Al Gore graduates from Concordia
Sebastien Cadieux & Brian Hastien
Issue date: 4/3/07 Section: News
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Media Credit: UNDP/UNEP
The Link (Concordia University)
MONTREAL (CUP) - Concordia president Claude Lajeunesse was booed as he took the stage to give Al Gore an honorary doctorate from the university on March 22.
The brainchild of Concordia Student Union president Khaleed Juma, the doctorate was presented while the crowd, present to listen to speeches from Gore and David Suzuki, filed out the exits after the question and answer period with Gore was cancelled.
The talk took place in the cadre of Less Talk, More Action: A Youth Action Summit on Climate Change, organized by Youth Action Montreal members and Concordia University students Peter Schiefke and Mohamed Shuriye.
Gore and Suzuki's message was clear: The world is in imminent danger if we continue our current habits and don't change towards a more eco-friendly society.
The former U.S. vice-president's speech was effectively his Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth with updated statistics, and presented by an angrier, fist-shaking Gore.
His presentation was halted at least twice as opponents to his agenda began to shout out.
They called him a liar and a villain, and screamed, "What about your swimming pools?" in regards to recent allegations that the monthly electricity bill of Gore's estate rivalled a year's bill for the average American home.
This led Gore to joke, "I don't even know if you guys are left- or right-wing".
Suzuki also made a 45-minute speech on the topic du jour. The speech was punctuated by numerous bouts of applause from a rather enthusiastic audience.
He espoused that the media should play a more central role in the way it informs the public, saying, "Over half of all Nobel Prize winners are telling us we could have as little as 10 years to avoid a catastrophe and this is pronounced by our media as 'not newsworthy'.
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