Ontarians ‘Draw The Line’ over anti-environment policies pushed by Carney & Ford

At Yonge-Dundas Square, as drums and chants rose from thousands preparing to march toward Queen’s Park for the Canada-wide protest ‘Draw The Line’, environmentalist David Suzuki stood quietly in a corner, looking contemplative.

“Humans are out of control, out of sync with the things that keep us alive—the planet,” Canada’s most iconic naturalist told The Pointer.

“We’ve developed systems, legal, political, economic, that are completely out of sync with planet Earth. And planet Earth is the source of our survival and well-being.”

Organized by a coalition of 14 partner groups, the September 20 demonstration united movements for migrant justice, Indigenous rights, economic justice, anti-war activism and climate action. Protesters demanded Canadians push back against Prime Minister Mark Carney’s support for new fossil fuel projects, looming public service cuts and policies critics say sideline Indigenous voices.

“At some point, maybe a long time ago, maybe recently, but the government just stopped representing the people,” young activist and organizer with Climate Justice Durham, Peter Cohen, told The Pointer.

“We see all these people who want climate justice, who want to not be supporting Israel's genocide, who want their taxes to go to something good, like helping feed people and helping house people instead of being used to get political cover for a genocide and to support these fossil fuel companies. And I think we're just tired. That's why we're drawing the line.”

On September 21, at the 80th United Nations General Assembly, Carney underscored Canada’s global leadership in climate action by signing the European Union’s joint letter, “All hands on deck for the just and equitable energy transition,” calling for international collaboration to ensure that the shift to clean energy is not only accelerated but also inclusive and fair, particularly for developing countries. 

Carney reinforced this commitment with a series of major funding announcements focused on climate resilience on September 23, including investments in nature-based solutions in Iraq, support for climate-resilient small and medium enterprises across multiple countries, and expanded aid for vulnerable regions like the Sahel, Pacific Islands, and Latin America. By directing funds to help developing nations access climate finance, transition to renewable energy, and build sustainable local economies, Carney positioned Canada as a key driver in ensuring that the global energy transition benefits the communities most at risk from climate change. 

But then, on September 24, Carney withdrew from the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Summit last minute, which experts say sends a confusing and “embarrassing” signal.

“Canada’s discombobulated, disorganized climate approach at the UN General Assembly is being noticed here at home and by our international allies,” Climate Action Network Canada executive director Caroline Brouillette said.

“This absence only sows more confusion and doubt, amid recent uncertainty over whether the federal government is still committed to Canada’s climate targets and to key emissions-reductions policies. Prime Minister Carney and his team need to get their act together and close the gap between words and actions before COP – both at a national and international level. Is Canada in, or out?”

In July 2025, David Suzuki declared that humanity has lost the fight against climate change due to decades of prioritizing economic and political interests over science, with flawed systems and widespread apathy blocking progress but he urged that we must not give up, instead refocusing our efforts to implement solutions and redefine our future.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

Suzuki warned Canada’s political and economic systems are driving society toward collapse. He pointed to Carney’s own book ‘Values,’ where the former banker highlights the market value of Amazon, Jeff Bezos’ company, in the tens of billions. 

“But the Amazon rainforest—the greatest ecosystem on the planet—has no economic value until it is logged, mined, dammed or cleared for cattle or soy,” he noted. 

“That’s the screwy system we’ve built. Even if you create more jobs, the system itself is driving us into the ditch…Mark Carney is trapped by this system.”

Suzuki recalled the optimism that followed Justin Trudeau’s election, after a decade under Stephen Harper, who had dismissed climate change. But that hope quickly fizzled, he said, when Trudeau, despite his promises, turned around and “bought a pipeline”.

In June 2025, a Clean Energy Canada poll found that two-thirds of Canadians favour developing clean energy over fossil fuels, meaning approximately 67 percent do not want fossil fuels to be the primary focus, and 85 percent wish to maintain or increase federal climate action.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

Three years after being elected, the Trudeau government had purchased the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX) for $4.7 billion in 2018. Its final cost has ballooned to $34 billion, and oil companies are reportedly paying less than half of the required tolls to recover that investment. 

A 2024 report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) estimates this amounts to a subsidy of up to $18.8 billion or $1,248 per Canadian household. When accounting for broader environmental and economic impacts, the total public cost could soar to $30.5 billion.

Suzuki traced the climate emergency, global inequality, and political dysfunction back to centuries-old systems of colonialism and white supremacy. 

