Canadians march to demand greener economy | World News |Axisoflogic.com

Rallies for "Jobs, Justice, and Climate Action" are taking place in Canadian cities across the country this weekend under the banner "We are greater than tar sands." | Photo: 350.org

Various celebrities attended the march, including actress Jane Fonda, environmentalist David Suzuki, author Naomi Klein, and musician Joel Plaskett.

Up to 10,000 people attended the March for Jobs, Justice, and the Climate on Sunday in Toronto – according to organization 350.org, just ahead of the Climate Summit of Americas to be hold in the city next week.

Various organizations participated like No One is Illegal Toronto, Greenpeace Canada, First Nations, the Ontario Federation of Labour, and the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario demanding “a justice-based transition to a clean-energy economy in Canada.”

“We’ve had a government that has pitted jobs and social service against climate for years now,” Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein told the Star. “Our economy is not in great shape, people are losing jobs in the extractive industry and in the tar sands, and we have a terrible record on climate,” she said.

“We’re losing on all fronts. If we took climate change seriously and acted with tremendous urgency — because this is an incredibly urgent threat — we would create inevitably many, many times more jobs than in the current model,” says Klein.

“If we want those jobs to pay a living wage, to be unionized jobs, then we have to fight for that. It’s becoming clear that climate change and inequality are the twin overriding issues of our age, and their roots come from the same places — they’re interrelated,” said Bill McKibben, founder of organizing group 350.org and author of best-seller The End of Nature, reported the Toronto Star.

Environmental activist and former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, Mexican president Felipe Calderon, and Premier Kathleen Wynne are listed as confirmed speakers at the climate summit.

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