Climate protests planned on Cambie Bridge, Georgia Viaduct this weekend

People taking part in an Extinction Rebellion protest against old-growth logging march onto the empty Cambie Bridge, in Vancouver, B.C., Saturday, March 27, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Vancouver -

Climate change activists are planning to march onto Vancouver's Cambie Bridge and the Georgia Viaduct this weekend to protest old growth logging and Canada's reliance on fossil fuels.

Extinction Rebellion said members are meeting downtown at 11 a.m. Saturday before occupying both traffic arteries "for as long as possible."

"I cannot stand by as governments increase fossil fuel subsidies, build fossil fuel infrastructure that will lock Canada into the carbon economy for decades to come, allow the last old growth forests to be cut down, and fail to make any real attempt to meet our inadequate (greenhouse gas) emission targets," Brent Eichler, president of Unifor local 950, said in a news release.

The group, which has organized several previous protests in the Lower Mainland, said it has consulted with first responders and will be ensuring emergency vehicles can continue using the bridge and viaduct.

Simultaneous protests have been planned in other cities across the country, including Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto.

Extinction Rebellion pointed to the recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which the United Nations called a "code red for humanity." The IPCC warned that warming temperatures are already accelerating sea level rise and causing more extreme heat waves, droughts, floods and storms.

Extinction Rebellion said Saturday's event is just the first in a series of national protest actions planned over the coming months. The public can expect more "large-scale nonviolent civil disobedience" on Sept. 25 and on multiple dates in the second half of October, the group said.

With files from The Associated Press