“The underlying root cause of all of this is white, racist patriarchy,” he said, explaining how European empires set out not to explore the world, but to extract resources, often from lands already inhabited by Indigenous, Black, and Brown peoples. 

“When we came out of Africa, we were all coloured,” Suzuki said, noting that lighter skin evolved through natural selection in low-sunlight regions. 

“White people are just a bunch of mutants,” he added bluntly, critiquing how those mutations became tied to systems of global domination. From Portugal and Spain to England and France, European powers colonized the world, exerting control over people who had lived sustainably for thousands of years.

In May, a national Leger survey commissioned by the David Suzuki Foundation found that 67 percent of Canadians believe climate action and nature protection should be a top priority for the next federal government.

Carney became prime minister in March, elected on promises to shield Canada from escalating trade wars and tariffs under U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as to strengthen the country’s environmental policies. 

One of his first actions was to scrap the consumer carbon tax in April, a policy that accounted for between eight and nine percent (or 19 to 22 megatonnes) of Canada’s projected emissions reductions, according to a Canadian Climate Institute analysis. Together with the industrial carbon pricing, both policies are projected to reduce emissions by as much as 50 percent by 2030.

On June 6, the Carney government introduced Bill C-5, an omnibus bill containing the controversial Building Canada Act, and rushed it through Parliament in less than three weeks, despite outcry from Indigenous leaders, environmental groups, and democracy advocates. 

A second reading passed on June 16, followed by a late-night committee review on June 18, where critics testified the bill plows over legal protections and public scrutiny. The House of Commons split the bill on June 20, allowing separate votes on its two parts; the Building Canada Act passed with support from the Conservatives, and only one Liberal MP, Nate Erskine-Smith, voted against it.

Liberal MP for Beaches–East York, Nate Erskine-Smith, voiced strong concerns over the fast-tracking of Bill C-5, referencing a May 23 speech by the Minister of Natural Resources that “set the stage for Bill 5, Bill C-5, calling for a renewed spirit of building by reframing the national conversation.” In the House of Commons, Erskine-Smith urged the government to “take its own advice when it comes to Bill C-5. Rather than defending the why, the idea of the bill, we should refocus our attention on the how.” He slammed the government’s “proposed guillotine motion [that] seeks to limit parliamentary debate at every stage of the bill” and “jam all expert and public testimony, and all committee scrutiny in less than two days.” Comparing the federal bill to Ontario’s controversial Bill 5, he called it “a tale of two Bill 5s,” warning, “It would all actually make [Stephen] Harper blush. Liberals would rightly scream… if a federal Conservative government attempted the same.”

(House of Commons)

The bill received royal assent on June 26, giving Cabinet sweeping power to fast-track major projects, bypassing 13 federal laws, including the Impact Assessment Act, Fisheries Act, and Species at Risk Act.

More recently, Carney paused the federal electric vehicle sales mandate and signalled Canada may drop its proposed oil and gas emissions cap as part of its new climate plan.

A 2024 Canadian Climate Institute analysis shows that no single policy in Canada’s Emissions Reduction Plan can deliver on its own. Policy interactions mean their combined impact is less than the sum of individual parts. Still, nearly all major policies, including large emitter trading systems and zero-emission vehicle standards, are projected to reduce emissions by 2030, with even greater impact expected after that. “Industrial carbon pricing systems are the single biggest driver of emissions reductions in 2030, and can be even more impactful if design is improved,” the report noted.

(Canadian Climate Institute, Navius Research)

On August 29, Carney appointed former Trans Mountain Corp. CEO Dawn Farrell to lead the new Major Projects Office, a federal initiative aimed at expediting the regulatory review, approval, and financing of major “nation-building” projects by reducing federal decision-making timelines to a maximum of two years.

A coalition of Canada’s leading environmental and climate organizations sent an open letter to Carney on September 3, urging that only projects that “check all seven boxes” be approved under the new Building Canada Act (Bill C-5). To qualify as being in the national interest, they argue, projects must: strengthen Canada’s resilience and security, be economically viable and likely to succeed, uphold Indigenous rights and free, prior, and informed consent, involve early, inclusive planning; promote sustainability, support Canada’s climate and human rights commitments, and not produce or transport fossil fuels for export.

“We will be in the streets to remind Mark Carney that he promised to be Elbows Up against Trump-style climate denial, scapegoating of migrants and billionaire broligarchs. Canadians want a safe, fair and green future – it’s time for our elected representatives to pick a side,” Keith Stewart, Senior Energy Strategist, Greenpeace Canada said.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

“Mark (Carney) knows better than any other politician I've met about climate change and what it's going to do,” Suzuki, who was donning a Seniors for Climate Action t-shirt, said.

