September 18, 2019

Our Time Newsletter 9

There are 33 days left to election day, and while the campaign is just getting going, Our Time is in full swing. Our message of the week: Millions of people around the world are joining the upcoming global climate strikes. Are our politicians paying attention?

Key Action & Message of the Week:

Our message of the week: Millions of people around the world are joining the upcoming global climate strikes. Are our politicians paying attention?

This week, we have two key actions – gearing up for the climate strikes, and preparing for the October 7th federal leaders’ debate in Ottawa.

For the strikes, click here to find a strike near you. Since you’ve probably already done that and signed up, our ask this week is for you to recruit three friends to strike with you.

For the debates, we’ve learned that the CBC is in charge of the questions that are asked at the debate on October 7th, and they’ve created a form for us to submit questions. We’ll go through this together on Wednesday’s Mass Organizing Call, but if you can’t make it, click here to submit a climate question.

Highlights from Across the Country:

We flooded the streets outside the first federal leaders’ debate, demanding a dedicated climate debate and a Green New Deal at the scale that science and justice demand.

Last week, Our Time Toronto and Our Time Peel were the biggest, loudest, and most energized group outside CityTV and Maclean’s federal leaders’ debate. They greeted every party leader as they entered with a call for bold action on the climate emergency.

Photo Credit: Climate Justice Toronto

Once the debate started, they watched it together, asking the question “how many minutes is our future worth?” and keeping track of how much time was allocated to climate. In the end, it was  a measly 22 minutes, give or take. Throughout the debate, they also held up green and red placards to express their support (or serious lack thereof) for what the leaders were proposing.

Passers-by also decided to join the crew. And as Grace King from Climate Justice Toronto put it, if anyone was the winner of the federal leaders’ debate it was the young organizers outside.

We’ll make sure that’s true again on October 7th for the English language debate in Ottawa.

Photo Credit: Climate Justice Toronto

The Climate Strikes will be HUGE

Millions are expected to join the global climate strike on September 20th and 27th.

Our Time hubs across the country are busy mobilizing thousands of university and college students to join the global climate strikes on September 27th. Last week, Concordia University in Montreal announced that they would cancel classes on the 27th, and the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) encouraged all schools to reschedule conflicting tests or assignments. Hundreds of other institutions are also shutting down for the day or offering their students amnesty to join the strikes.

We’ve also got word that many businesses are shutting down for the day to join the strikes. The cosmetics company Lush will shut down all its stores, manufacturing facilities, and offices in the country on September 27th so all its employees can join this historic moment. I have to say that in all my years of climate organizing, I have never been a part of anything so massive.

This week, Our Time Edmonton mobilized hundreds of students at the University of Alberta. And now they’re ready to deliver class talks, and cover their campus with posters and chalk art to recruit for the climate strike.

Our Time Ottawa has been out canvassing university and college campuses across the city to recruit students to the Global Climate Strike.

Climate Justice Peel was out canvassing this weekend at Peel Planet Day, talking to dozens of young people from the Greater Toronto Area about how we can win a Green New Deal grounded in justice.

 

Election State of Play

As you know, the election was called last week and we released our first slate of endorsed candidates.

And everywhere party leaders go, young people are confronting them with demands for bold climate action.

The latest horse race polls remain unchanged — a dead heat between the Liberals and Conservatives with no one clearly leading or guaranteed to win a majority. But, there’s only so much value in watching the poller-coaster. We’re focused on turning out for our champions, the candidates we know are going to fight for a Green New Deal.
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