/ 1 December 2011

Bake sale to buy back Canada’s future

Bake Sale To Buy Back Canada's Future

“Bitumen balls” may not seem like the tastiest of snacks, but the Canadian Youth Delegation was selling them in good humour today, protesting their country’s negotiating stance at COP17.

The protest took the form of a bake sale, with the tag line “Bake sale to buy back our future” and banners proclaiming, “If oil companies can buy Canada’s climate policy then why can’t we”.

“It’s embarrassing to be Canadian at these negotiations,” said Amara Possian, a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation. “The Canadian government’s negotiating strategy is to put polluters before people.”

Possian said that the bake sale is part of a larger domestic protest within Canada.

“Youth across Canada are simultaneously sending letters to the Prime Minister’s office containing small change to urge the federal government to switch gears and put people before polluters,” said Possian.

“Canada’s current international climate policy promotes the expansion of the Canadian oil industry, lobbies for foreign investment in tar sands and supports insufficient, non-binding emissions reductions,” said a press release handed out by the Canadian Youth Delegation. “These actions commit the planet to irreversible climate change, violate human rights and have made Canada an international pariah during the current climate negotiations.”

“We need to start speaking the Canadian government’s language, which is the language of money,” said Possian.

Canada has been hit by heavy criticism at COP17 with civil society observers at the conference expressing concerns about rumours that Canada may pull out of the Kyoto Protocol.

Earlier in the week Canada was awarded the “Fossil of the Day” award.

The “Fossil of the Day” awards were first presented at climate talks in 1999 in Bonn, Germany.

During United Nations climate negotiations members of the Climate Action Network vote for countries judged to have done their best to block progress in the negotiations in the last day of talks.

“Canada is quickly becoming a bad joke at these negotiations,” said one Climate Action Network member.

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