FEDERAL Liberals say a new climate plan is still in the works despite pandemic

Aaron Wherry CBC

© Tyson Koschik/CBC Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says the federal government must balance the immediate concerns posed by the COVID-19 pandemic with the need for a green recovery plan for the future. He says he intends to bring forward a…

Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says he doesn't know why it was suggested recently that the Liberal government had shelved a green recovery plan ahead of Wednesday's throne speech.

But he said he is working on an "ambitious" climate plan — just as the Liberals promised during last year's election.

"Part of my mandate is to develop an enhanced climate plan for Canada that will demonstrate clearly how we will exceed our 2030 targets. I have been working on that since the day that I was sworn in as environment minister. And some of that work has accelerated during this period," Wilkinson said in an interview with CBC News on Friday.

"We do intend to bring forward that climate plan. It has not been shelved in any way. And we will be doing it well before the next [United Nations climate conference]," which is scheduled for November 2021.

So regardless of how much of a green recovery is laid out in the throne speech, there is good reason to expect a new green plan before too long.

But if the Liberals remain committed to even greater reductions in greenhouse gas emissions — and if they want to show meaningful steps toward that goal before the next federal election — there might be all the more pressure on them to seize every opportunity in the coming months to take action.
Tone shifted as COVID-19 cases began to rise

With the likely need for significant stimulus spending by the federal government to compensate for the economic damage that COVID-19 will leave behind, policy thinkers outside the government have spent the last several months touting and proposing plans for a green recovery.

Liberals themselves then began to talk this summer of a push for transformational change, including on climate policy. But as the fall approached — and as the number of new cases of COVID-19 began to rise — the government's tone shifted to more immediate concerns.

"There's a sensitivity to being perceived to hijack the moment for a green recovery," one senior Liberal source told CBC News last week.

That prompted fears the Liberals were not just changing their tone but their plans — Leadnow launched an "emergency petition" calling on the government to "reinstate" the green recovery plan that had reportedly been shelved.

"A strong second wave of the pandemic might delay the implementation of measures, but there is no reason it should delay announcements of legislative intent or the funding for a green recovery that puts people back to work solving the health and climate crises," said Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada.

© Reuters Advocacy groups have expressed concern that the Liberals were not just changing their tone but their plans for the environment due to a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, but Wilkinson says that's not the case, and he's working on an 'ambitious' climate plan.

The government does have to be careful, Wilkinson said, that it's "not perceived in some way of taking advantage of the situation."

"I think that Canadians have to be assured that their governments are very much focused on the here and now in the context of the pandemic," he said. "But Canadians also expect their governments to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, right? They expect us to also be able to think about the future."
Further steps expected in coming months

There will likely be areas where green interests and pandemic-related problems overlap.

Wilkinson mentions one: Building retrofits to improve energy efficiency could be a significant source of employment, particularly for young people who have suffered disproportionately from the economic shutdown. (By coincidence, a focus on retrofits was one suggestion made by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh during a speech on Friday.)

The pandemic has forced some changes to the government's broader plans. As reported this week by La Presse, the government has not yet planted any of the two billion new trees it promised in last year's campaign. Wilkinson links that to the fact that there wasn't a federal budget in the spring.

But Wilkinson said the government should be able to move forward with climate change accountability legislation in the fall or early in the new year. An expert panel to advise on the path to net-zero emissions by 2050 is also expected in the "near term," and Wilkinson said the government should have more to say about plastics in the "next couple months."

The Liberal platform already committed the government to meaningful action on building retrofits and promoting the use of zero-emission vehicles. As far as a plan to exceed the 2030 target — part of the Paris Agreement on climate change drafted in 2015 — Wilkinson also mentioned the use of hydrogen to fuel heavy-duty transportation and working with industry, including oil and gas, to reduce emissions.
Timing is 'urgent,' Wilkinson says

Asked whether he empathizes with or shares the desire for a green recovery, Wilkinson offered two thoughts with which environmentalists would likely agree.

