Ongoing climate justice organizing is happening all across British Columbia. In small towns, major cities and everywhere in between. More proof of this was the recent successful SOFIA Collective forum held at the Surrey Central Library. Titled, “Soon the Eyes of the World Will Be on BC”, it brought together a diverse panel of speakers to open up important topics related to climate justice, social justice, indigenous rights and economic inequality.
Fire This Time Editorial Board member Thomas Davies was one of the panel speakers which also included activist and artist Brandon Gabriel of the Kwanltan First Nation, Sikh youth organizer Ishaval Gill and Climate Convergence activist Eric Lescarbeau.
Thomas emphasized the need and real potential to bridge the gap between the climate justice movement and workers who are currently employed by the unsustainable resource extraction industry. He criticized the Canadian government for always having enough money to subsidize oil companies or fund wars, but which is somehow unable to properly fund education, healthcare and job creation in sustainable developments. In contrast, he pointed out, “Cuba is a country where people are actually able to work in cooperation with their government to create a society based on social and environmental justice – it's even part of their constitution”.
There was a lot of time given to comments, questions and discussion between everyone who came. This lead to a lot of dynamic and critical exchanges about how to move forward to work together to protect the environment and build a better world.
Follow Thomas Davies on Twitter: @thomasdavies59
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