Tens of thousands of young Canadians march for climate action

Tens of thousands young Canadians marched on Friday as part of global demonstrations calling for action to stem climate change.

Organized by students, and joined by families and politicians, the crowd snaked more than one kilometer (0.62 miles) along downtown streets in Montreal, where the biggest march occurred in temperatures barely above freezing.

They came out in droves also in the Atlantic port city of Halifax, the capital Ottawa, Quebec City and Winnipeg in the country's western prairies.

"When you have winds of change, demanded by young people like this, governments have a moral duty to listen and act on the environment," Montreal university student Cedric Remy, 21, told AFP.

"If climate was a bank, the government would have already saved it," a protester's placard said.

Another demonstrator, Nicolas Oligny, noted that "a lot of young people had come out for the demonstration, showing that it really matters to them."

He lamented that older generations were less well represented, which he took to mean that they care less about the issue.

Hundreds of thousands took part in similar protests around the world on Friday.

Classrooms in capitals from Bangkok to Berlin and Lagos to London emptied as organizers of the student strike called demonstrations in more than 100 countries.