McGill says pro-Palestinian protest outside senior administrator's home 'crosses the line'
McGill University has denounced a pro-Palestinian protest held Sunday outside the home of one of its senior administrators.
Canadian entrepreneur Craig Cohon is on an epic guilt trip that’s already cost him $1 million and taken him across Europe, not as the jet-setter he once was, but by walking up to 40 kilometres a day, for six months, until he reaches Istanbul.
Cohon is doing the reverse route of climate refugees to talk about CO2 emissions.
“They usually walk from Istanbul to London, I wanted to go the opposite way,” he told CTV News, while making his way through southern Bulgaria on day 137 of his journey.
Indeed, Cohon is reversing in more ways than one. He’s done what no other private citizen has publicly done before: he went back in time and calculated his carbon footprint. And it’s a big one.
As a former executive who launched Coca Cola in Russia and then co-owned the Cirque du Soleil in that country, he says he flew to and from Moscow at least 250 times. There were also holidays in Palm Beach, Ethiopia, Stockholm, Paris, Argentina, and the list goes on.
“This issue around CO2, I didn't understand it until two years ago,” he said.
“I was wondering how much damage I personally have done and then a journalist said, ‘Well why don't you remove your lifetime carbon footprint Craig?’ And I said, ‘You know what? I'm going to do that.’”
Cohon didn’t just count the executive air miles, he also counted the childhood Big Macs. Twice a week, he would eat at McDonald’s where his father worked, a routine that lasted years. Add it all up and you’ve got a carbon footprint 28 times bigger than the average Canadian’s, which Cohon decided to offset by draining his pension fund.
“I took my pension fund of a million dollars and figured out how to remove my historic footprint, not my future footprint, by sucking carbon out of the environment,” he said.
He says he enjoyed all the all the trappings of consumerism and consumption until he understood the unintended consequences. He’s now going from town to town, to speak to European mayors, “trying to get some action on this issue about removing two trillion tons of carbon.”
In a promotional video, Cohon’s friend, writer-producer Leonard Dick said “you could call this ‘Entitled rich guy walks across Europe’ but to Craig's credit, he owns it, he realises the life he has led.”
Cohon is not sleeping in five star hotels during this journey. His nights are spent in a 15-square-metre container he’s occasionally shared with CEOs of big corporations “to make them uncomfortable and shift their minds,” he said.
During a cost-of-living crisis, the unlikely activist admits this is a privileged problem, “therefor it’s my problem to solve” he told CTV News.
Cohon is scheduled to complete his journey in Istanbul on June 5.
McGill University has denounced a pro-Palestinian protest held Sunday outside the home of one of its senior administrators.
If you've been to a party lately and haven't seen someone drinking a BORG, you're likely not partying with college students.
Singapore Airlines will reward its employees with a bonus worth nearly eight months of salary, a person familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday.
Katy Perry said her goodbyes on 'American Idol' after seven seasons. On Sunday night’s live 'idol' season finale, a medley of Perry's hit songs were performed, including 'Teenage Dream,' 'Dark Horse' and 'California Gurls.'
U.S.-based restaurant chain Red Lobster has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Florida court after securing $100 million in financing commitments from its existing lenders, the company said on Sunday.
A federal judge will reopen the sentencing hearing for the man who broke into Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco home and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer after the judge failed to allow him to speak during his court appearance last week.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by a Canadian-born former Guantanamo detainee who was seeking to wipe away his war crimes convictions, including for killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.
Microsoft wants laptop users to get so comfortable with its artificial intelligence chatbot that it will remember everything you're doing on your computer and help figure out what you want to do next.
A 35-year-old woman is in critical condition after the pick-up truck she was driving was struck by a Via Rail passenger train Monday morning in Quebec's Monteregie region.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.