Among other mobilizing events around climate change, alumni Rachel Malena-Chan and Andrea Cessna, along with current NUpper Justin Fisher, have been directing their effort toward a media project that highlights issues surrounding climate justice. These 3-5 minute tutorials aim to bridge the gap between active supporters and those who may not know how to get involved in the movement by providing information, resources and key-messaging. Moreover, this series of short videos intends to create a platform for Indigenous voices, young people, people from frontline communities in Canada and the rest of the world, and others who are disproportionately impacted, to speak out against climate injustice.
Check out our videos on demystifying climate justice, pipelines and the People's Injunction, individual choices vs. systemic change and urgency
Next Up Alumni have also been a big part of building CJS over the last few years…
Climate Justice Saskatoon (CJS) is a grassroots organization of citizens concerned about the social, environmental and political implications of environmental degradation and climate change on a local, national and global scale. In 2013, CJS, in conjunction with the Saskatchewan Environmental Network (SEN), hosted the Citizens’ Hearings. This two-day event brought citizens, activists, experts and decision-makers together to listen to presentations and testimonies on the impacts caused by climate change. The discussions from the Citizens’ Hearings were published in a 70-page report titled, The Saskatchewan Citizen’s Hearings on Climate Change.
Members of CJS also travelled to northern Saskatchewan to show solidarity with communities such as Pinehouse and English River, which had been selected as prospective sites for nuclear waste depositories by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO). The efforts to resist nuclear energy/waste depositories in northern Saskatchewan, led by The Committee for Future Generations, were successful when NWMO dropped the two communities from their process.
Over the past five years, several Next Up Saskatchewan Alumni and current participants have participated in CJS alongside many other awesome community members, including Karen Rooney who was a founding member of CJS, a Canadian Youth Delegate at both COP17 (Durban, 2011) and COP18 (Doha, 2012), and the Saskatchewan representative for the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition. Other Next Up alumni/CJS members include Julie Maxwell, Janelle Pewapsconias, Sarina Gersher, Rachel Malena-Chan, Melissa Gan, Maggie McBride, Molly Paterson and Andrea Cessna; current Next Up participants that have been involved with CJS are Davida Bentham, Jenna Gall and Justin Fisher.