Protesters held back by police as Canada-EU summit kicks off in St. John’s brewpub

As some of the wealthiest and most influential people in Newfoundland and Labrador welcomed world leaders inside a St. John’s bar Thursday night, dozens of police officers held back an equal number of protesters outside.

They chanted for an end to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and a free Palestine. They chanted for politicians to be charged with genocide.

When they got too close to the narrow road outside Quidi Vidi Brewery, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary herded the protesters back to the curb and stood in a line opposite them, with a pair of officers on horses hanging back from the crowd.

The scene was visible from the rear windows of the bar, but the Canadian prime minister made no reference to the tensions outside as he introduced the heads of the European Council and European Commission.

“I’ll be your MC for the evening,” he joked. “My name is Justin.”

The Canada-EU summit is taking place in scenic St. John’s, but the backdrop for the event is a geopolitical mess, as referenced several times throughout the brief speeches Thursday evening.

“When we are facing so difficult geopolitical challenges, it’s important to count on sincere friends,” said European Council President Charles Michel. “We are fighting at an international level to try to convince the international community to do more, to co-operate more, to co-ordinate much more.”

Some of those issues are on the agenda for Friday’s meetings, including the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Green hydrogen front and centre

EU officials have said the location for the mini summit was “carefully chosen.” One of the reasons was plain to see when scanning the room Thursday evening — it was a who’s who of the province’s burgeoning hydrogen industry.

The summit comes one year after Germany signed a green energy agreement with Canada on the west coast of Newfoundland, focused heavily on the production and export of green hydrogen — that is, hydrogen produced by splitting water using renewable energy such as wind and solar.

John Risley, a seafood mogul behind one of the largest proposed hydrogen projects in the province, says he wants to see the European leaders make it easier for users on their own side of the Atlantic make the switch to burning green hydrogen. As of 2021, nearly all the hydrogen used worldwide was made from unabated fossil fuels, also known as “grey hydrogen,” which, unlike green hydrogen, has no climate benefit.

“We want to see more specificity from the European Union as to what support it’s going to provide not to us, but to users in Europe,” Risley told CBC News. “Users in Europe need help getting from where they are now, using grey to using green.”

There are currently five active green hydrogen proposals in Newfoundland. Risley’s company — World Energy GH2 — was the first to submit an environmental assessment.

EU leader shares 9/11 story

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was the last to speak on Thursday evening, and told the story of her personal connection to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Her husband was on a flight to Washington, D.C., on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Von der Leyen was home with their seven children when she heard about the attacks over the radio.

For the next 15 hours, she waited to hear from her husband.

“Then I got a phone call,” she said. “My husband called me. He said, ‘Don’t worry. Everything is fine. I am in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador.'”

Von der Leyen said her husband spent 10 hours waiting in a plane on the tarmac before he was allowed into the airport. There, the town of 9,000 people took in 6,600 strangers. He spent the next five days eating home-cooked meals, showering at people’s homes and borrowing their clothes.

“He was overwhelmed by the people of Newfoundland and Labrador and how they welcomed him.”

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