Indigenous activists rally in Montreal to demand strong COP15 commitment

Montreal, December 12 (RHC)-- In Canada, hundreds of people marched through the streets of Montreal to demand a strong agreement as the United Nations holds a major summit on protecting wildlife. 

The U.N. Biodiversity Conference, known as COP15, seeks to protect an estimated one million plant and animal species threatened by extinction — most of them due to human activity.  

Activist Charlene George of the T’Sou-ke Nation says any deal needs to ensure the rights of Indigenous peoples who’ve worked for millennia to protect their lands.  She said:  “Today is about the youth and their having a voice.  And it’s a really important voice, because some other people are free to stand up, and the youth have the passion to be the warriors and to say the words and challenge.  They’re the ones that’s going to inherit all of this mess.”