It's been a year since Sophia Mathur staged her first Fridays for Future strike at Memorial Park in downtown Sudbury.
Mathur was one of the first young people to join the #FridaysForFuture movement and has been striking once a month on Fridays since Nov. 2, 2018, in solidarity with Greta Thunberg. Greater Sudbury was the first city outside of Europe to join in the movement.
Since that day, she and her fellow strikers have held two large rallies, the City of Greater Sudbury and Rainbow District School Board both declared a climate emergency, Health Sciences North revised its five-year plan to include four of seven recommendations from the Lancet Countdown, and the work is far from over, said Mathur.
The Fridays for Future movement in Greater Sudbury has also received support from the Sudbury and District Labour Council, more than 100 scientists at Laurentian University and doctors with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
“We are not stopping,” she said during a small rally on Friday afternoon outside Tom Davies Square.
In fact, plans are being made for the next big strike, which will be held Friday, Nov. 29. More details will be released, she said.
“We are moving forward,” she said. “I have not done this alone. I've been surrounded by many people.”
That's why she presented mementos representing Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award to her fellow protesters — youth and adults alike — in recognition of their efforts to further the cause of human rights by showing exceptional courage and standing up to injustice and who have used their talents to inspire others.
The Ambassador of Conscience Award is Amnesty International's most prestigious human rights award.
It was presented to Greta Thunberg, but it wasn't just for her, Mathur said. It was for the Fridays for Future movement.
“This award is for all of those millions of people, young people, around the world who together make up the movement called Fridays for Future,” Thunberg said when she was presented with the award. “All these fearless youth, fighting for their future. A future they should be able to take for granted.”
Mathur was invited to sit on a panel with Thunberg at the Amnesty International Awards in Washington D.C. in September.
Mathur said she is encouraged so many people have joined the Fridays for Future movement.
“Everyone has helped me so much, and the more people we have involved, the louder our voice can be,” said.
The memento she presented on Friday was a yellow bandana, “a simple idea,” Mathur said.
They cut up the fabric and fashioned them into bandanas with a small photo of Thunberg and the Strike for Climate logo.
“Everyone here today is fighting for our future,” Mathur said.
