporations or billionaires! But our primary focus has been to try bring the reality of the climate emergency and people’s experiences of it to Ottawa.
We’ve been collecting photos from Canadians we’ve met along the way. We have over 200 photos and we want to deliver those to the House of Commons. We want them put on the desks of MPs so that when they’re debating whether to spend billions of dollars to construct a new pipeline that will lock us into fossil fuels for decades and exacerbate the climate crisis, they have in front of them the vivid reality of loss and struggle and harm that’s being caused by the climate emergency.
We see ourselves as messengers, and we’ve been entrusted with very personal photos from people that show loss, but also show the people, places, the animals that people love and want protected. We want to pass those on to MPs.
JB: The media are telling us that climate is no longer a priority for Canadians. And there has been remarkably little public opposition to Prime Minister Carney’s cuts to environmental and climate policies and protections. Yet he remains very popular. How do you and your group respond to that?
MP: Different polls tell different things, and certainly climate has fallen in the ranking of issues that are top of mind for Canadians with the threat from the south of the border, the challenge of tariffs, and the economic difficulties that people are struggling through. Definitely there’s deep, deep concern about the economic challenges.
But there are polls that show Canadians are fairly unified in their support for renewable energy, and fairly unified in terms of wanting governments to take climate change seriously. There was a recent poll conducted by Environmental Defence that said that the majority — and in some areas of Canada that the vast majority — of people don’t want the government to spend public dollars on pipelines.
On our trip to Ottawa, we had discussions with people in Alberta, people who were employed in the oil sector, and even they had concerns about public money going into building a pipeline. That’s what we’re hearing, and that’s part of the reason I think we’ve struck a chord. At this time people are quite angry about the government dropping the ball on climate.
JB: Why do you think it is that Mark Carney, who wrote a book called Values Building a Better World for All that urged action on climate, and who was formerly the UN special envoy on climate action and finance, is now, as Canada’s prime minister, cutting climate policies and protection? Does that help us stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump?
MP: Politics isn’t necessarily rational and logical. I think the good policy solution to protect ourselves from the United States is to build a strong, resilient clean economy that seizes the opportunities from a growing global clean economy. That is something that can create jobs across Canada and strengthen us economically, and strengthen our energy independence. So why is Mr. Carney not taking that route?
I spent a few years in politics and it’s a generalization, but I think to a great extent, politicians do what they are pushed to do, and we know how intensive the fossil fuel lobby is, millions of dollars shaping public opinion, and also regularly accessing high officials in the government.
So, I think that it partly comes back to us, in that politicians do respond to pressure. And that’s something we’ve been trying to do in our caravan — bring public attention to this issue, show that there are things that Canadians can do to put pressure on the government and highlight how many Canadians across Canada are taking action at the local level to protect this fragile planet and to shift away from fossil fuels. With just one iota of the $40 billion that’s being proposed to support the fossil fuel industry, so much could be done at the local level. That’s the point we’re making with our caravan.
JB: You say you haven’t heard back from the prime minister. What are your plans while you’re in Ottawa? Who do you hope to access and if you can’t access them, then what are you plans?
MP: We have collected these hundreds of photos from across Canada. We were saying we would deliver them personally to the desks of MPs in the House of Commons. So, we’ve written to the speaker and asked their assistance in simply placing these photos on the desks.
We don’t want to disrupt parliament and we’re a peaceful group of people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. So, we’ll be bringing the photos to the West Block. We’ll be nonviolent and we’ll be persistent. We will do everything we can to deliver these photos to the desks of MPs.
We’ve come 4,000 kilometers. Many of us have been sounding the alarm on climate change for 20 to 30 years, and we feel like we’re running out of time. So, we will be persistent, we will not be violent, but we aren’t going to turn around and go home easily. We’ll do everything we can to peacefully bring attention to this crisis and the very difficult situation that Canadians are facing across the country.
The Examiner will follow up on this story later today, speaking with Nina Newington to find out how the delivery of the climate-impact photos and stories to MPs in the House of Commons went, and report on what we learn.
Nova Scotians among the 11 seniors from climate caravan arrested on Parliament Hill by Joan Baxter September 22, 2026, Halifax Examiner
When told they couldn’t take their messages and more than 200 climate-impact photos concerned Canadians gave them as they made their way to Ottawa, the seniors told police they were not willing to step back. …
@emgeekay.bsky.social:
I took part in Occupy and the message was loud and clear. 1% of the population control more wealth than 99%. … When will we listen and demand the rich pay their fair share? Tax the rich!