Delivered by Laura Krochenski on Sept. 24, 2019
At Dawson College, Montreal

#DawsonRising: this is our movement. As Dawson students, we are waking up to the harsh realities of the climate change crisis. We are listening to the science. It’s an alarm, and too many people are pressing the snooze button. But not us. We are students who care about our school, our community, our city, our country, and our planet. We are rising for it all, and we want our voices to be heard.

In our classes, we learn about social revolutions. We learn about the suffragettes and their hunger strikes for the Women’s Rights Movement or the Greensboro Four and the Sit-In Movement for the Civil Rights Movement and the riots and civil disobedience for the End of Apartheid. We learn how these things weren’t easy. Calling for a fundamental social change when your ideas of justice are all frowned upon is a difficult task. But that’s the thing, it has taken fearless people with marginal ideas to make a difference in the world. It will be the same for climate justice.

We will be the fearless ones here at Dawson. We are starting our own movement by taking to the streets because that’s how changes have been made throughout history. Students, teachers, friends, families, we hold together for our future because Dawson is making history. Dawson is rising.