Climate group spray paints Ottawa Tesla dealership to protest Elon Musk

Pink paint was sprayed onto the Tesla dealership on Carling Avenue in Ottawa March 31, 2025. (Brad Quinn/CTV News Ottawa)

The climate activist group Last Generation Canada has sprayed pink paint on an Ottawa Tesla dealership several days after targeting the U.S. embassy with the same stunt.

The group says it is protesting Tesla CEO Elon Musk as part of global protests over Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration in the U.S.

A photo released by the group show pink paint spray painted on the front of the Tesla dealership on Carling Avenue. The paint remained on the dealership by the time a CTV News Ottawa camera arrived.

Ottawa police say a 19-year-old woman was arrested and charged with mischief. Last Generation Canada says her bail hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

Earlier this month, a protester with the group sprayed the washable pink paint on the front of the U.S. embassy in Ottawa before being arrested. A day before that, two people were arrested for a similar act at a Tesla dealership in Montreal.

“Elon Musk has Trump in his back pocket. Along with their club of billionaire oligarchs, they are trying to spread their fascist dictatorship by fanning the fire of far-right hate. The exploitative capitalist system they fiercely protect is leading us to climate collapse,” the group said in a statement Monday.

The protests come as the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump announced plans to roll back dozens of environmental protection regulations. It also comes at a time of rising tension between Canada and the United States over Trump’s repeated comments to annex Canada as the “51st state.” Musk heads the “Department of Government Efficiency” in the U.S., which has made major cuts to federal departments, including the U.S. National Weather Service.

Last Generation Canada says it wants the Canadian government to “stand up to” Musk, and to create a national climate disaster protection agency, funded by levying high taxes on the ultra-rich.

The protest group was formerly known as On2Ottawa, which held a series of protests in Ottawa in 2023 to call for a national firefighting agency to battle wildfires. On Aug. 29, 2023, a protester splashed paint on a Tom Thomson piece hanging in the National Gallery of Canada—the piece was not damaged. Previous actions by the group also included splashing paint on the Prime Minister’s Office in downtown Ottawa and having a topless woman run on stage during the 2023 Juno Awards.