{"id":3178,"date":"2018-04-18T11:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/?p=3178"},"modified":"2019-11-06T03:29:15","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:29:15","slug":"press-release-greenpeace-activists-drop-banner-occupy-canadian-high-commission-in-u-k-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/story\/3178\/press-release-greenpeace-activists-drop-banner-occupy-canadian-high-commission-in-u-k-3\/","title":{"rendered":"PRESS RELEASE: Greenpeace activists drop banner, occupy Canadian High Commission in U.K."},"content":{"rendered":"

British and Canadian activists, including the\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>B.C. woman<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0who scaled the EU\u2019s tallest building in 2013 to protest Arctic oil drilling, are on the scene. Photos are available at the link below. B-roll and video sound bites will be added shortly.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

18 April 2018 (LONDON, U.K.)\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/strong>The Kinder Morgan controversy followed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Europe today, as Greenpeace activists occupied the Canadian High Commission in London\u2019s Trafalgar Square, rebranding it \u201cCrudeau\u00a0Oil HQ\u201d in protest of his plans to build massive oil pipelines that will expand operations in the Alberta tar sands.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Beginning at 6:00 am in London, Canadian and British activists alike began the ongoing action this morning. Climbers scaled two entrance pillars at the High Commission (known as Canada House) and dropped banners reading, \u201cCrudeau\u00a0Oil HQ.\u201d Meanwhile, 30 activists dressed as oil workers constructed a\u00a030-metre\u00a0long oil pipeline that runs from the main entrance of Canada House to the consular entrance on Cockspur Street \u2014 a cardboard, hard-hatted cut-out of Trudeau standing in attendance\u00a0while the real Justin Trudeau passed by<\/a>. The pipeline is branded “Crudeau\u00a0Oil.”<\/p>\n

Victoria Henry, a Canadian volunteer who joined the Greenpeace UK action and dropped one of the banners, said:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m ashamed that a rich, developed and environmentally aware country like Canada is considering such a destructive and short-sighted project. How can we expect other nations to take climate change seriously when we\u2019re treating our own lands, rivers\u00a0and\u00a0climate with so little respect? Trudeau\u2019s idea of climate leadership looks like Trump with a better haircut. It\u2019s a national humiliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara Ayech, Greenpeace UK oil campaigner, said:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cTar sands are the dirtiest oil on the planet. Building this pipeline would make a joke out of Trudeau\u2019s claimed climate leadership. Trudeau risks Canada\u2019s rivers, coast\u00a0and\u00a0wildlife while steamrolling an international climate agreement and threatening the livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n

The activists are intending to stay in place for as long as possible. As this unfolds, Trudeau is set to join New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in a town hall with British youth this morning. Today\u2019s events place him in stark contrast to Ardern, who has been lauded for her government\u2019s historic ban of new offshore oil drilling, while Trudeau made international headlines this week for his consideration of\u00a0bailing out thecontroversial pipeline being built by Kinder Morgan<\/a>\u00a0after the company issued\u00a0an ultimatum<\/a>\u00a0on issues facing its beleaguered pipeline.<\/p>\n

Following a discussion on climate change with small island states, Trudeau will meet with officials in the U.K. and attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting this week.<\/p>\n

Keith Stewart,\u00a0Senior\u00a0Energy Strategist at Greenpeace Canada, said:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cActions speak louder than words, and Greenpeace is on the streets of London today to tell Prime Minister Trudeau that he can\u2019t hide aggressively pro-pipeline policies behind a selfie stick and mere promises to fight climate change. If Trudeau truly wants to be the climate leader that the world needs him to be, then he must say ‘no’ to Kinder Morgan\u2019s ultimatum and ‘yes’ to a clean energy future that protects clean water, the climate\u00a0and\u00a0Indigenous rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About\u00a0200 people<\/a>\u00a0have now been arrested protesting the Kinder Morgan pipeline; thousands more have pledged to do whatever it takes to stop it.<\/p>\n

-30-<\/strong><\/p>\n

Visual and Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photos are available at the links below (b-roll and video sound bites will be added shortly):\u00a0https:\/\/media.greenpeace.org\/collection\/27MZIFJXJYYAA<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/media.greenpeace.org\/shoot\/27MZIFJXJZMTC<\/p>\n

Video of Trudeau leaving Canada House, passing protesters:
\nhttps:\/\/media.greenpeace.org\/archive\/Crudeau-Oil-Action-in-London-27MZIFJXTGEYZ.html<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information and to book interviews:<\/p>\n

Jesse Firempong, Communications Officer, Greenpeace Canada, 778-996-6549,\u00a0jesse.firempong@greenpeace.org.<\/p>\n

(Before 9:00 AM EDT) Graham Thompson, Communications Officer, Greenpeace UK: +44-(0)-7801-212-960<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British and Canadian activists, including the\u00a0B.C. woman\u00a0who scaled the EU\u2019s tallest building in 2013 to protest Arctic oil drilling, are on the scene. Photos are available at the link below.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23,25,32,33],"p4-page-type":[16],"class_list":["post-3178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","tag-climate","tag-energysolutions","tag-oil","tag-peacefulprotest","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3178"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27045,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178\/revisions\/27045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3178"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=3178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}