A man was arrested after walking onto the Nanaimo Airport tarmac as part of an Extinction Rebellion protest on Oct. 25. He walked into the restricted area carrying a flag. He had plans to spray paint “shut down runways to shut down runaway climate extinction” onto the tarmac, according to Leah Morgan, media spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo.
After waving his flag, spray painting and wandering around, he was met by RCMP officers and was arrested peacefully. He put his hands behind his back as the officer approached. No planes were seen trying to land or take off while he was there.
His actions were a part of an Extinction Rebellion protest, which drew a small crowd of the group’s members and supporters to the airport terminal.
“We are here to bring awareness to the fact that human extinction is imminent unless we radically and immediately change our use of fossil fuels,” Morgan said. “We literally cannot afford to keep flying planes unless we want to die.”
She said there were similar protests planned in Toronto, Victoria and Vancouver. The group was advocating for a stop to all non-essential air travel to curb emissions caused by flying.
“We were able to stop for COVID — just stop dead. We have shown that we are able to do this when our lives are at risk. Well the climate emergency is risking our lives even more than COVID,” Morgan said.
@_hay_tyler
editor@ladysmithchronicle.com
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