Jane Taber

Not: Greenpeace hits Parliament. The environmental activists brought their climate change protest to the top of the Parliament Buildings – literally– this morning. About 14 activists scaled the West Block to unfurl a banner (in both official languages): “Stop the tar sands.”

Of course, this publicity stunt on the first day of the climate change conference in Copenhagen attracted a ton of attention (their strategy, obviously).

One of the climbers, Greenpeace’s climate and energy campaigner Mike Hudema, had his cellphone with him, conducting interviews with the national press from the roof (novel). He also had a francophone colleague who conducted interviews with the French press.

The press release about the event provided the numbers (The Globe tried but only got his answering machine; he perhaps was being led away by the authorities at that point).

The Ottawa Citizen
December 7, 2009 9:13 AM

OTTAWA — Greenpeace activists took to Parliament Hill Monday morning to urge the government to act on climate change.

The Ottawa fire department roof rescue team was dispatched to the West Block at about 8 a.m. where they were reports of protesters with rock-climbing gear preparing to rappel down the building.

The RCMP and Ottawa police are also on the scene. Police say they will charge the protesters — Greenpeaces says there are 19 of them — with mischief and have ordered in fire department ladder and bucket trucks to remove them.

Darren sez, “Greenpeace is running a clever ad campaign in the Copenhagen airport in preparation for the Copenhagen climate negotiations that start on Dec. 7. They’re a series of ads featuring Photoshopped images of sad-looking world leaders, apologizing for not addressing climate change when they had the chance. Canada’s Prime Minister looks like the saddest hockey coach in the land.”