"The timing around addressing climate change is urgent," he said. "We're almost at the end of 2020, we have a long way to go to meet — and we promised to exceed — our 2030 targets. So that's nine years. People think nine years is a long time. In the context of some of the changes that need to be made, that's not a very long time," Wilkinson said.© Natalie Thomas/Reuters Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship is seen floating near pieces of ice in the Arctic Ocean on Sept. 14. Scientists say climate change is altering the region's landscape, with rising temperatures and melting ice.

The Liberals announced their intention last year to exceed the 2030 target before they had even explained how they would get to that level. According to the most recent data, Canada is still projected to exceed its target for 2030 by 77 megatonnes — and it hasn't been easy to get even that close. Conservatives are now criticizing the imposition of a clean fuel standard, while the NDP's Singh chided the Liberals for still failing to do enough.

"I think that people see perhaps this as an opportunity for them to reflect. And I agree with that as well," Wilkinson said.

"One of the things that we do need to reflect on is we have been addressing a pandemic that has had some very terrible effects. And if you look at climate change, the effects, if we do not address it, will be far more significant than what we've already experienced with COVID-19.

"So I do think it's an important time to reflect and to then turn with urgency to how do we actually ensure that Canada's playing its part, both domestically and on the world stage, to move this agenda forward?"

Environmentalists will no doubt remind Wilkinson of these words — and the government's own commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 — if the Liberals seem to lack urgency in the months ahead.

'Our house is burning': student climate protesters urge their universities to go carbon neutral


Alexandra Villarreal

© Photograph: Jim West/Alamy The Detroit March for Justice, which brought together those concerned about the environment, racial justice and similar issues

As West coast wildfires color the skies dystopian red and orange and an aggressive hurricane season batters the US Gulf coast, college students are demanding their schools take bold action to address the climate crisis.

Caitlyn Daas is among them. The senior at Appalachian State University and organizer with the Appalachian Climate Action Collaborative (ClimACT) stands on the frontlines of her school’s grassroots push to go “climate neutral”, part of a years-long, national movement that has inspired hundreds of institutional commitments to reduce academia’s carbon footprint.

That concept, ‘our house is burning,’ was a metaphor. But really in 2020, it is literal.

Laura England

Carbon neutrality commitments typically require schools to dramatically cut their carbon emissions by reimagining how they run their campuses — everything from the electricity they purchase to the air travel they fund. Colleges across the country, from the University of San Francisco to American University in Washington DC have already attained carbon neutrality. Other academic institutions, including the University of California system, have taken steps to fully divest from fossil fuels.

But as young activists like Daas urge their universities to do their part to avert climate disaster, many are frustrated by tepid responses from administrators whom they feel lack their same sense of urgency and drive. Appalachian State, part of the University of North Carolina system, has committed to reaching net-zero emissions decades down the line, but Daas and her fellow activists fear that’s far too late. She’s baffled that an institution devoted to higher learning is seemingly ignoring the science around the climate emergency.

“If our voices don’t matter, can you please stop telling us that they do?” Daas says.

College activists concerned about the climate crisis have largely focused their efforts on two popular movements that go hand-in-hand: reaching carbon neutrality, and divesting university endowments. Broadly, the term “net carbon neutrality” means that a campus zeroes out all of its carbon emissions, says Timothy Carter, president of Second Nature, a nonprofit focused on climate action in higher education. This can be achieved through modifying campus operations, often with the help of alternatives, such as renewable energy certificates and voluntary carbon offsets (activities that atone for other emissions). In Second Nature’s definition, investment holdings don’t factor in a school’s carbon footprint. Carbon neutrality often falls within a wider umbrella of climate neutrality, which also incorporates justice and other concerns

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© Provided by The Guardian Students walk at the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina on 7 August 2020. Photograph: Jonathan Drake/Reuters

Divestment campaigns, meanwhile, pressure universities to shed investments in fossil fuels in their endowments. “We cannot truly be climate neutral if we continue to invest in a fossil fuel industry,” says Nadia Sheppard, chair of the Climate Reality Project campus corps chapter at North Carolina State University, where oil, gas and consumable, nonrenewable fuels account for around $43m in university investments.

