More than 75 Whistler Secondary School students and supporters (including a few elementary-school kids) skipped school and took to the stroll on Friday morning, March 15, to join a global movement protesting a lack of government action on climate change.
Wielding signs that read "Stop Denying Our Planet is Dying," "I'm Skipping School to Teach You," and "What We Stand for is What We Stand On," the students, joined by several community members—including one parent and his two young children who travelled from Squamish to participate—gathered in Whistler Olympic Plaza to begin their march down the Village Stroll. The group's chants earned cheers and thumbs up from bystanders along the way, before the protest ended in front of Municipal Hall.
The Whistler demonstration was spearheaded by Grade 12 student Matthew Ogilvie-Turner and co-organized by Diesel Kopec, in Grade 11—an effort than began after Ogilvie-Turner first learned about the worldwide movement on social media.
"I care a lot about the environment and climate change is acting fast," said Ogilvie-Turner, referencing the receding glaciers and "the huge impact" forest fires have had on Whistler's air quality as some of the reasons he is concerned about climate change.
"I always complain about the government's (inaction)—they're just not fast enough. I hadn't heard about (the climate strike) from anyone else in the school, and I thought, 'No one's going to take initiative and do this in Whistler because our school is so small' ... so I decided to take it into my own hands."
The mass movement, dubbed "FridaysForFuture," was initiated by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish student and climate activist.
Whistler Councillor Arthur De Jong praised the students for their efforts and read a letter they wrote aloud before inviting protesters into the Maury Young Arts Centre for an hour-long Q and A.
"We recognize that, as a destination resort, we rely on millions of people driving and flying here to stay—there is not much we can do about that," said Ogilvie-Turner in the letter.
"But is there an opportunity to educate all these people from all over the world about climate change and sustainability while they are here? Can we create our own carbon-offset program? Can we at least save the old-growth forest in our Community Forest?
"It's time for action.
"Whistler's leaders need to make their voices heard at the local, provincial and federal level. You have a powerful voice—use it to help us."
De Jong, who is in charge of council's environment portfolio, represented Mayor Jack Crompton, who was in Squamish for a meeting with local First Nations.
"Frankly, you make my job easier by being here ... This means a lot to me," De Jong told protestors.
Ogilvie-Turner said he appreciated, "how the municipality is so welcoming to our concerns and how it takes us seriously and doesn't treat us like kids who don't know anything.
"I think they heard us."
Though former Whistler Mayor and current Federal Green Party of Canada president Ken Melamed has attended "a lot of protest marches" in his time, "this is one of the most hopeful marches I've been to," he said following the march.
"In the absence of any other successful interventions, this youth voice that has found its voice and is ... going viral across the globe, it's really giving me some increased and renewed hope," he continued.
"They recognize they're the generation that is going to inherit the mistakes and the failure to act—the inertia of my generation. Gosh knows many of us tried, but there's only so much you can push within the system. Maybe this is the voice that finally breaks through the inertia and incentivizes politicians, who are many of them mothers and fathers and parents who want to leave a legacy of hope for their kids."
The local group joined the more than 1 million students in over 2,000 places in 125 countries around the world, according to U.S. non-profit 350.org.
"It shook the world," Ogilvie-Turner said. "Everyone knows about it, and I think it shows that when we stand together, we're stronger and that we do have a voice as youth, and that it can even come from a small community like Whistler."
(Full disclosure: Matthew Ogilvie-Turner is Pique editor Clare Ogilvie's son.)
