Across Canada and World, Climate Movement Prepares for Leap into 2016

With ambitious calls for a post-carbon future, respect for Indigenous rights, and economic justice for all, climate activists from across Canada and the world will celebrate International Leap Day on Monday with rallies, film screenings, teach-ins, and more.

The actions are in support of the Leap Manifesto, a set of 15 demands endorsed by more than 150 organizations and unveiled last September. Canadian anti-capitalist and author Naomi Klein and her husband, filmmaker Avi Lewis, are among its initiating signatories.

"The Manifesto, bolder than anything on offer from the major federal political parties, lays out an alternative vision that would get us to 100 percent renewable electricity within two decades — while building a fairer, more humane society in the process," they said in a statement read at the launch and published at the Toronto Star at the time.

"In Paris, Canada’s government committed to radically lowering its emissions," additional high-profile supporters wrote on Friday. "The Leap Manifesto outlines practical policies for how we can do this in ways that change our country for the better."

Klein will join labor, Indigenous, and social justice activists at an event in Ottawa on Monday, to present a proposal for "transforming Canada’s postal system for a greener and more equitable economy."

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has launched a campaign for postal banking, saying earlier this month: "Canada needs a postal bank. Thousands of rural towns and villages in our country do not have a bank, but many of them have a post office that could provide financial services. As well, nearly two million Canadians desperately need an alternative to payday lenders. A postal bank could be that alternative."

Meanwhile, campaigners with the Council of Canadians will call on federal and provincial governments to commit to "a 100 percent clean economy by 2050" at the upcoming first minister's meeting in Vancouver on Thursday, March 3.

Follow the actions on Twitter with the hashtag #LeapManifesto:

#leapmanifesto Tweets