Climate organization spray paints Tesla dealership in protest of Elon Musk

Last Generation Canada, a climate organization, has claimed responsibility for spray painting the Ottawa Tesla showroom pink, following a similar act in Montreal on March 19.

The organization says its acts stand in protest to Elon Musk’s intrusion of the U.S. government.

“Last Generation Canada is demanding that Canada stand up to Tesla’s billionaire CEO Elon Musk, who is destroying democracies and spreading climate denial,” the organization says in a press release. The organization is also demanding that Canada set up a Climate Disaster Protection Agency to help those whose homes and lives have been destroyed by extreme weather. The group wants the government to pay for the agency by levying what they call “punitive taxes against the ultra-rich, who are overwhelmingly responsible for the climate crisis.”

At 10 a.m. Monday morning, 19-year-old Eulalie Reesink-Babillon covered the front of the Ottawa Tesla showroom in washable pink paint. The action, Last Generation Canada says, is in solidarity with the Tesla Takedown Global Day of Action, which was held on March 29.

“I took this action because our government prioritizes Big Oil and corporate giants like Tesla over its own people. This year, Los Angeles burned, exposing the U.S. government’s complete lack of preparedness—29 lives were lost. Canada is just as unprepared for the climate catastrophes we’re going to see this summer,” Reesink-Babillon says in a press release. “The Trump administration continues to condemn nonviolent resistance like ours, proving that civil disobedience is effective. The time for civil resistance is now.”

Reesink-Babillon was arrested after the act and is currently being held overnight at the Ottawa police station. Her bail hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.

As the fight for climate justice increasingly becomes threatened south of the border, the Government of Canada is set to eliminate its own consumer carbon tax April 1.