'My world's on fire': Climate marches draw crowds in Corner Brook, Grand Falls-Windsor

Rain did not dampen the climate strike march in Corner Brook on Friday, with hundreds of people of all ages marching through the city.

Grenfell Campus was the starting point for a large contingent of university students before the crowd headed to Margaret Bowater Park to meet up with other members of the community for a rally, before moving on to Corner Brook City Hall.

Creative signs were hoisted in the crowd, including "My world's on fire. How about yours?" and "Mummers for the environment!"

Sage O'Brien,4, held a Dr. Seuss-inspired sign, quoting The Lorax: "I speak for the trees."

O'Brien's mom said the threat that climate change poses to her daughter's future motivated her to attend.

"I want to watch her grow up, and I want to watch her live," Beth Fequet said.

Samantha Young, a student at Grenfell Campus, is one of the organizers of the event, which is being held in solidarity with other walkouts across the country and around the globe as a collective call to combat climate change.

"We just wanted to see a community of people come together, and see there are people around you that care about all of these issues as well," she said.

The turnout, which had a police escort for its final march down West Street, shutting down the street to traffic, blew Young away.

"I'm absolutely floored," she said.

Contingents from Rocky Harbour and Stephenville — which held its own march last Friday — came to the city to join forces.

Rebecca Brushett of Rocky Harbour decided to make the drive with a vanload of people so they couild take part.

"We had seen all the marches around, and I was just kind of trying to wrap my head around how to participate," she told CBC Radio's Newfoundland Morning.

One of the most poignant moments of the march came when Keith Cormier, a regional vice-chief of the Qalipu First Nation, asked participants to touch the ground and respect the earth.

Call for local action

Many people in the crowd said it was their first time protesting, like Faith Batstone, a Grade 11 student who took the mic in front of the entire crowd to call for political change.

"It feels right to know that I am doing something that will make sure I'll have the future I want," she said.

"I don' t want, eight years from now, to have an education and have it be worthless, because there's no Earth."

One protestor, Simon Jansen of the Western Environment Centre, took to the mic to note Liberal candidate Gudie Hutchings' presence at the rally — despite, he said, not having RSVP'd for the riding's debate on the environment ahead of the federal election.

Samantha Young, meanwhile, is hoping that a big takeaway from the protest will be change at the local level.

"What I've been hoping to see, most definitely, is that City Hall and the municipal government will recognize that these are worries that local people have," said Young.

Grand Falls-Windsor walkout

A group of students from Exploits Valley High in Grand Falls-Windsor also took up the climate change cause, staging a walkout during their lunch period to march to a nearby park.

Students rallied at the Rotary Club park, where organizer Allison Luscombe told her classmates they had the power to influence the upcoming federal election, even if they can't vote.

"Adults do care what we think, and the people who love us will listen to us and they will listen to our fears," she said. "They will take into account what we want and how we are going to survive in the future, when they cast their vote."

The march included some older participants as well.

"My wife's sign says it all, that we're here for our grandchildren," said Bryan Blackmore. "This is an urgency that the adults have not done well on, and somebody has to stand up — and thank God for the young people."

Luscombe said she was hoping candidates for the Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame riding would come to hear the students speak.

The crowd Friday — almost 100 people — was much larger than Luscombe said she usually sees at her school's green team meetings.

"I really do think that it's a statement, youth — we will do what we need to do to save our planet, and that was shown in St. John's, that was shown in Corner Brook, across the province and across the globe today."

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