Fucks Given By Jane Fonda, By Subject: Climate (Many); War (Many); Critics (Zero)

On Sunday, Jane Fonda came to Toronto to support the Jobs, Justice, and the Climate march—where around 10,000 people gathered to call on Canada to embrace a low-carbon economy.

I sat down with her on a bench in Queen's Park to talk about why she came and her long career as a—sometimes controversial—activist. She showed up, rocking a brown poncho and park ranger-esque hat about ten inches high.

Fonda, a staunch anti-war activist, got the nickname "Hanoi Jane" after posing for photos with Vietnamese soldiers in North Vietnam in 1972 during the war. She recently apologized for the blunder, which offended many American veterans, but that whole thing was off-limits during our conversation. "We're not going there," she said right before we got started.

And it's hard to fight back against Fonda, who's approaching 78. Taking off the hat for the cameras, she told us, was a deal-breaker. Then when some weirdo appeared from the woods halfway through the interview and started yelling at Fonda about G20 nonsense, she had none of it. "NO! I'm being interviewed!" she shouted back with a raised hand. He shut up and slumped away. After we wrapped up, he came crawling back to apologize—she accepted and indulged him with one question

VICE: Why are you here today?
Fonda: Something happened to me several months ago that was very important. I've been an activist for 50 years, I've been an environmental activist among other things. Of late, I've been focusing on gender issues and I thought, well, the big environmental groups are taking care of that issue. And then I read Naomi Klein's book, This Changes Everything, about the climate. It did change me. It changed everything about my life. Also, at the same time I got involved with this march, President Obama gave permission to Shell Oil to drill in the Arctic, and that was like the bottom of my heart dropped out. I like him and he's done good things for the environment, but how he could have done that, I just cannot fathom.

I'm going onto 78 years old and I thought, well, I guess the kind of fire in the belly, going to the barricades, being willing to get arrested, those days are over. I find myself reading articles about species going extinct and I'd say to my boyfriend, "We don't deserve to survive, what we're doing is so awful." I read Naomi's book and I thought that's a really bad attitude. I'm going to stop saying we don't deserve, and I'm going to get out there back to the barricades. I want my children to look back and say, "Grandma was on the right side, she did everything she could to make things better in the future."

Real action on climate change seems to rest in the hands of politicians—they are the ones who make the policies and have the power to make things change. What impact, then, can activists like yourself really have?
I love that question. It's the most fundamental question. We cannot rely on politicians. Ideally, what we try to do is get the best we can get elected to office. We have to look very carefully at which ones don't take money from the fossil fuel industry. The only thing that will make a difference is pressure from the ground. Slavery ended because of organization on the ground and the people who said: this is it, it's over, we can't do it, it's inhumane. Germany will soon have 50 percent renewable energy, and that's because of mass mobilization on the ground, and a powerful Green party. All the changes that matter happen because of people power on the ground.

There are many activists from abroad here. Some Canadians might be critical of others coming in and telling us what to do with our economy, our environment.
First of all, people are coming outside of Canada forthe Pan Am Climate Summitand the Pan Am Games. Secondly, it's the same reason why Canadians—some famous ones like David Suzuki—come to America for marches and rallies. The pipelines, tar sands, and fracking that happens in Canada affects us in the US. This is a global problem, so people have to come together.

You were just in Vancouver last month for the Toast the Coast protest against Arctic drilling and pipelines, working alongside First Nations leaders there. What are some of the ways they have influenced you and the work you do on this topic?
When I first became an activist, it was around the Vietnam war, but it was also around issues of what had been done by Europeans to indigenous people in the United States. I went onto many reservations and met with Native Americans and marched with them, and my feeling was that they didn't really want me here. That it was like, "Go away, celebrity." And it was hard to be an activist alongside First Nations people at that time. But over the time, European and Canadian environmentalists, in particular, have developed a working relationship with and respect for First Nations peoples that changed everything.

So in Vancouver, it was moving to me to be able to be there alongside—very comfortably, with no tension—leaders of the First Nations people. The courage that they have shown, standing, blocking with their bodies, the expansion of the Enbridge pipeline and other pipelines that want to bring the tar sands oil—the worst kind of oil—to the coast of BC and they have actually stopped some of these pipelines. And it's like, "I'm with you, man." The stories First Nations people have told me about what climate change and the oil industry has done to their families and homes: not being able to breathe, asthma, cancers. These are people who live off the grid in what was once pristine land and forests. And now, within a kilometre of their homes, there's fracking pits.

Looking back on your career as an activist, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced? And what advice do you give the young activists you work with?
It's OK to be not liked. You know, there's been a whole lot of hostility brought my way. And I understand that. If you're somebody who wants everybody to love you, it's really hard to be an activist. You're always going to be making someone mad. You just have to feel in your gut, I know who I am, I know this is the right thing to do. I want to also say to young people, don't think it's your responsibility to clean up the mess we've made. Older people have to be ready to fight and die ahead of young people because it's our fault. It's great there are young people here, my grandson is here with me today, I don't want them to feel it's all on their shoulders.

What's next for your in role as climate activist?
Well you'll just have to wait and see. I have a few surprises up my sleeve.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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