Two Greenpeace activists were arrested after chaining themselves to a replica oil pumpjack outside Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s official residence in Ottawa Thursday morning.
Activists Keith Stewart and Trevor Cluthé were arrested and charged with mischief and intimidation, Greenpeace communications campaigner Laura Bergamo said shortly after the arrest.
At 7 a.m. on Nov. 21, Greenpeace activists set up the installation in the driveway of Stornoway, the official residence of the Opposition leader, and chained Stewart and Cluthé to the structure. The demonstration sought to draw attention to what Greenpeace calls the Conservative Party’s "anti-climate agenda” with Poilievre eager to send Canadians to the polls for what he dubs a “carbon tax election.”
Firefighters cut the chains tying Stewart and Cluthé to the pumpjack structure just after 9 a.m. so they could be arrested. The structure was removed by a tow truck shortly after.
“We're here today to send a message to Pierre Poilevre that Greenpeace will not stand idly by while he rips up Canada's Climate Protection Plan, and we hope no one else will either,” Stewart said in an interview before his arrest.
“We know we have the capacity to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. That means making the biggest polluters, oil and gas companies, do their fair share. Pierre Poilievre has promised to let them off the hook… That means everyone else pays the cost in wildfires, in heat waves, in floods, climate change is here now.”
Cluthé hopes their protest will “raise more awareness among Canadians of Polievre's complete disregard for the environment and the climate crisis,” he said in an interview early Thursday morning with Canada’s National Observer.
“We're here in support of Indigenous folks and all the other marginalized communities that always take the brunt of the climate crisis first,” Cluthé said.
Last November Poilievre said he is not proposing Canada withdraw from the Paris Agreement (an international commitment to limit global warming) but he has yet to present a climate plan. He says that if elected he will scrap the consumer carbon price.
Poilievre was not seen exiting Stornoway on Thursday morning, but his children left through the back door. Police, RCMP and personal security were present for the entirety of the Greenpeace action.
A few hours later, Poilievre held a press conference at Parliament Hill and was asked in French about the Greenpeace protest and what Canada’s climate objectives would be under a Poilievre government.
Poilievre reiterated that his approach to climate and environment would entail “technology, not taxes.” Poilievre said, in French, that the conservatives are the “only party with an environmental plan” and the plan is “energy abundance.”
This includes speeding up construction permits for hydropower, ramping up critical mineral production in Canada and exporting natural gas, Poilievre said. Along with oil and gas expansion, Poilievre has also supported carbon capture technology and nuclear power.
While the Conservatives’ stance on the consumer carbon tax is clear, Poilievre has not said whether he would keep the industrial carbon pricing system for large polluters. The latter has a bigger impact on reducing emissions than the consumer fuel charge.
A Canadian Climate Institute analysis from March 2024 looked at which federal climate policies will have the biggest impact and found the industrial carbon pricing system will comprise 20 to 48 per cent of Canada’s emission reductions by 2030.
Along with a pledge to kill the consumer carbon price, Poilievre opposes a slew of incoming and existing policies including a cap on planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas production, regulations to clean up Canada’s electricity grid by 2035 and the current clean fuel regulations.
Natasha Bulowski / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer
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