Rousing calls from Sweden’s Greta Thunberg for action to halt climate change received a chilly reception in Canada’s oil country over the weekend, with vandals defacing a freshly-painted mural of the teen climate activist and counter-protestors demanding that she “shut up” until she had “solutions.”
Local artist AJA Louden painted the mural on a wall near the provincial legislature in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, on Friday. Louden said he wanted to celebrate the celebrity activist’s appearance in Edmonton Friday at a protest in which thousands marched against climate change.
It looks so much better now – definitely the talking point we had hoped for 👍 pic.twitter.com/aJZrZMJdbH
— Hermann Balk 🇨🇦 🇺🇬 (@wolguinus) October 21, 2019
By Sunday, however, the mural had already been defaced. One man, James Bagnell, spray-painted the words “Stop the Lies. This is Oil Country” over the teen’s face in full view of CBC camera crews on the scene.
“This is Alberta. This is oil country. My father has worked in the oil industry. We don’t need foreigners coming in and telling us how to run our business, support our families, put food on our tables,” he told the CBC journalists. – read more