Durban protest lands six Canadian youth delegates in hot water

This member of the Canadian youth delegation wore a “Turn your back on Canada” t-shirt to a Dec. 7 protest at a news conference taking place at the United Nations climate talks in Durban, South Africa. As federal Environment Minister Peter Kent spoke, Canadian youth delegates removed their shirts, revealing t-shirts protesting the government’s position. “People Before Pollution” was the message on the front, with “Turn Your Back on Canada” providing a view from behind. (PHOTO BY FRANK TESTER)

FRANK TESTER

DURBAN, South Africa — Six members of the Canadian Youth Delegation — students from university campuses across the country — were stripped today of their credentials and thrown out of the United Nations conference on climate change now underway in Durban, South Africa.

The disruption took place as federal environment minister Peter Kent was outlining his government’s position on the Kyoto Protocol to delegates from the international community.

Kent repeated what is already well-known: that the Canadian government will not renew a commitment to Kyoto Protocol when the current agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions expires next year.

As Kent made his announcement, Canadian youth delegates removed their shirts, revealing T-shirts protesting the government’s position.

“People Before Pollution” was the message on the front, with “Turn Your Back on Canada” providing a view from behind.

The action was greeted with warm applause from delegates of countries seated toward the back of the hall where Kent was speaking.

Kent didn’t blink, sticking to a text reiterating the Canadian government’s commitment, among other things, to programs designed to help those most affected in adapting to changing climatic conditions.

“Kyoto is part of the past”, he announced, suggesting that the way forward involves a different agreement than the Kyoto Protocol and must include more commitments to reduce of greenhouse gases from so-called developing countries, such as India, China and Brazil.

Canada has consistently stated that it is not interested in “guilt money,” that is, in compensating developing countries for the harm caused by developed countries’ historical emission of greenhouse gases. Canada’s position on the future of the Kyoto Protocol has been the most intransigent of any party to current round of negotiations in Durban.

Asked what the Canadian youth delegation hoped to accomplish, co-ordinator, Cameron Fenton said that delegates where disgusted with the Harper government’s “position of putting pollution before people and promoting the interests of the oil and gas industry.”

Fenton said Canadian youth have tried to meet with Kent many times and have been rebuffed at every turn.

“He has no interest in listening to us,” he said. “This was our way of sending him a clear message.” The six delegates, he added, “were kicked out and stripped of their badges for disrupting the proceedings. If the United Nations was concerned about disruption, they should have taken the badges away from Peter Kent and the Canadian delegation, which has done everything possible to disrupt negotiations on a renewed Kyoto protocol,” he noted.

“We want to make it clear to other countries at this meeting that young people in Canada don’t support the actions of their government. We are saying to our government that we believe in finding solutions to the problem of climate change that lead to a just and sustainable future, even if you don’t,” he added.

“If we were treated like that and had tried to talk to him and he had refused to meet with us or to listen to anything we had to say, I would do something like that”, said Curtis Kuunaq, a member of the Nanisiniq Arviat history project team who has been in Durban for the climate change summit.

Members of the Canadian youth delegation also protested the Canadian government’s negotiating position in Durban by dressing in “negotiation suits” at Kent’s press conference on Dec. 5.

Wearing jackets covered in logos from Canadian oil and gas companies, they said Canada’s position at the climate change talks is designed to protect the interests of the oil and gas industry and the development of tar sands.