MONTREAL -- There is no doubt that the past year was marked by the broadening climate change fight, but several groups who have come to transform the militant landscape in Quebec agree that it is now necessary to raise the stakes.
There's a moment on everyone's lips: the Sep. 27 climate marches, which drew record crowds across the province, including hundreds of thousands of people in Montreal.
However, the results are not sparkling.
"Clearly, we cannot continue to simply demonstrate," said Ashley Torres, one of the spokespersons for the student collective La planete s'invite a l'Université. "We've been doing it for a year and it doesn't bring about the change we want to see. We will have to increase the pressure."
"Everyone is very disappointed," added May Chiu, who coordinates the legal committee of Extinction Rebellion Québec.
Extinction Rebellion focuses on civil disobedience and established itself in the province exactly one year ago, with working committees in Montreal. It has since sprung up in Quebec and Sherbrooke, among other places, with some 4,000 registered members.
Reached by phone in the middle of a day of reflection within XR Quebec, Sunday, Chiu predicted "more radical, firmer" actions for 2020.
"Signing petitions is so easy. Dominic Champagne collected nearly 300,000 signatures for the Pact. Going to demonstrate in the street, we like that in Quebec, but how do we translate these gestures into concrete and harsh demands for our politicians?" she asked.
