Non-violent civil disobedience -- why is this a hard concept for Canadians to understand?

As the climate crisis escalates, new solutions and new groups are emerging to becoming part of the dialogue. Extinction Rebellion is a fairly new one — it started just last year in the U.K. on May 18, 2018. Its first major action was the blocking of five bridges across the Thames just last November.

Since then, there have been Extinction Rebellion groups coming together in other parts of the world, including here in Canada. Their core values are summarized in three points — tell the truth, act now and form a citizens' assembly to determine how the changes will happen. The group's actions are very direct, very visible and include non violent civil diobedience.

Civil disobedience is something that is little understood by the general population here in Canada. rabble podcast executive producer Victoria Fenner called Rocky Petkov, an organizer with Extinction Rebellion in Toronto. They talked a lot about that, and also their plans to have an effect on the results of the upcoming election.

Image: Sebastian Dooris/Flickr