If we're looking in terms of climate crisis or exposure to environmental pollution that threatens human health, there's no question that there are class issues. We don't like to talk about class in Canada because I think we are kind of a classless society. People can be upwardly mobile and all of that, but the reality of it is that, if you are low on the economic totem pole, you are low on political power.
If you want to look at who died, the over 600—I think 700—people who died in four days from the heat dome in British Columbia, in that lens you'll find primarily people who are low income. You can slice it again. I'm not arguing that, when you look at the data, environmental racism is a clear factor, but so, too, is the intersectionality around being low income. Low income means less political power, which means that the government decided not to open cooling centres or do things to save lives. I can't imagine why not, but I sometimes refer to the heat dome impact as being the neutron bomb of climate change.
Neutron bombs, as you will recall, destroy people but leave the buildings standing. A heat dome kills people but the buildings are still standing. Hurricane Fiona and atmospheric rivers of the climate crisis kill people and destroy infrastructure. Heat domes just kill people.