Across North Carolina, the heated campus battles brewing over climate policy this fall represent a microcosm of the national conversation. The University of North Carolina system – which includes 16 universities and one gifted public residential high school – has set a 2050 goal to go carbon neutral, the same year as the state at large.

But students are frustrated by the distant deadline. “I do believe 2050 is realistic,” says Isaiah Green, president of the UNC system-wide Association of Student Governments. “But it’s so realistic that it’s just not enough, in my opinion.”

Laura England, a ClimACT member and senior lecturer in sustainable development at Appalachian State, approaches the issue with similar gravity as the undergraduates at her school. “That concept, ‘our house is burning,’ was a metaphor. But really in 2020, it is literal,” she says.

Students and faculty at Appalachian State are angling for net zero emissions by 2025, or at least 2035, but have felt unheard. ClimACT lambasted the school’s administration last week in a letter emancipating themselves from the official climate action planning process, at least until its leadership declares a climate emergency and responds accordingly. “The question we face is astonishingly simple,” the group wrote. “Do we have the political will to chart a path toward a safe and just climate future, or will we continue careening toward hot house earth?”

Lee F Ball Jr, chief sustainability officer at Appalachian State, admires young people’s passion and would “bottle” and “serve it” if he could. But to reach neutrality by 2025, the university would need to spend tens of millions of dollars it doesn’t have.


Something that I’ve learned since becoming involved with the campaign is that universities move slowlyKelsey Hall

“There’s no real silver bullet of clean energy out there that we’ve been able to find, so we’re in a wild west of carbon accounting and climate action,” Ball says. “There’s no rulebook, there’s no prescription for this stuff.”

Other students in the UNC system are advocating for more transparency and accountability around their school’s investments.

Kelsey Hall, the leader of a divest campaign at UNC Asheville, successfully pushed the school administration to divest around 10% of its endowment from fossil fuels last year. But the other 90% remains in the hands of the UNC management company, which invests in a nebulous category of “energy and natural resources” – oil, natural gas, power, etc.

“Returns [on investments] are very, very close” between the competing portfolios so far, says John G Pierce, vice-chancellor for budget and finance at UNC Asheville. But university leadership isn’t prepared to entertain divesting more of its endowment just yet.

“It’s frustrating,” Hall says. “But it’s something that I’ve learned since becoming involved with the campaign, is just that, like, universities move slowly.”

At Duke University, a top tier private institution in North Carolina, the administration has agreed to a much quicker 2024 climate neutrality date. There, students have been more concerned with how they arrive at that target.

They want the school to reduce actual emissions as much as possible, “rather than relying on more questionable, less rigorous ways of offsetting emissions in the books”, says Claire Wang, a recent Duke alumna and Rhodes scholar.

“It’d be very easy for a huge polluter to, you know, only pick a low-hanging fruit, maybe bring emissions down 10%, and instead buy very cheap carbon credits for the remaining 90% and say they’ve reached carbon neutrality,” Wang says.

Although student activists often direct their ire toward school administrations, their greatest antagonist may simply be a ticking clock. Undergraduates generally only get a four-year window on campus to make a difference, and they’ve lost precious time because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has in some ways pulled focus from climate issues.

Environmental campaigns, meanwhile, require long-term, dedicated attention spans. Gabriela Duncan, co-president of UNC Reinvest at UNC Chapel Hill, found article after article in her school paper about past divestment movements, and she knows that “there realistically is no way” that the university will divest during her academic career.

To avoid yet another loss of momentum, she’s focusing on creating “a really strong foundation, so that we can have a sustainable movement for many years”.

Hundreds of whales stranded on sandbar off Australian island


CBSNews

© AAP Image/The Advocate Pool/Brodie Weeding/REUTERS Whales are seen stranded on a sandbar near Strahan

© Provided by CBS News A pod of whales, believed to be pilot whales, is seen stranded on a sandbar at Macquarie Harbour, near Strahan, Tasmania, Australia, September 21, 2020. / Credit: AAP Image/The Advocate Pool/Brodie Weeding/REUTERS

Sydney — At least twenty-five whales have died and scientists are trying to rescue 250 more that are stranded in a remote bay on the Australian island of Tasmania, officials said Monday. Tasmania's environment department said the whales had become stuck on a sandbar in Macquarie Harbor, on the island's rugged and sparsely populated west coast.

