Good Sunday Morning!

I just arrived back in Ottawa this morning to participate in a national youth event organized by the Senate Climate Caucus, chaired by Nova Scotia Senator Mary Coyle. Climate caucuses are helpfully springing up within many parts of life on Parliament Hill. Back in 2011 I started the all-party climate caucus of MPs, enlisting my dear friend, former Liberal MP Kirstie Duncan, herself an IPCC scientist, to be the first chair. That caucus has continued through all these years. It is focused on educating fellow MPs, engaging MPs from Liberal, NDP, Bloc, Green and (yes!) Conservative parties. We press for action, while deliberately avoiding media coverage. Early on, we decided that keeping our meetings, scientific briefings, and economic analyses off the record, we would be more likely to ensure that MPs from all parties found the Climate Caucus a safe place to ask anything. We wanted to assure others there was no such thing as a “dumb question.”  We have no “gotcha” politics. We persisted and have done good work over the last 14 years. In June 2025 we met and elected the new executive. As ever, we have all five parties engaged. We had a great turnout for our first meeting. And now we have discovered, through the media, that some of the Liberal MPs who came to that first meeting took the initiative of forming their own Liberal Party climate caucus. They are already rocking the boat. Reporters have noted the unhappiness of, at least, some backbenchers with Carney’s retreat on key climate action. From CBC: “Liberal MPs form environmental caucus as some want stronger climate focus from Carney“.

This week was our first week back in Parliament since the harrowing experience of the bulldozing of Bill C-5 through the House and Senate in June. I held three different press conferences this week with media interest in each of them. As a lone Green MP, I am so pleased that Senator Marilou McPhedran, Independent and unaffiliated Senator from Winnipeg, joined me to explain our shared priorities, to expand voting to 16 year olds and up, as well as our work in the Feminist caucus and Global Parliamentarians for the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). This was our first public reveal of our informal alliance as MP and Senator. We shared our priorities. We are asking other parliamentarians to join us.

On September 15, I laid out our goals for the fall session of Parliament.

And on September 18, we responded quickly to the latest estimate of exactly how far Canada is from reaching our Paris Agreement 2030 targets. This link takes you to the whole of my press scrum. My condemnation of Carney’s failure to act made it to CBC Radio’s The World at 6 that night.

I have to hope for better. What choice do we have but to hold the Prime Minister to account?

Meanwhile, I do not want to leave you this morning without assuring you of this: There was NO STANDING OVATION FOR CHARLIE KIRK IN PARLIAMENT. Sorry for putting that in caps, but it is so awful to imagine such a thing could have happened. The dreadful occasion when the House gave a standing ovation, after the Speaker recognized a former Ukrainian soldier who had fought against the Russians, and with the Nazis, has made Canadians wonder what will we not celebrate. I have often said it was my “stroke of luck” that due to having a stroke, I was not in the House that day to join in the standing ovation. When the Speaker recognizes a distinguished visitor in the gallery, such demonstrations of respect are de rigueur. That was why former Speaker Rota had to resign.

In this case, there was no calling on MPs to take a position other than to denounce violence.

This is what did happen. The weaponization of Kirk’s murder is a horrible thing to navigate. We must denounce violence, but we do not honour anything about the appalling message and mission of this US Conservative “influencer.”

We are in a perilous place in Canada when the murder of a right wing extremist in the US can put Canadian journalists at risk. Andrew Scheer put CTV reporter Rachel Gilmore at risk in describing her as “full of hate,” propelling her to a public list of people contributing to Charlie Kirk’s death. Rachel put on social media, “Is Andrew Scheer trying to get me killed?”

Marilou McPhedran and I addressed this in our joint press conference. We must ensure that the rush to gain political points from violent events does not contaminate our politics.

In that climate, the reference to Kirk’s murder in Parliament was bound to be risky. It likely was intended to be. This is what happened:

Under something called “Standing Order 31,” every few months every MP is given 60 seconds to say whatever they like. The “SO 31s” are daily, right before Question Period. This is what the MP for Lethbridge said on September 15th:

As I sat there, I heard the last bit clearly, and the earlier sentences less so. But still, reading it over, despite deep discomfort with how this MP admired the man and described him as an advocate for “faith and freedom,” words I could not associate with his hateful speaking,  she was clearly trying to find some middle ground. Dividing us more will not help.

Joining an MP in calling for sympathy for the family of an assassinated extremist is not celebrating the victim or his message.

This is my attempt to provide the full context. It was a very perilous moment. Had not one single non-Conservative MP stood, the visual of only Conservatives standing would surely have been the fodder for a partisan attack that progressive MPs only denounce some violence. Once I saw a large number of MPs, who I knew denounced Kirk’s messages, rising to applaud, I knew this was a moment to avoid partisanship, to turn down the temperature. Unfortunately media coverage that suggested Parliament gave Charlie Kirk a Standing Ovation achieves the opposite. I hope this explanation helps.

As Greens we call for peace and try to share an attitude of love and compassion in defense of Mother Earth. No Green better exemplifies moral courage and love in defending Mother Earth as my friend and Deputy Leader, Rainbow Eyes. So it is with some tears in my eyes I share the news that late this week, her legal appeal failed. She was taken into custody to spend 31 days in prison for her non-violent civil disobedience in defending the old growth forest of Fairy Creek. Worse, as an Indigenous land defender, her rights were ignored. Her lawyer argued in her defense, citing numerous examples of how her actions were entirely consistent with the laws that govern Indigenous sovereignty. And our colonial courts were unyielding.

Please keep her in your thoughts. Next week I will share more tangible ways we can support her.

Meanwhile, ten more days to vote to support me in the leadership review. If you are a member of the Green Party of Canada, on the evening of September 15 you should have received an emailed ballot. I announced in August that I will be stepping down as leader as soon as a new leader or co-leaders are elected. That started a process within council to organize a leadership race. So this ballot is more a matter of timing. The leadership review is required under our Constitution. This you likely know. The Federal Council, by consensus, has agreed we need to get a strong YES vote now so we can plan and execute a successful leadership contest, with me in the House as leader until we can welcome and celebrate the new leader. PLEASE find your ballot and vote YES before September 30.

Thank you all for your support. Much love and thanks!

Elizabeth

Update and Correction added/sent out
on Tuesday, September 23

– and not on a Sunday Morning!

First is to update that Rainbow Eyes is being held in Maple Ridge prison. I hope to find a way to visit her in jail.

And a correction to Sunday’s letter:

Love and thanks for all your support,

Elizabeth