As they marched through the streets in 2019, Ashley Torres and Louis Couillard did not expect a protest would alter the trajectory of their lives. Then 23 and 22 years old, the student organizers did not expect tens of thousands of people would turn up in Montreal for the youth-led global climate strike. They did not expect, five years later, to be dedicating their lives to climate justice as campaigners for non-profit advocacy groups.
And the pair, who met during a feverish series of organizing meetings ahead of the March 15 protest, did not expect to be raising a two-year-old daughter together. “It became this pivotal moment in my life where it really just sort of changed the direction quite a bit and really solidified what I wanted to do with my life,” said the now 28-year-old Torres, who works with Mères Au Front, a movement of mothers organizing around climate chang