Hundreds of thousands of people have
joined climate strike marches across Canada, with almost 100 events
planned in cities and towns.
Protesters are taking part in the global climate strike movement, which has seen people around the world take to the streets.
Yesterday 170,000 people took to the streets around New Zealand with
thousands of adults joining tens of thousands of school students for the
country's third school strike for climate action.
The movement wants world leaders to adopt ambitious climate change policy.
Initial school strikes were inspired by Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg's "Fridays for Future" movement.
The 16-year-old - who on Monday chastised world leaders at the United
Nations over their failure to do more - spoke in Montreal at the start
of strikes in the city, which are expected to draw more than 300,000
people.
"It is very moving to see everyone, everyone who is so passionate to
march and strike," she told reporters. "It is a very good day, I would
say."
During her visit, Ms Thunberg will receive the key to the city from Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante.
Organisers say half a million people have gathered in the eastern city
of Montreal alone. Officials told local media the number was closer to
315,000.
These figures place the Montreal event among some of the most attended
environmental marches in history. The September 2014 People's Climate
March in New York attracted at least 310,000.
Schools, colleges and universities suspended all or some classes for the
day, and the city government and some businesses have encouraged staff
to take the day off. City public transit is also free for the event.
The march was mostly peaceful, though a man was tackled by police and arrested after approaching Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Léa Ilardo, 21, a university student helping to organise the march, told
the BBC she hopes it serves as a demonstration of how important it is
to take climate action.
"Why should we study or work when the survival of humanity and the planet is called into question?" she said.
Meanwhile, in Portugal, police removed hundreds of climate change
activists, mainly from the Extinction Rebellion group, from one of
Lisbon's main streets on Friday evening after a peaceful demonstration
earlier in the day.
Throughout the afternoon, thousands of young protesters took over
Lisbon's streets in a climate strike inspired by teenage activist Greta
Thunberg.
But, later on, a group of hundreds of protesters holding Extinction
Rebellion flags blocked one of the city's main arteries. Protesters put
up tents and sat outside the Bank of Portugal building before being
removed by authorities.
"There's no planet B," the protesters said.
A Reuters witness saw some of the protesters being dragged away by
police. As officers removed them from the middle of the Almirante Reis
avenue, some protesters shouted: "This is not what democracy looks
like."
Extinction Rebellion activists disrupted London with 11 days of protests
in April that the group cast as the biggest act of civil disobedience
in recent British history.
On their Facebook page, the Portuguese branch of Extinction Rebellion
said they demand, among other things, a climate emergency to be declared
and carbon neutrality by 2030.
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