Nic Deka, who is managing the incident response, said two large pods were stranded on sandbars a few hundred yards apart inside the harbor.


"They are in water but it's very difficult to see how many of those whales are deceased or what condition they're in," he told reporters in the nearby town of Strahan.

They are believed to be pilot whales but the environment department is yet to confirm the species

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© Provided by CBS News Stranded whales are seen in Macquarie Heads, Tasmania, Australia, September 21, 2020, in a picture obtained from social media. / Credit: RYAN BLOOMFIELD/REUTERS

Police are on site and marine experts are assessing the situation ahead of plans to launch a rescue mission early Tuesday morning.

"In terms of the tides, when we start making an effort tomorrow it will be with an outgoing tide, so that'll be in our favour, but obviously tides go up and come down so we'll be aiming to make the most of the windows that we have," Deka said.

© Provided by CBS News Dead whale detectives 01:57

Mass whale strandings occur relatively often in Tasmania, but the large numbers involved present a daunting rescue prospect.

Authorities may call on a network of local volunteers to assist but have cordoned off the area to the general public.

The latest stranding comes as a humpback whale that was stuck in a tropical river in Australia's north finally returned to the ocean after more than two weeks.

Public broadcaster ABC reported the creature, which spent 17 days in the crocodile-infested waters of Kakadu National Park, has been spotted in open seas off Darwin.

Scientists had been weighing options for guiding the humpback to safety after it became the first known whale to travel up the muddy river, but were relieved when it returned to sea on its own.

Guterres on World Peace Day: We face 'common enemy' in COVID-19

The flags of the United Nations and United States are seen outside of the U.N. building in New York City on Monday, one day before the start of the assembly's 75th General Debate. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 21 (UPI) -- The United Nations General Assembly on Monday preceded the first day of high-level debate in New York City with a call by leaders for world peace amid the global health crisis.

Peace between nations has been challenged during a time of COVID-19, Secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a message to celebrate the International Day of Peace on Monday, which came ahead of Tuesday's opening of the assembly's annual General Debate session.

"Our world faces a common enemy," Guterres said. "A deadly virus that is causing immense suffering, destroying livelihoods, contributing to international tensions and exacerbating already formidable peace and security challenges."

The focus of this year's day of peace is "Shaping Peace Together."

"In that spirit, and to mark our 75th anniversary, the United Nations is bringing people together for a global conversation about shaping our future and forging peace in trying times," Guterres added.

Guterres said he will ask the assembly to vote on a cease-fire measure he introduced in March.

Earlier Monday, the secretary-general spoke of the birth of the United Nations in 1945 when governments agreed to form the body to prevent a response at the end of World War II.

"It took two world wars, millions of deaths and the horrors of the Holocaust for world leaders to commit to international cooperation and the rule of law," Guterres said. "A Third World War -- which so many had feared -- has been avoided. Never in modern history have we gone so many years without a military confrontation between the major powers."

With climate crises and public health threats worldwide fraying relationships, it's even more important to work together, he added.

"No one wants a world government -- but we must work together to improve world governance."

H.E. Volkan Bozkir, president of the U.N. General Assembly, said the global body was built on three pillars -- peace and security, development and human rights. Those three concepts, he added, "are equally important, interrelated, and interdependent.

"One cannot advance without the other."

International Peace Day, also known as World Peace Day, was established in 1981 and is dedicated to world peace, largely through the absence or war or violence. It used to be held on varying dates in September, but was permanently moved to Sept. 21 in 2001.

Calls to block DoJ official from court seat over role in Trump’s family separations


Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Eugene García/EPA

Immigrant rights groups are calling on New York senators to oppose the judicial nomination of a top Department of Justice official because of her role in the Trump administration’s child separation policy.

