OTTAWA—Canada’s environment minister raised concern with United Nations organizers after hearing that an Indigenous-led protest was shut down by security at the global climate change conference in Madrid on Wednesday, his office confirmed.

Sabrina Kim, press secretary to Canada’s environment minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, told the Star that Wilkinson wrote to the secretariat organizing the conference and “expressed concern” about security’s handling of a protest that — according to the Assembly of First Nations — included Canadian delegates to the climate summit.

Kim said the minister notified Global Affairs of the incident but is not aware of any Canadians that were arrested.

François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, posted on Twitter that “we are aware of this incident” and that the embassy in Madrid is “actively engaged.”

In a post on social media, Perry Bellegarde, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), said his organization is “aware that a group of Indigenous youth (including many from Canada) have arbitrarily been detained for a peaceful protest” at the conference.

An official from the AFN who witnessed the protest told the Star that security detained the demonstrators in a “courtyard” before removing their access badges. The official said the AFN is also not aware that any Canadians were arrested.

In her own post to social media, Green MP Elizabeth May — who is attending the conference with the Canadian delegation — said a “peaceful” demonstration for “climate action was pushed aside, with hundreds pulled from building. Youth I met after were still shaken.”

She also thanked Wilkinson, adding that the “Canadian response was heartening,” and that the demonstrators had since been released.

Catherine Abreu, executive director of the Climate Action Network Canada, also posted about the incident, criticizing UN security and thanking Wilkinson for “promising to speak to the #COP25 presidency to stop this insanity and let (people) back in.”

The Star was unable to verify details of the protest or the response by security.

UN spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino told the Star there was a protest Wednesday that breached the rules of conduct for conference delegates because it disrupted proceedings. She said UN officials have since met with relevant organizations and civil society groups to “work on a solution” to what happened.

“We’re very aware of the situation and it is never our intention to censor civil society and especially youth who have been so key in making their voices heard and bringing the climate issue to the fore,” Soto Nino said.

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The annual climate conference is part of the international process that created the Paris Agreement, a deal signed by almost every country in the world to restrain global warming below two degrees C this century.

Under the agreement, Canada promised to slash greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, though current policies are not enough to hit that target, according to a projection by the federal government released last year.

During the election campaign this fall, the Liberals vowed to “exceed” that 2030 target and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

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