PRESS EMAIL: media@lastgenerationcanada.ca

12 June 2024

Dear Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,

It is now widely recognised that global temperatures have passed the threshold outlined in the  Paris Agreement, exceeding +1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Since April 2023, records indicate an average temperature rise of 1.61°C.

Canada can no longer afford to ignore the consequences of this breach. Last year, we endured an unprecedented wildfire season which released two billion tonnes of CO2, an amount greater than the total emissions of 100 countries. This forced 240,000 Canadians out of their homes, disproportionately impacting Indigenous communities.

10,000 people have already faced evacuation orders so far this year, signaling that unprecedented wildfire seasons are the new norm. As the leader of our nation, you bear the responsibility to protect the citizens you were elected to serve. However, you have yet to act on our demand for a national firefighting agency that trains and employs 50,000 firefighters to protect Canadians, despite expert recommendations.

As Prime Minister, your continued support for the oil industry, evidenced by billions of dollars in funding, is deeply concerning. Financing the climate criminals driving global warming is fueling the destruction of our forests, and poses threats to human health, to food security, to our economy, and global peace.

Put simply, fossil fuels will kill people and destroy everything we hold dear. Continuing to extract and burn fossil fuels is nothing short of an act of war against small island states , communities in the global south, and a betrayal to Indigenous peoples, who bear the brunt of the wildfire crisis in Canada. It strips everyone in this country of their right to a livable future.

It is crystal clear that the COP process has failed and we now need a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty - a concrete, globally binding plan to end all new coal, oil and gas projects and manage a fair and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.

We therefore demand that you immediately commit to work with other nations to establish a legally binding treaty to stop extracting and burning oil, gas and coal by 2030 as well as supporting and financing other countries to make a fair and just transition.

This can be accomplished by endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative and seeking a negotiating mandate to establish the treaty.

Failing to do so, would be both criminal and murderous.

We have made our demands clear.

We require that your government shows that it will protect all Canadians by implementing a National Firefighting Agency that trains and employs 50 000 firefighters to handle the current impacts of the climate crisis.

We require that your government fulfills its mandate to uphold the health, safety, life and liberty of the public by endorsing and committing to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty in a way that is legally binding.

If you do not provide such assurance by 12 July 2024, we will be forced to do what your government can’t, and take action to protect our communities. We will do so by engaging in a campaign of internationally coordinated, nonviolent civil resistance.

Our collective future is at risk; Canada is burning to the ground.

This might be our last chance.

Yours sincerely,

Last Generation Canada