A letter to the senators signed by Families Belong Together (FBT), a campaigning group that opposes the Trump administration’s separation policies, said Iris Lan’s “involvement in and facilitation of” the administration’s policy made her unfit to serve on a lifetime seat as a federal judge in the southern district of New York.

Senate rules require district court judges to be informally approved by the state’s two home senators in order to proceed with their confirmation, in a secretive process that is known as giving judicial nominees a “blue slip”.

If Lan’s nomination were to be blocked by the two senators – Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand – it would mark the first time that a longtime career official who had knowledge of and involvement in the Trump administration’s separation policy would be blocked from career advancement.

The letter from Families Belong Together follows a report in the Guardian that described how Lan, who serves as an associate deputy attorney general, had played a role in the 2017 removal of a junior prosecutor in Texas after he had raised concerns with his superiors about migrant children who were going missing after their parents had been arrested for allegedly entering the US illegally.© Photograph: Eugene García/EPA Protest against immigrant family separations in Los Angeles in June 2018.

The Guardian also reported that Lan was present on a 2018 conference call in which her then boss, the now former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, instructed US attorneys in border states that there would be no exception to a “zero tolerance” policy to arrest all migrants who entered the US illegally, including families with children under the age of five.

In effect, the instruction meant that no child was too young to be separated from their parents.

“The family separation policy has led to profound emotional and psychological harm to these children, as well as lasting damage to the human rights leadership of the United States on the global stage,” the letter said. “Ms Lan’s involvement in and facilitation of the policy demonstrates her lack of fitness for the bench, and we urge you to oppose her confirmation.”

The letter was also signed by Demand Justice, a progressive advocacy group that campaigns against “extreme” judicial nominees.

Neither Schumer nor Gillibrand’s office responded to a request for comment.

The activist opposition Lan is facing raises questions about hurdles other longtime career officials may face when they are asked about the role they played in implementing the Trump administration’s most controversial – and sometimes illegal – public policies.

The Department of Justice has said it never espoused a “child separation policy”. It has also said that Lan did not have a role in making policy in her role as a career official.

But the department’s 2018 decision to implement a “zero tolerance” policy did, according to other former senior Trump administration officials, force the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to execute mass arrests of migrants who were then criminally prosecuted by US attorneys in border states for committing misdemeanor border crossing violations.

In previous administrations, families were either allowed to await their immigration trials on bail or were held together, except in circumstances when migrant children were seen as being in danger. But under the Trump administration, thousands of minors were separated from their parents under the new policy, including at least 105 children who were under the age of five, and 1,033 who were under the age of ten.

Asked about whether it was fair to target a career official who was not personally responsible for the administration’s policy, FBT director Paola Luisi, said she believed that focusing on Lan’s reputation for being “apolitical” was a “cop-out”.

“I don’t need to go to Harvard Law to understand that you shouldn’t rip a child out of a parents arms, and I don’t need to say that I’m ‘apolitical’ to take a stand. Across the board we’re seeing heroes standing up, who have the backbone to stand up to this sort of thing,” Luisi said.

“It is frankly pathetic to hide behind words like ‘I was just doing my job’. This goes beyond that. It is basic human dignity and compassion,” she added.

It took, she said “a whole bureaucracy” to enact the Trump administration policies that have come under fire.

Lan was nominated to serve on the court, one of the most prestigious judicial postings in the US, in December 2019 and was then renominated in May 2020.

The DoJ did not respond to a request for comment.

CANADA 

Federal Court hears certification arguments this week in MMIW lawsuit

© Provided by The Canadian Press

REGINA — A mother who alleges the federal government and RCMP took a a "negligent" and "lackadaisical" approach to investigating missing and murdered Indigenous women will attend a hearing this week that will determine if her lawsuit moves forward, her lawyer says.

Anthony Merchant says Diane BigEagle, whose daughter Danita Faith has been missing since 2007, will be there for the Federal Court certification hearing in Regina for the proposed class-action lawsuit by families of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Merchant says families of other murdered or missing Indigenous women will be there, too.

"We know the wrongs, we had the murdered and missing inquiry had a whole series of recommendations. The government said they were going to follow the recommendations but nothing has happened," Merchant said on Sunday.