“But he's trapped by politics…he's still supporting pipelines and LNG."

On September 11, Carney announced the launch of a Major Projects Office, pledging to make Canada “the strongest economy in the G7”. Among the five “nation-building” initiatives he unveiled was Phase 2 of LNG Canada in Kitimat, British Columbia, a plan to double liquefied natural gas production by chilling gas piped from Alberta and northeast B.C. for export to Asian markets. Initial shipments have already begun this summer.

Other projects under consideration include the Pathways Alliance carbon capture initiative, a costly and ineffective proposal critics say risks locking in fossil fuel emissions rather than reducing them.

“Indigenous peoples across so-called Canada are no strangers to colonial, fossil-fuelled bureaucracy, and after a few short months, Mark Carney has shown he is following suit. In his bid to protect Canadian nationalism and corporate interests at all costs, Indigenous peoples and territories are once again expendable in the name of natural resource extraction. As migrants, workers, and everyday people also face different expressions of capitalism, colonialism, genocide, and imperialism - now is the time to bring our minds together as one, in pursuit of the future we deserve,” Serena Mendizabal, Managing Director, Sacred Earth said.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

“We're at a real turning point. We know what to do about climate change. Renewable energy is now at the point where it costs less than oil and gas. So what are we thinking? Why in the world do we have a government that's thinking of building a pipeline filled with oil? It doesn't make any sense at all,” another member of Seniors for Climate Action, Marjorie Nichol, told The Pointer.

“I am extremely skeptical about carbon capture. Why do we bother with it when we know how to use the sun's energy to give us all the freedom to do whatever we want?...I don't know who's getting paid. I'm not accusing anybody. Someone's making money out of carbon capture. It's not us.” 

Nichol says she is “very disappointed” that Carney is “backing down on everything” he promised during his election campaign.

“I've read Mark Carney’s book. I know he understands the problem. So I just don't understand what he's doing,” she added.

Both Nichol and Suzuki say they came out to the protest for the future generations, for their grandchildren.

“We must link arms and send a clear message to Prime Minister Carney that we’ve come together for the same goal -- a livable planet that’s free from fossil fuel pollution and safe from corporate-controlled politics. Oil and gas corporations wield outsized influence on our governments. We can blunt that corporate hold by switching to more affordable renewables and speaking out loudly for a safe future for our kids and our grandkids. We expect Prime Minister Carney to listen -- and act,” Pat Wally, National Spokesperson, Seniors for Climate said.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer) 

The day before, on September 19, another grandmother concerned about her grandson’s future arrived at Queen’s Park as environmental groups declared the site a Special Economic Zone in protest against Premier Doug Ford’s Bill 5, dubbed Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act.

Activists pouring “mystery” toxic waste into a prop water body.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

“I've been able to enjoy the beauty of nature. But I don't know what our grandkids are going to have or even our children,” Catherine Lofsky, who is also a retired nurse, told The Pointer.

“I'm really concerned about where we're heading with the environment, with all the kids who are going to have to breathe this air, they're going to have to deal with all the plastics, and we're not going to be able to get rid of them that fast. I want to do as much as I can, and I want to really help everyone in this world that has got to live in this environment.”

Like Bill C-5, Bill 5 was rushed through with time allocation that cut off debate, and received Royal Assent on June 5. 

The law gives Ford and his cabinet the power to designate “special economic zones,” where projects led by “trusted proponents” can bypass provincial and municipal laws, including environmental regulations and Indigenous consultations. The PC government has yet to clarify the criteria for choosing these zones or proponents.

It is telling though that one of the first areas flagged under Bill 5 as a potential special economic zone is Ontario’s Ring of Fire, a region touted for its mineral wealth but also recognized as a critical carbon sink, as Carney has floated a road to the Ring of Fire as a possible “nation-building” project, revealing the tension between industrial ambition and ecological responsibility.

Bill 5 strips key environmental protections, sidesteps Indigenous consultation and grants the provincial cabinet sweeping powers to fast-track development in specially designated zones without adhering to municipal or provincial laws.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer) 

Environmental Defence executive director, Tim Gray, has called bills 5 and C-5 “two peas in an undemocratic pod”.

But Ecojustice lawyer Laura Bowman describes Bill 5 as “one of its kind,” and significantly more vague when compared to Bill C-5.

