In October 2016, along with 98 other young people, I was arrested on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada at a protest against a planned expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline that would triple its capacity. From coast to coast, youth across the nationhad mobilized as part of the "Climate 101" protest, joining with classmates, friends, and allies in Canada's capital city to demand Prime Minister Justin Trudeau disapprove a project starkly at odds with the Paris Agreement signed less than a year earlier. Together, we crossed police barricades to demonstrate that young people are willing to risk arrest when politicians consistently fail to represent our voices and protect the environment.Five years ago, I never would have thought I'd be getting arrested protesting an industry that employs so many beloved members of my community. I grew up during the conservative administration of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a South Korean immigrant household in Treaty 6 unceded Indigenous territory in Edmonton, Alberta. Mere hours away were the infamous Canadian tar sands, the second biggest fossil fuel project in the world, which spans an area larger than England. The tar sands are the starting point for many pipelines that snake across North America, and employ many people in the province.
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