The suit, which was launched in 2018, alleges systemic negligence on the part of the RCMP in investigating cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and says family members have been forced to endure mental anguish because of the RCMP's failure to properly investigate and prosecute the disappearances.

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said in an emailed statement that the government opposes certification of the lawsuit "for legal reasons that are specific to this case, as it is unprecedented in its breadth, is inconsistent with previous rulings surrounding private duty of care, and contains cases where the RCMP is not the police of jurisdiction."

"This decision in no way lessens the findings of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, nor our commitment to ending this national tragedy," Blair said.

The national inquiry delivered its final report in June 2019, concluding that decades of systemic racism and human rights violations played a role in the deaths and disappearances of hundreds of Indigenous women and girls.

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki apologized to the affected families when she appeared before the inquiry in 2018.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said last week the national action plan is coming soon. But he said the plan also requires input from provinces, territories, civil society groups and Indigenous organizations in order to form a thorough, cohesive report.

BigEagle met with the RCMP more than 50 times about her daughter's disappearance, but investigators did not pay attention or take notes during the meetings, the documents in the lawsuit allege. When she first disappeared, police allegedly dismissed BigEagle's complaint, saying her daughter would probably come home.

"It's still concerning that so much time has gone by and nothing has happened," Merchant said.

Blair, while acknowledging more needs to be done to strengthen trust with Indigenous people, noted the government has taken steps such as eliminating gender discrimination in the Indian Act, enacting legislation to protect Indigenous languages, and investing in housing, shelters, and programs to end gender-based violence.

He added the RCMP is working to attract Indigenous applicants and is implementing new initiatives for missing persons investigations.

"We remain committed to honouring those who have been lost, helping their families find peace and ensuring that Indigenous Women, Girls and LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit people are safe where they live."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2020.

M A B O N AUTUMNAL EQUINOX

 

Amazon land grabbers assail ecotourism paradise in Brazil

IMPERIALISM THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALISM


EXCERPT
PHOTO ESSAY 
By MAURICIO SAVARESE  

ALTER DO CHAO, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s Alter do Chao, a sleepy village that blends rainforest and beaches, bet on tourism and scored big. Visitors flocked here to eat Amazonian river fish while gazing out over the water, and to take day trips offering the chance to meet Indigenous people and see pink dolphins.

But this once pristine place is discovering that the perils of becoming a can’t-miss destination extend beyond hordes of weekend warriors sapping its unspoiled charm. Problems rife throughout the Amazon region — land grabbing, illegal deforestation and unsanctioned construction — are plaguing this ecotourism hot spot.

By 2018, land grabbing had grown so pervasive that one of Brazil’s environmental protection agencies said Alter do Chao needed “urgent interventions against the rise of invaders” so it could preserve 67% of its protected areas.

https://apnews.com/81d47a6a632bddba8f9fd9082768d867

  

A bulk carrier is loaded with corn at the Cargill port in Santarem, Para state, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

 

MASONS FAVORITE SEASON

 

Thai protesters install plaque symbolizing democracy
By TASSANEE VEJPONGSA

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Pro-democracy student leaders install a plaque declaring "This country belongs to the people" at the Sanam Luang field during a protest in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2020. Anti-government demonstrators occupying a historic field in the Thai capital on Sunday installed a plaque symbolizing the country's transition to democracy to replace the original one that was mysteriously ripped and stolen three years ago, as they vowed to press on with calls for new elections and reform of the monarchy. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)


BANGKOK (AP) — Anti-government demonstrators occupying a historic field in the Thai capital on Sunday installed a plaque symbolizing the country’s transition to democracy to replace the original one that was mysteriously ripped out and stolen three years ago, as they vowed to press on with calls for new elections and reform of the monarchy.

The mass student-led rally that began Saturday was the largest in a series of protests this year, with thousands camping overnight at Sanam Luang field near the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

A group of activists drilled a hole in front of a makeshift stage and, after Buddhist rituals, laid down a round brass plaque in cement to commemorate the 1932 revolution that changed Thailand from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.

