Protesters in St. John’s gathered in Bannerman Park on Saturday to join the tens of thousands of Canadians across the country calling for changes to the Liberal government’s agenda.
Sept. 20 marked the nation-wide ‘Draw the Line’ rally, where protesters pushed back on the Carney government’s plans to adopt new fossil fuel projects, boost military defence spending and potentially cut thousands of jobs in the federal public service sector.
“Since Mr. Carney came into power, he’s really moved the Liberal Party more to the right and the agenda has become quite corporate,” said Yvonne Earl, a spokesperson for the Avalon chapter of the Council of Canadians, who was at the event.
“We think that the federal and provincial governments need to know that there are a lot of people who are not supporting the way that they’re moving,” she said.
Saturday’s protests united climate justice, migrant justice, Indigenous justice, and Palestine solidarity groups across the country. Similar protests happened in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver.
Yvonne Earl is a member of the Avalon chapter of the Council of Canadians. (Julia Israel/CBC)
In St. John’s, the Council of Canadians, Sierra Club, Anti-Racist Coalition, and the Communist Party were among the list of collaborating groups holding the rally.
The event included free food, speeches, petition-signing and a teach-in.
“People are talking to each other, people are getting to know each other,” rally spokesperson Sam Crete said. “That’s what’s really important, making those social connections so that we can effectively coordinate real climate resistance.”
Climate, mega projects among concerns
With the upcoming provincial election front of mind, Earl said that climate justice is a key issue in deciding her vote.
“We’ve all seen the forest fires and the devastation that we’ve had here in Newfoundland and it’s happening across Canada,” Earl said. “And yet there doesn’t seem to be any recognition that to keep funding fossil fuel projects like LNG, like Equinor’s Bay du Nord is […] just going to fuel the CO2 emissions and send our […] planet down a very bad path.”
WATCH | St. John’s protesters join national ‘Draw the Line’ movement for climate justice: 
St. John’s protesters ‘Draw the Line’ against Carney’s fossil fuel agenda
On Sept. 20, nation-wide protests pushed back on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plan to to adopt new fossil fuel projects, boost military defence spending and potentially cut federal public service sector jobs. Protesters joined the movement by gathering at Bannerman Park in St. John’s.
Crete said Indigenous sovereignty is also among his demands.
“We can’t effectively resist climate change without decolonizing and then allowing Indigenous groups to have the sovereignty and the choice and the power on how that is done.”
Carney’s plans for advancing new energy projects is cause of concern for Roberta Benefiel, who spoke about the environmental impacts of the Churchill Falls memorandum of understanding.
“I’d like Prime Minister Carney to know that the only nation that’s going to be built with the current idea of these Gull Island and three other projects is the Quebec nation, and that it’s not going to be a benefit for Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Benefiel, who was visiting from Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
Benefiel lives right on the Churchill River and is involved in documenting the impacts of reservoirs and mega dams on the river with the environmental organization Grand Riverkeeper Labrador.
“What I’ve learned over the last 25 or so years about what the impacts of mega hydro projects are is just astounding to me,” she said, “If we keep building new hydro dams, we’re destroying the earth and we’re destroying the Arctic and the fisheries.”
Sam Crete represents the Communist Party at the Draw the Line rally in St. John’s. (Julia Israel/CBC)
Protesters at ‘Draw the Line’ also spoke against Carney’s pledge last June to boost the country’s military spending to meet NATO’s defence spending goal of 5 per cent of GDP, costing Canada a total of $150 billion per year.
“That’s $150 billion when people are going to the grocery store and they’re scared because everything is so expensive […] and it’s going toward bombs,” Crete said. “I don’t really see how that helps Canadians at all.”
Crete said that with the municipal and provincial elections underway, he hopes that politicians were listening to Saturday’s protest.
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