Local senior activist group holds rally in Lindsay to draw awareness of climate change

SCAN!-Kawartha (Seniors for Climate Action Now) recently organized and hosted a Draw the Line rally in Victoria Park in downtown Lindsay. About 50 local residents attended, including seniors, high school students, educators, unionists and politicians.
Anishnaabe-kwe knowledge-holder Brittany Taylor from nearby Curve Lake First Nation opened the rally with teachings, song and drumming. SCAN!-Kawartha members Moya Beall and Ginny Colling delivered the keynote addresses outlining the deepening climate crisis and its impact globally and locally, particularly this summer. Representatives from the Green Advocates, a student environmental activist group from I.E. Weldon Secondary School drew the loudest applause. Their two speakers (and sisters), Emily and Courtney McGuigany shared their fears for their generation’s future, the condition of the planet as well as their demands for alternatives and action.
Two councillors from Kawartha Lakes were in attendance, Mike Perry and Pat Warren, along with Trent Lakes Councillor Peter Franzen. They were acknowledged and thanked for both councils passing resolutions opposing Ontario’s climate-unfriendly Bill 5.
SCAN!’s Creative and Innovative Tactics theatre group staged a climate action version of Pinocchio and presented the Fossils Award to companies that gain by climate change denial and inaction. SCAN!-Kawartha member Sheila Cook organized and led two audience engagement exercises, with one focusing on age and the other on fears of climate catastrophe.
The rally was part of the global Draw the Line mobilization organized by Seniors for Climate in 72 locations across Canada. It was endorsed by the Council of Canadians with their Kawartha Coordinator George Hewison providing music. Some SCAN! members from Peterborough also attended, reciprocating the solidarity by SCAN! Kawartha members at their rally the previous weekend. Seniors for Climate Algonquin Wildfire postcards were signed, as well as a petition calling for a GO-bus connection between Lindsay and the Oshawa GO station.
–contributed by Sherry Hillman of SCAN!-Kawartha.