Trudeau’s new environment minister is ex-Greenpeace activist once arrested for scaling CN Tower

Trudeau named Steven Guibeault, a Quebec MP and former Greenpeace activist, to helm the environment and climate change ministry

Canada’s new environment minister will be a former Greenpeace activist who was once arrested for scaling Toronto’s iconic CN Tower during a 2001 protest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday.

In a news release naming his new cabinet, Mr Trudeau named Steven Guibeault, a Quebec MP who had been serving as the Minister of Canadian Heritage since November 2019, as his new Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

Mr Guibeault, whose Laurier–Sainte-Marie district is located in downtown Montreal, has been a member of Canada’s House of Commons since October 2019.

A member of the Liberal Party, Mr Guibeault’s career before being elected to parliament included a decade with Greenpeace Canada, seven years of which were spent helming the group’s Quebec bureau.

In 2001, he was arrested and charged with mischief after climbing what was then the world’s tallest freestanding structure and unfurling a banner protesting Canada and then-US president George W Bush’s positions on the Kyoto climate protocol.

“Canadians need a strong and diverse Cabinet to deliver on their priorities and keep Canada moving forward for everyone. This team will finish the fight against Covid‑19, deliver on $10-a-day child care, help Canadians find a home of their own, tackle the climate crisis, and continue to advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples,” Mr Trudeau said in a statement. “Together, we will work tirelessly to build a better future for all Canadians”.