Climate activists deflate tires on 34 SUVs in Victoria region

An environmental activist organization is claiming to have deflated tires of 34 SUVs across Victoria and Oak Bay.

The new ‘Tyre Extinguishers of Victoria’ have posted online they are part of a worldwide direct action with the goal of eliminating SUVs from urban areas.

“We do this with one simple tactic: deflating the tires of these massive, unnecessary vehicles, causing inconvenience for their owners without endangering any lives in the process,” the website reads.

“We are taking action because, like so many British Columbians, we have felt angry, powerless, afraid, and overwhelmed at the global scale of the climate crisis and the glacial pace of action, and we have asked ourselves: what direct action can we do that makes a difference?”

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Victoria Police Department has opened a file on the environmental action and so far one person in the city has filed a police complaint.

Oak Bay Police have received eight complaints are tires being deflated.

Bob Kennedy’s daughter’s SUV was targeted on Friday morning, and he said she noticed the tires were deflated before driving on the flat tire.

“What really concerned me is she is going into her ninth month of pregnancy, that would leave her without a vehicle in the middle of the night if she really needed it,” Kennedy told Mike Smyth on CKNW’s the Mike Smyth show.

“I can’t understand why they would do things like that.”

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Kennedy says he agrees more needs to be done to tackle climate change but targeting people’s vehicles is not the way to do it.

“We have to do something to address climate change, but this is not going to achieve anything at all,” Kennedy said. “You are targeting people with little say. People have reasons to have certain types on vehicles. In my daughter’s case it is a utility vehicle.”

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The Tyre Extinguishers claim that since 2010, SUVs have been the second-largest driver of rising global carbon dioxide emissions.

The activist organization is calling for a ban on SUVs in urban areas and pollution levies to tax SUVs ‘out of existence.’

“The people whose tires we have deflated will be inconvenienced, but ultimately, will be able to get around by using public transit, walking, or cycling like so many other residents of Victoria and Oak Bay do,” their website reads.