The young Canadians advocating to make ecocide a global crime were offered a helping assistance from federal lawmakers on Tuesday. Green MPP Elizabeth May and Liberal MP Jenica Atwin being among those calling for the federal government to help their efforts.
Many young people across Canada have joined a petition that seeks to make the destruction of the natural environment as a crime that could be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court, alongside genocide as well as war crimes and human rights violations.
They believe that such a move that requires approval from two-thirds of countries that have ratified the Convention’s Rome Statute, would encourage business and political leaders and other people in authority to align their actions to ensure the sustainability of the planet.
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“We believe that there needs to be a legal safeguard rail for the most serious crimes committed to protect the natural environment.” Amalie Wilkinson, the founder director of Stop Ecocide Toronto and co-lead of the global movement’s youth wing, stated at an event that took place in Ottawa.
Atwin A., a former Green MP from Fredericton who sat on the floor in the middle of 2021 before being elected an Liberal in the following year. stated that she was active as a politician and mother, but not on behalf of the government. However, she said she would remain vocal in the caucus over environmental issues.
“We are all guilty of the continuing ecocide as long as the governments around the world fail to take action and implement the fundamental changes needed to end the catastrophe which is already occurring,” she said via video of her ride within New Brunswick.
May who was her boss in the past, claimed that Canada could be ecologically culpable if it was made a crime she cited plans to construct Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, plans to build the Trans Mountain pipeline as well as an approval recently given to the Bay du Nord offshore project and the inability to stop hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as Fracking