On Sunday March 11, the Canadians for Kyoto organized rallies across Canada to demonstrate to the governments of Alberta and Canada the failure of real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The Canadians for Kyoto is a non-partisan coalition of individuals, businesses, labour unions, environmental agencies, and communities who support Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and challenge all levels of government to implement policies that will respect our international obligations.

At the rally in Calgary, hundreds of people from oil-rich Alberta demonstrated downtown outside the Harry Hays Federal Building in support of greenhouse gas reductions. I had the opportunity to speak and there were inspiring speeches from Brian Pincott with the Sierra Club of Canada, John Chan, federal NDP candidate for Calgary Centre North, George Read, the Green Party of Alberta Leader and Lindsay Luhnau with the Clean Calgary Association. The speeches addessed all sorts of ways in which greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced, from personal initiatives like riding your bike, to pressing the government for incentives for green building standards, more concrete laws restricting emissions. Grant Neufeld, an organizer with Gordon Christie (CDLC), led chants and calls-to-action: “One Planet, One Climate, One Chance”, “Go Kyoto, go Kyoto, go Kyoto go!” Near the end of the demonstration, the Raging Grannies of Calgary sang some creative songs, and encouraged people to join choruses of “Bring back my planet to me…” (to the tune of My Bonnie…} and Raffi’s new climate action song.

Overall, the rally was very lively, with colourful signs, singing, chanting, costumes and drums and it should send a clear message to the Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta.
You can watch the CTV news reports from across the country here

If you’d like to read some more about the rallies, check out the following PDF news articles:
Calgary Sun on the Kyoto Rally
Calgary Sun on the Kyoto Rally