Protesters demand ‘Just Transition Act’
When asked about her protest sign, Helen Forsey recites from memory the words to a song performed by many over the past century, but one she associates with singer Judy Collins the most.
“As we go marching, marching in the beauty of the day, a million darkened kitchens, 1,000 mill lofts grey, are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses, for the people hear us singing, 'Bread and roses, bread and roses,'” she recites without pause.
While it’s a song and political slogan that’s been around since the 1930s, Forsey, who became politically active in the 1970s, believes it is just as relevant to the Council of Canadians' Day of Action for a Just Transition, held at the Colonial Building on Saturday, March 12.
“Now is a time of huge transition,” she said. “We’re already in it and we have to make sure nobody gets left behind. Not the children, not the workers, not the women, not the people from marginalized communities, not the immigrants, not the Indigenous people.”
Newfoundland and Labrador is faced with a question about whether the province should continue to drill for oil or not, particularly the Bay du Nord project, she said.
Her partner, Barry Darby, was also there for the rally and said, with respect to climage change, the world is in a pretty bad state.
“If we keep using oil the way we’ve been doing it, the predictions are pretty disastrous,” Darby said.
But he also believes the Bay du Nord project is simply a bad business decision.
“If we’re successful in combating climate change over the next 10 years or so, making some progress towards it, it will result in lower demand for oil,” he said. “It’s really stupid for us to put any money into it.”
In a short speech to start the rally, Yvonne Earle said the Avalon chapter of the Council of Canadians is asking for the federal Liberals to follow through on a 2019 plan to create a “Just Transition Act” that would support and train oil and gas workers as the country moves toward different sources of energy.
“To make true on their promise, they have to start saying no to fossil fuels, they have to start saying no to projects like Bay du Nord and they have to start saying yes to things like electrifying our whole economy,” Earle said. “We can all keep the pressure up on our own politicians, whether they're federal or provincial, about the fact that we want Newfoundland to be moving towards a strong climate future.
“And it’s not going to be easy, but we need leadership. And we don’t need to be developing more oil and gas.”
Though there were a few younger people at the rally, of the approximately two dozen who showed up, many were retirement age and older.
Older people feel a sense of urgency, not for themselves, but for future generations and the planet, Earle said.
“Which is why I don’t understand when I see some of our politicians with children, and potentially grandchildren down the line, how they can look at them and (not) realize that their actions now are going to have awfully drastic consequences for the young ones,” she said.