Hundreds of students from across the city marched in downtown Halifax demanding action on climate change.
The movement was inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who was recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and has inspired thousands of youth around the world to stand up for the environment.
“We are just calling for politicians to listen and to see that as youth, we are engaged and we are educated and we’re not going to put up with procrastination or denial of what is happening to our climate anymore,” said Halifax rally organizer Katie Hutten.
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Citadel High School students marched to Citadel Hill to meet students from schools across the city before heading to city hall and province house.
“Climate change will really affect my future, my children’s future, my grandchildren’s future,” said organizer Julia Sampson.
“If we don’t stop what’s happening we might not have an earth to live on, and if we do, it won’t be the healthy earth that we have now. So it’s really necessary that we take imminent action.”
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Halifax councillors and Mayor Mike Savage were in attendance to show their support during the youth climate strike.
“There’s a lot of passion here for an issue that’s going to affect people for a lot of years to come,” Savage said.
“We’re proud of some of the things we’re doing at City Hall and we know that we can do more, but we’re happy to see people energized and passionate about this issue.”
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The Halifax climate strike was a peaceful protest, however, police did arrest a 19-year-old and 21-year-old man for breach of peace by disrupting traffic.