“At the dawn of Sept. 20, here is where the people proclaim that this country belongs to the people,” read part of the inscription on the plaque. In April 2017, the original plaque vanished from Bangkok’s Royal Plaza and was replaced by one praising the monarchy.

“The nation does not belong to only one person, but belongs to us all,” student leader Parit “Penguin” Chirawak told the crowd. “Therefore, I would like to ask holy spirits to stay with us and bless the people’s victory.”

Another activist, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, said their demands do not propose getting rid of the monarchy. “They are proposals with good intentions to make the institution of the monarchy remain graciously above the people under democratic rule,” Panusaya said.

Still, such calls took the nation by surprise. Protesters’ demands seek to limit the king’s powers, establish tighter controls on palace finances and allow open discussion of the monarchy. Their boldness was unprecedented, as the monarchy is considered sacrosanct in Thailand, with a harsh law that mandates a three- to 15-year prison term for defaming it.

The protesters later attempted to march toward the Grand Palace to hand over a petition seeking royal reforms to the head of the Privy Council, the king’s advisers, but were blocked by police barricades. One of them, Panusaya, was allowed to deliver the petition, which was addressed to the king. It was received by a police official, who promised to forward it to the council.

Just before the rally ended, Parit called for a general strike on Oct. 14, the anniversary of a popular student uprising in 1973 that ended a military dictatorship after dozens were killed by police. He also urged people to withdraw their funds and close their accounts at Siam Commercial Bank, in which the king is the biggest shareholder. Calls for comment to the bank, also known as SCB, and several of its corporate communications executives went unanswered or did not connect.

Parit also called for another protest Thursday outside parliament to follow up on the protesters’ demands.

Organizers had predicted that as many as 50,000 people would take part in the weekend protest, but Associated Press reporters estimated that around 20,000 were present by Saturday evening.

Tyrell Haberkorn, a Thai studies scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that by holding their protest at Sanam Luang, a longtime “site of recreation and protest for the people, taken over in recent years by the monarchy,” the protesters “have won a significant victory.”

“Their resounding message is that Sanam Luang, and the country, belong to the people,” he said in an email.

The crowd were a disparate batch. They included an LGBTQ contingent waving iconic rainbow banners while red flags sprouted across the area, representing Thailand’s Red Shirt political movement, which battled the country’s military in Bangkok’s streets 10 years ago.

There were skits and music, and speakers gave fiery speeches late Saturday accusing the government of incompetence, corruption in the military and failing to protect women’s rights. At least 8,000 police officers were reportedly deployed for the event.

“The people who came here today came here peacefully and are really calling for democracy,” said Panupong Jadnok, one of the protest leaders.

Their core demands were the dissolution of parliament with fresh elections, a new constitution and an end to intimidation of political activists.

They believe that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who as army commander led a 2014 coup toppling an elected government, was returned to power unfairly in last year’s general election because the laws had been changed to favor a pro-military party. Protesters say a constitution promulgated under military rule is undemocratic.

The students are too young to have been caught up in the sometimes violent partisan battles that roiled Thailand a decade ago, said Kevin Hewison, a University of North Carolina professor emeritus and a veteran Thai studies scholar.

“What the regime and its supporters see is relatively well-off kids turned against them and this confounds them,” he said.

The appearance of the Red Shirts, while boosting the protest numbers, links the new movement to mostly poor rural Thais, supporters of former populist billionaire Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup. Thaksin was opposed by the country’s traditional royalist establishment.

The sometimes violent struggle between Thaksin’s supporters and the conservative foes left Thai society polarized. Thaksin, who now lives in exile, noted on Twitter on Saturday that it was the anniversary of his fall from power and posed the rhetorical question of how the nation had fared since then.

“If we had a good government, a democratic government, our politics, our education and our healthcare system would be better than this,” said protester Amorn Panurang. “This is our dream. And we hope that our dream will come true.”

Arrests for earlier actions on charges including sedition have failed to faze the young activists. They had been denied permission to enter the Thammasat University campus and Sanam Luang on Saturday, but when they pushed, the authorities retreated, even though police warned them that they were breaking the law.