Editor’s note: The following letter is in response to the story, “Win or lose, Ontario youth know their climate lawsuit will have an impact,” published April 16, 2020.
I am writing this as a mother and grandmother, not as a lawyer.
I have no way of knowing what will happen to this case, but this I know: Aware beyond their age, kids all over the world are suing their governments for action on climate change.
Pakistan. Columbia. USA. Canada. Ontario. The Netherlands. Sometimes they win as they did when the Dutch court unceremoniously ordered the government to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions at least 25 per cent by 2020 from 1990 levels.
By suing the Ontario government, these youths are adding their innocent, scared, angry, sad, perplexed and, yes, confident voices to all those who raise awareness to the climate crisis.
They get that the media and government are not a one-way street. They get it that this current adult generation is the last to be able to soften the brunt of oncoming impacts of climate change. They get it that their lives matter, and that like it or not, they will have to deal with the social, economic, psychological, environmental and political mess left behind by a warming planet.
They may not have a say in elections, but a court action gives them a chance to influence their future.
Stand up and be proud, beautiful Ontario youth. You are treading where few of those preceding you dared to. Thank you for fighting for a better future. You give my children, my grandchildren and myself hope.
Carole Lavallée, Chelmsford