“With Bill C-5 federally, there's a specific list of acts included in a schedule to the bill, all of which are environmental laws. So, unlike bill 5 in Ontario, it doesn't cover every type of law; it’s a prescribed list. At least we have some idea of what they’re thinking about exempting. The exemption process under C-5 involves a sort of pre-approval with conditions, although it's not yet exactly clear how that would operate. Bill 5 in Ontario, by contrast, is more open-ended and unclear in terms of its scope,” Bowman explained.

She was one of the many environmental activists and experts who were wearing construction hats and vests with “PC Approved Trusted Proponent” labels on their backs at the recent protest.

The satirical scene included a fake Notice of Proposed Development, fake toxic spills, caution tape, and papier-mâché endangered species like the snapping turtle caught in a poisoned stream to highlight how Bill 5 allows the Ontario government to override environmental protections, public input, and Indigenous rights anywhere, at any time. 

“I think the world is feeling increasingly despairing. One thing I try to do as an activist is find ways to have fun. This idea of craftivism, making things as part of activism, helps keep my spirit up,” David Suzuki Foundation’s Boreal project manager Rachel Plotkin told The Pointer.

“This kind of creative, mock stunt really helps motivate people because it’s fun but also highlights the absurdity of these special economic zones. They’re anti-democratic, with no rules or criteria. The term ‘trusted proponent’ sounds like something from a dystopian novel like 1984,” Katie Krelove, Ontario campaigner with the Wilderness Committee, added.

“Laws that exempt government and its chosen developers from rules undermine the rule of law, a fundamental tenet of democracy. So the absurdity of Bill 5 calls for a creative response to keep people engaged.”

Breanne Littley, a mother from Beaverton, was furious when Bill 5 was introduced, especially after the Ford government’s 2023 Greenbelt scandal, which she saw as a rare victory for “people power” when public pressure forced the province to reverse course and restore the protected lands.

“In that moment, people power really did make a difference in going to the protests, a lot of it was just educating people who might not be aware, and the general public, I found, was very sympathetic to that,” Littley told The Pointer.

“And then when Bill 5 happened, I was just enraged again. I couldn't believe it…Doug Ford is using the political climate, and that's happening in the States right now, as an excuse for a lot of this. And I think that's wrong.”

Her heart “broke” when she heard the Endangered Species Act was being dismantled, leaving the most at-risk species without the care they desperately need, and raising the question of how any species will be helped in the future.

Ontario is home to about 270 plant and animal species listed under the ESA, but Bill 5 dramatically narrows the definition of “habitat” in the proposed Species Conservation Act. 

Where the ESA once protected the full range of areas essential for species’ survival and recovery including breeding grounds, feeding areas, migration routes, and overwintering sites, Bill 5 limits habitat to only an animal’s immediate dwelling (like a den or nest) and the surrounding area needed for activities like breeding or hibernation, for plants, habitat is restricted to the critical root zone, and for other species, only areas vital to one life process are recognized. 

Experts warn that under this new definition, developers could legally pave over the habitat surrounding nests or dens, devastating species’ chances of survival and recovery.

Breanne Littley with her child at the Bill 5 protest on September 19 outside Queen’s Park.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

Growing up, Littley watched her mother protest for justice and stand up for future generations, and now she’s following in those footsteps, fighting for a better world for her child. 

“It’s really important to get the next generation going, because my mom did that. For me, I’m doing it now for him,” she said, looking at her baby, who seemed mesmerized by the cutouts of endangered species hanging from his stroller.

“It’s become kind of a family thing at this point, unfortunately, but I just think it’s really important to get out there. A thing like this also brings awareness to people walking by.”

Plotkin, who created the papier-mâché badger, snapping turtle, chainsaw, and “Book of Rules” for the protest, said it was her first time using the material and that the creative process helped her cope with the frustration and demoralization she feels from constant policy rollbacks by allowing her to maintain her emotional well-being through acts of dissent.

Krelove confirmed that this was the first declared special economic zone protest, with hopes that others will follow in local communities, from MPP offices to parks, raising awareness wherever these zones could be imposed.

“With the Greenbelt takeouts and the successful reversal, we saw that it was people going to their MPPs (member of provincial parliament), and those MPPs feeling the pressure and bringing it to cabinet, that really made that reversal happen. So we want to see that again.”

Littley says that whether they win or not, it’s important to make things as difficult as possible for those who pushed the legislation. 

“It’s not going to help us in the end if we don’t have a healthy environment, for our children and even for our own generation, which is already at risk,” she said. 

“It’s not just about future generations. People around the world are already experiencing climate change today, and a bill like this will only fuel that, creating more disasters here in Ontario too.”

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