Environmental activists in Alberta are taking an unorthodox approach to getting their message heard, by training a new generation of protesters at a specialized boot camp.
At the five-day camp, participants are taught how to scale walls, hang banners, hold protests and undergo media training.
"It's going to teach people skills and everything from grassroots organizing to non-violent direct action, to action-climbing and media skills," camp organizer Mike Hudema told CTV's Canada AM.
The camp's 50 participants are mainly from Alberta, but there are participants from British Columbia, Quebec, and the Northwest Territories attending the sessions.
The camp is free of charge and the sessions are being led by veteran trainers who have worked with groups such as Greenpeace.
The goal of many of the participants will be to protest the effect of Alberta's oil sands projects are having on climate change.
"It's really to try and send the Alberta and federal government, a very clear message that Canada can't handle developing the Alberta tar sands," Hudema said.
According to a Canadian Press report, Alberta's oilsands reserves are plentiful and second only to Saudi Arabia in size.
Environmental activists say that they have set up the boot camp because of the obstacles they encountered trying to get their message heard through traditional venues.
"It comes out of a real sense of frustration," Hudema said. "A lot of us have really tried to engage in the current democratic process of attending public hearings, to speak out against this project of pressuring the government through petitions and letter writings from filing legal challenges.
"Basically, it's all falling on deaf ears, because the Alberta and the federal governments' interests really lie in the oil and gas sector. So unfortunately we have to resort to some of these tactics to really signal the alarm."
While the boot camp aims to teach their pupils effective protesting strategies, violent confrontations are not encouraged, participants say.
"It's completely non-violent training," camp participant Meredith James told Canada AM. "We definitely don't advocate violence."
With files from The Canadian Press
