Inside Politics

Well, how about that: NDP Climate Change Accountability Act . . .

by Kady O'Malley Posted: December 8, 2009 1:37 PM Last Updated: December 8, 2009 2:58 PM
. . . makes it back to the House -- without amendment, even, which is either a ringing endorsement, or just to make it easier for sufficient Liberals to vote against it to ensure its eventual quiet death at third reading. I know, I know -- I'm such a cynic. Of course, since it's unlikely to resurface until well into the new year, we may never know. 

Anyway, the occasion was not unmarked by controversy, or at least a concerted attempt to generate it, as detailed in this release from People for Climate Justice: 

At approximately 11:30am, sixyouth staged a peaceful sit-in inside the Canadian parliament, at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development in the Centre Block, pledging to stay until the Harper government acts to combat the climate crisis by committing to large-scale, science-based carbon emission reductions. The sit-in is part of an ongoing series of acts of peaceful civil disobedience taking place across the country since late November, during which time almost thirty people have been arrested for peacefully occupying the offices of six Conservative Cabinet Ministers.

"The Environment Committee, the House of Commons, and the Harper government have delayed action to combat climate change, refusing to listen to the views of the overwhelming majority of Canadians, 75 percent of whom are embarrassed by Canada's inaction," said Cameron Fenton, a student involved in the sit-in. "They need to urgently push for a just, ambitious, and binding deal in Copenhagen with science-based targets, which takes direction from the voices of those most directly impacted by the climate crisis."


According to a report from Colleague Barton, the self-styled seekers of justice were eventually dragged out of the room by Commons security. (Where, you ask, was I? Growing more and more appalled by the treatment accorded to Liberal MP Irwin Cotler by certain parliamentary colleagues at Procedure and House Affairs, of course.) 

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