Canadian Declaration of Rebellion
https://www.facebook.com/events/237959086954537/
February 10, 2019 at 9 AM – 9 PM CST
Canada
We will be coordinating acts of civil disobedience from coast-to-coast to communicate the climate emergency we are facing.
Please join your local Extinction Rebellion group for details on event action and planning.
::OR::
Gather a trusted group of friends and get creative in your own actions. You don't need our permission as long as you abide by our Principles & Values:: https://rebellion.earth/who-we-are/
Here's a link to some images, placards & banners to use for your action if you're working outside of an already organized XR group:: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AESzYqGc03TUES9k9fIcRXwmAFYoGCaBLP7I6fNJZKs/edit
With love and rage,
Extinction Rebellion Canada
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Canadian Declaration of Rebellion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*The Situation*
The powers that be are out of time. Thirty years ago the UN and the world’s scientists made crystal clear that the human race was heading for catastrophe if carbon emissions were not cut drastically. Three decades on and emissions have risen by 60% and are still rising. It is the greatest abject failure in the history of humanity. Vulnerable communities have long suffered under the fossil fuel economy, and now humanity as a whole faces civilizational collapse within decades, the death of billions of people, and the extinction of millions of species, including possibly our own – everyone gone forever.
As we face a future of possible extinction, we must also respond to a present climate genocide. Climate change and environmental racism are already killing hundreds of thousands in vulnerable communities each year through wars, hurricanes, famine, refugee crises and heat waves. Species are going extinct as fast as when an asteroid hit our planet 65 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs and 75% of life on Earth. We hold our governments responsible.
Change to avert the worst of the disaster is still technically and economically possible. It involves creating a world which is less frenetic and more beautiful; making the necessary changes will also create jobs. This is an emergency situation – action is urgent.
There is no greater crime than to fail to respond to the ecological crisis at scale. We need a wartime-speed mobilization and a just transition to race to zero greenhouse gas emissions and to take carbon out of the atmosphere in order to restore a safe climate. The mainstream climate movements continue to ask politely for gradual policy tweaks. It's time to recognize that this approach has failed. We need to take power into our own hands. Only mass global civil resistance can create the changes which are now essential to our survival. Every person has both the right, and the duty, to fight for humanity and all life. The time has come to tell the truth and to act on that truth.
We are therefore declaring a Canadian Extinction Rebellion for February 14th, 2019.
*The Aims and Demands*
We aim to wake our societies up to the unprecedented, existential threat we face, to create a groundswell of support for emergency climate mobilization, and to initiate the mobilization as fast as possible.
We aim to place this question into the front of the minds of people across the world: Why are we allowing our rulers to send us to an early grave? Do we want to live or not? If we do not respond, do we deserve to live?
All groups that join the rebellion will agree to demand three key aims from their national governments:
1. That the Government must tell the truth about how deadly our situation is, it must reverse all policies not in alignment with that position and must work alongside the media to communicate the urgency for change including what individuals and
communities need to do.
2. Greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors are reduced to net zero by 2025 and ecological overshoot is reversed through a massive emergency mobilization and a just transition on the scale of World War Two. The new goals of society must be to rapidly restore a safer, cooler climate and to provide maximum protection for all people and species, especially the most vulnerable.
3. That regional, national and international assemblies based upon more robust forms of participatory democracy * are created to work out how the above two aims will be brought about in their particular contexts, prioritizing the needs of people most affected by the ecological crisis and that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is followed.
All participating groups and networks will agree to these three key demands and may add more specificdemands which respond to national, regional, and local circumstances.
