A mobilization calling for a “new economy that works for people and the planet” will bring together unions, environmentalists, anti-poverty organizations, farmers, faith groups, Indigenous peoples and others on July 5 in Toronto, according to a video about the March for Jobs, Justice & the Climate.
“Environmental struggle has to merge with the struggle to build a just society, because a society that’s willing to abandon people is certainly not willing to pay attention to a sustainable future for the climate,” says John Clarke, an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
“Climate action will create a better, stronger, and fairer economy,” says author and activist Naomi Klein. “If we take climate change seriously it will create a huge number of jobs. It’s up to us to make sure those jobs are paying a living wage, treat workers fairly – and that’s why we have to make sure that this transition that is inevitable is a justice-based transition.”
It will be the first in a series of actions organized in early July in Toronto, as the Pan American Climate and Economic Summits, bringing together policy makers from across the Americas, are held alongside the Pan Am games.
The mobilization falls on the two year anniversary of flooding in downtown Toronto, one among a number of increasing extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change, and the explosion of trains carrying fracked oil in Lac Megantic, Quebec.
