Queen’s Park will be packed with protesters Friday morning as students and environmental activists try to spur politicians to take action on climate change.
As of noon on Thursday, more than 22,000 people indicated on Facebook that they were either interested or were going to attend the “Global Strike for Climate Justice.”
Organizers of the “Fridays for Future Toronto” event called climate change “a crisis.”
“We can no longer continue with business as usual,” they wrote on Facebook. “Our governments need to treat the climate crisis like the emergency it is.”
The “climate strike” was inspired by European teen Greta Thunberg. Earlier this week, the 16-year-old lambasted world leaders at the UN Global Climate Action Summit in New York City.
“How dare you!” she said in front of numerous heads of state. “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”
Last year, Thunberg began staging solo climate strikes in Sweden. Since then, tens of thousands of students — in more than a dozen countries — have taken part in “Fridays for Future” strikes.
Strikes are planned in several Canadian cities on Friday, including in Toronto.
Zoe Keary-Matzner, 12, describes herself as an environmental activist and will be speaking at the rally.
“We need to be really loud right now and raise our voice about climate change and people around the world are speaking up so people in Toronto can do that too,” she told CTV News Toronto.
Zoe Keary-Matzner and her friend Roy Bateman protest at the legislature in this undated photograph provided by the Toronto District School Board. (Submitted)
Keary-Matzner said that she is “extremely worried” about the state of the environment, which is why she has been participating in the “Fridays for Future” rallies since December of last year.
“I’m really nervous for the future of the world because so many awful things have happened and are going to happen,” she said. “We are the people that are going to be most affected by climate change so the older generation has to listen to us.”
The event is not officially “sanctioned” by the Toronto District School Board, which says it will require parental permission for any child under the age of 18 who plans to strike.
However, spokesperson Shari Schwartz-Maltz, says educators understand and respect that a number of their students will take part.
“Student voice is everything the kids are the voice of the future they’re curious they’re interested, they are our future so their interests and their passion is something we should all care about.”
Not only will students participate in tomorrow’s strike, but major retailers like Mountain Equipment Co-op and Lush have announced their intentions to close their stores across the country tomorrow.
“These are our roots, this is our brand, this is who we are, you know, so the company has decided to shut all of our shops down in North America to support our staff —including our factories, as well, in Vancouver and Toronto — to participate in these rallies,” said Preety Singh, Manager of the Queen Street West Lush store.
The rally at Queen’s Park is scheduled to start around 11 a.m. Speakers will include environmental activists along with musical performers like Jim Creegan of the Bare Naked Ladies.
There will also be a moment of silence, followed by a three-kilometre march along city streets. For those looking to take public transportation to the rally, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said that there will be additional buses operating.
