STUDENTS BECOMING CHANGEMAKERS
CLIMATE JUSTICE ACTIVIST CECILIA LA ROSE-LUCIUK IN CONVERSATION WITH EMILY CHAN ON IDENTITY, COMMUNITY AND CLIMATE JUSTICE ACTIVISM
C
ecilia La Rose-Luciuk is one of 15 young people, aged 10 to 19, who filed a lawsuit in 2019 stating that the federal government of Canada is con-
tributing to harms caused by climate change. At the time, Cecilia was 15 years old. Te case, La Rose v. His Majesty the King, argues that the government is violating the youths’ rights to life, liberty and security under Sec- tion 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Te young plaintiffs also allege that they are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change and that the government’s actions violate their rights un- der Section 15 of the Charter. Te group is demanding the federal government develop and implement a climate recovery plan to protect the rights of youth and the case is set for an eight-week trial in October 2026, in Vancouver. Cecilia is a former student of Emily
Chan’s, and the conversation that follows was prompted by their mutual interest in reflect- ing on the value of education, identity and community in climate justice activism.
Emily Chan: Tinking of seeds as sym- bols of inspiration, what are some seeds planted in your life that motivated you to become an activist?
Cecilia La Rose-Luciuk: Community is synonymous with activism for me. It’s a part of my life and a reflection of the people
8 ETFO VOICE | SPRING 2025
around me more than anything. In elemen- tary school, the process of finding my iden- tity as an individual, facing some challenges and also seeing myself as a part of my school community sowed the seeds for my work. I’ve always felt confident in my culture
and identity as a mixed-race person from an immigrant family. My father is Arawak, In- digenous from Guyana, and none of that felt complicated to me until I went to school and met people who were different from me in all of those ways. Tat’s where my own activism started, seeing what other people had to say about my identity. Identity is something we build in collabo-
ration with the people around us. In Cana- da, the word Indigenous is relevant to how we discuss politics and activism on a larger scale. My understanding of my own identity and awareness of this context is important to how I approach activism. Nothing that I say or do is the product of my opinions, more so the product of who I am.
EC: You weave together important con- nections about identity, community and standing up for what we believe in. How does climate change or climate justice fit into your work?
CL-L: I learned about climate change both at school and at home early on. It was the merging of the two that really instigated my strong feelings about how we approach climate change and what we do about it. At
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PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE COUSINS
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