March concludes PowerShift conference
Andrew Ikeman | Fulcrum Staff
Photo by Andrew Ikeman
GOBLINS, GHOULS, AND corporate zo mbies descended upon Parliament Hill on Oct. 29 to protest the government’s stand on a number of environmental issues. The march—dubbed the Toxic Trick or Treat—was organized by the PowerShift conference that was held from Oct. 26—29 at the University of Ottawa and brought together over 1,000 students from across the country. The conference strived to empower students to effect change in their communities, according to PowerShift organizer Kathryn Lennon.
“PowerShift is a national convergence,” said Lennon. “It was a weekend-long gathering of youth from across the country. We had over 1000 participants attend. We had workshops and keynote speakers all weekend, focused on the root causes of climate change, and also different types of creative actions that we might take.”
The Toxic Trick or Treat march started on Parliament Hill and made its way through the city streets, stopping at places like McDonald’s on Bank Street and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, before ending outside the minister of finance’s office building. Participants were encouraged to dress up, and theatrics were at a high. Some of the pageantry included a puppet giving out subsidies to zombie oil-company executives out of a modified Smarties box.
One of the speakers was Gitz Crazyboy, an activist from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. He said he hoped to express his belief that “production equals destruction” and to inform those in attendance about some of the health problems in his community linked to the tarsands.
“It’s cool to have like-minded people together,” said Crazyboy. “It’s cool to plant these seeds in everybody. What they do with it, I don’t know; it’s up to them. Whether or not they choose to fight, whether or not they choose to raise awareness, whether or not they choose to make a change—a healthy change—my people, in the end, we’re going to have nothing if nothing changes.”
Neil Bodimeade, a recent Queen’s University graduate, attended the PowerShift conference and the rally. He said he was impressed with the message the rally conveyed, and that the experience was a positive one.
“When I first came across [the conference], it seemed like a pretty cool idea,” said Bodimeade. “I had heard about the one in 2009, and I had some friends who went to that one, and this one really spoke to me because it’s not just a bunch of upper-middle-class white kids who are coming together to talk about ‘what is climate change?’ It really attempted to bring a wide diversity of backgrounds together.”
The rally and subsequent march was guided through the streets by Ottawa police, and stopped traffic in the downtown core, with buses needing to be diverted.
