A climate activist caused a disturbance at the Royal B.C. Museum on Wednesday morning after throwing pink paint onto the museum’s woolly mammoth exhibit.
Police escorted the protester who was affiliated with the On2Ottawa group out of the building after the incident.
24-year-old climate activist Laura Sullivan staged the affair to launch a “caravan” to the nation’s capital intending to protest the government’s inaction on climate change.
“I will be going to Ottawa as part of a caravan to demand immediate action to tackle the climate and ecological emergency, and would encourage everyone to join, especially youth,” said Sullivan.
In a statement addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal cabinet, On2Ottawa calls for the establishment of a “citizens’ assembly” to decide how Canada will transition its economy to address a climate emergency.
“The government has until April 1, 2023, to begin establishing a citizens’ assembly to decide how Canada’s economy will be transformed to tackle the climate and ecological emergency in the next 2-3 years,” the ultimatum claims.
“If this ultimatum is ignored, or mocked, we will take action to pressure the Canadian government – you – to uphold the demands of this ultimatum: to establish a citizens’ assembly that has legally-binding power to determine how Canada’s economy is to be transformed to appropriately mitigate the climate and ecological emergency.”
Three suspects have since been arrested as a result of the vandalism.
“At 11 a.m. today an incident took place in which Woolly, the iconic and beloved Royal B.C. Museum mammoth, was defaced by activists and pink paint was applied to his tusks,” said the museum.
“Museum security staff safely reprimanded those involved, and called Victoria Police Department who quickly arrived on the scene and took the activists into custody.
