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Removed from Parliament building

Aaron Beswick
Northern News Services
Published Monday, November 22, 2010

OTTAWA - Fort Good Hope's Daniel T'Seleie was among seven environmental activists who were removed from Canada's Parliament buildings on Nov. 16.

They weren't exactly in our nation's capital for the tour.

T'Seleie and another man dropped a banner from the main rotunda which read, "If they won't work on climate justice, we will." Meanwhile, six more protesters held what they called a 'people's assembly' on climate change down below.

"We're looking at a future where there's no caribou, where you can't get out on the land because the ice is not thick enough," said T'Seleie, a K'asho Got'ine Dene from Fort Good Hope. "It's not just me and my family, it's food security, it's impacting our culture."

T'Seleie has been working for a non-governmental organization in Ottawa, since leaving Yellowknife a few months ago. The protest was held by Climate Justice Ottawa. He'll be attending the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Summit in Cancun, Mexico, as a youth delegate. As an aboriginal Northern Canadian, he believes he brings a unique perspective.

He intends to campaign against the oil sands in Mexico.

While T'Seleie and the other protester who lowered the banner co-operated with security and weren't arrested, the six members of the 'people's assembly' refused to budge and read the following demands:

At the upcoming UN Climate Summit in Cancun, Canada should be the first nation from the global north to adopt the emissions reductions and temperature rise limitation targets of 300ppm and 1 C.

An immediate moratorium on present and future oil sands expansion projects, a phase out of existing projects, and to hold corporations responsible for environmental destruction while facilitating a just transition for workers out of destructive industries; tax breaks and subsidies for oil companies be ended; government invest in community based greenhouse gas reducing projects; Government stop spending money on 'technofixes' such as carbon capture and carbon trading and instead tackle 'unstable' consumption and production.

When asked to leave by House of Commons security personnel, the people's assembly demanded to speak to the leaders of Canada's political parties. Instead, they were arrested for trespassing. According to a House of Commons spokesperson, the Parliament buildings are open to the public to "observe" government business not for the holding of protests.

The federal Department of Environment did not respond to News/North's question of whether they would concede to any of protesters' demands by deadline.

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