 My name is Clayton Thomas Wheeler and I'm a campaigner with 350.org and I'm super happy to be here. I'm joined here by people representing every facet of Canadian society, First Nations, Labour leaders, those representing civil society and everyday citizens that are all concerned about jobs, justice, the climate. I want to first acknowledge all of the land in Canada as Indigenous land and I want to acknowledge it as shared territory with all the nations who've come here. Indigenous peoples are at the forefront of this struggle because they're the first ones who experience all the detrimental effects of climate change. We are also a source of strategy for thinking about climate action because we know the land intimately. So there's all this knowledge that Indigenous people have that can really benefit our strategies going forward and I think I don't know more has been really amazing at bringing the question of democracy and how we're going to run this country and whose voices are really going to be at the table at the forefront of all of our struggles. If it's wrong to wreck the planet, it's definitely wrong to profit from that wreckage. The Divestment Campaign is based on the idea that it doesn't make sense to keep investing in corporations that are undermining our future. I'm Jodi and I'm part of the University of Toronto's fossil fuel divestment campaign and part of the growing student divestment movement. Divestment is one way that we can challenge the power of the fossil fuel industry. Universities and other public institutions can shift billions of dollars away from fossil fuel extraction and exploration and shift that towards growing a clean and fair economy. As we stand here surrounded by glass towers, we need to name the system of injustice, that system of impoverishment, that system of destruction. That's sociology and ideology and politics that says that the many must have all and that the rest of us must just be trodden upon. And that system has a name and that name is capitalism. And so we hear this march is about a turning away. This not just this march but this movement, our movements are about turning away from capitalism. This march is also about turning away from racism. So it's about turning away from capitalism and racism. And then we need to acknowledge another process. We need to acknowledge that our communities are forced out of our lands because the earth has been shattered so much that it will not give us food. Because the air has been poisoned so much that we cannot breathe. And because the water has been destroyed so much that the fish will not come and feed us. And so we are forced to move in search for jobs, in search for justice, in search for dignity. And so this march is about understanding this global responsibility that we have. Because we sit here on top of the mountain. This is the top of the mountain. This is where the mining corporations make the decisions to impoverish our people. This is where the banks make the decision where money changes hands faster than the blink of the eye while we are barely surviving. And every attempt at survival is met with repression, with state violence, with policing. And so when we talk about capitalism, racism and displacement, we have to offer another world. And the world we are offering is a world of caring communities, of resilient people who have survived a millennia. Who's every day, who's every day is about surviving climate collapse and posing a new world. And so the question is, not just on July 1st, but every day before and every day after people of colour, Indigenous people are paving the path of justice, of just transition. And so not only do people, will some people be on the streets, but will continue the fight in our city. I come from the Tarsan. That's my home community. And it's been really intense to see the changes that we have seen. Even since I was a child, our community is having the inability to have access to clean air, clean water. And just, you know, in 2011 we had one of the biggest oil spills in Alberta's history. It was 4.5 million litres, 28,000 barrels spilled onto our traditional territory. So what happened is that my family texted me and told me and called me and said, we can't breathe, our eyes are burning, we're nauseous. Our community didn't actually know what was happening and what they were being exposed to at the time. These are the kind of legacies that we see from dirty fossil fuel expansion. And this is what we need to transition away from in a just transition that communities like my community can no longer be sacrificed zones. For many of us from impacted communities, the choices are literally life and death. It's time that Canada stopped burying its head in the Tarsans and brought about the just transition. In Canada we are so well positioned with such highly skilled workers to make that just transition. There are the economic alternatives for our families. This is a remarkable coalition. And what you're seeing here in terms of a coalition of grassroots groups representing the most marginalized people in our city, people treated as disposable, representing the First Nations people of this country, fighting extractive projects at the grassroots, at the largest private sector union in this country, representing workers at the heart of the fossil fuel economy. Understanding that we have key differences, but what unites us is greater than that. And that's why we're coming together. What you're seeing are the first steps towards a new kind of climate movement. And it's a climate movement that recognizes that what unites us is stronger than divides us. And also that time is too short to allow those divisions to keep us from building the kind of coalitions that will safeguard life on Earth. Canadians are clearly getting tired of the fossil fuel roller coaster. Tired of being told that we have to sacrifice our environmental protection and our international standing when times for industry are good. I think more than anything else, we're tired of being tired and we're ready to be inspired. We look around the world and we see that a far better economy is possible. We see that we have been lied to for two decades of a heart for government that has told Canadians they have to choose between caring about the climate, caring about the environment and having good jobs and having social programs. It turns out that this was a complete lie because we're losing it all. We're losing it all. Workers are losing their jobs in the tens of thousands and we're sacrificing the climate too. We're allowing our human rights in this country to be further degraded. The costs are simply too high. If we look at a country like Germany, we see that when there is real political leadership that listens to the grassroots, a serious response to climate change and a move to decentralize community-controlled renewable energy can create deeper democracy. It has created 400,000 jobs in Germany and this is the real triple win. We're ready for the next economy. We know the leadership isn't coming from the political class so it's going to come from below. I'm here as the president of the National Union that represents thousands of workers in the oil and gas industry. And I'm here to say that we don't buy the irresponsible argument that there has to be a choice between jobs or the economy because we know there couldn't be both. So what is the march about? Jobs, justice, climate. So the issue of jobs, first of all, is not somehow to threaten the workers across the country that have jobs in this most valuable industry. But it's talking about how do we have a long-term, sustainable strategy that leads to renewable energy. And then the whole issue of justice. There can't be justice in this debate unless we find solutions and work with the indigenous people around the world. And there can't be any sort of a solution unless we have a plan on how we're going to deal with climate change. Because we understand that climate change is the issue of this generation and future generations. So we can't have a plan, a strategy, solutions. We can't have justice unless we get everybody in a room to deal with the key issue of today. Thank you so much to all of our wonderful speakers. That brings us to the end of today's exciting announcement. 350.org and all of the members of this powerful coalition look forward to seeing you on the streets here in Toronto on July 5th for the march for jobs, justice, and climate action. We'll see you soon. Members of the press, please feel free to do one-on-one.