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Dear Thomas Mulcair MP,

Today we, students and youth from across Canada, are taking action to demand that you take real leadership on climate change and a justice-based shift toward a clean renewable economy.

We know that you want our vote this fall. We know that our generation could decide an election if we show up en masse, but right now we see politicians who are either unable or unwilling to do what’s necessary to keep our planet below 2ºC of warming. Climate scientists have told us we must keep the vast majority of the world’s fossil fuel reserves in the ground if we are going to avoid catastrophic climate change, and here in Canada we need to leave 85% of tar sands unburned1–and yet no major political party in this country has a clear plan or strategy to do this.

Today’s action, taking place in 7 MPs offices across the country, across partisan lines, demands that you:

Many of us have spent the last years of our lives tirelessly campaigning against Line 9 and Energy East, and for fossil fuel divestment by our universities, with the goals of taking power into our own hands and standing in solidarity with those most severely affected by climate change and extractivism. We’ve organized hundreds of events and actions, gathered tens of thousands of signatures and endorsements, and ignited our fellow students and community members to fight for change. Through this we know the power of our generation to come together, to organize, to stand in solidarity with those on the front lines of extraction and to take action. We know that working together, we are greater than the tar sands.

It’s time for politicians to stop putting political ambitions before the scientific reality of climate change and fossil fuel use that will ultimately determine the course of our lives. We are here today to take action to remind them that:

Now is the time for actions, not words.

Signed,

Aaron O. Acosta, Jeanne Beauchamp, Daphne Ben David, Sydney Bhalla, Emily Boytinck, Emily Carson-Apstein, Abigail Craig, Lindsay Hughes, Jon Milton, Kristen Perry

With the support of: Climate Justice Montreal, Divest McGill, Divest Concordia