PHOTOS: Climate group gathers in Victoria to mark 5 years since heat dome
Published 4:00 pm Monday, June 29, 2026
Victoria marked the fifth anniversary of the hottest day ever recorded in the city with a ceremony in “remembrance, solidarity and commitment to protecting communities from future extreme heat events.”
“If we don’t commemorate the deaths, these climate disasters and how disastrous they are, we’re not going to take the kind of climate action that we need to prevent future disasters,” said Eric Doherty, a spokesperson for Climate Justice Victoria and event co-organizer.
Eric Doherty is a member of Climate Justice Victoria. (Olivier Laurin/Victoria News)
The June 28 event marked the peak of the 2021 heat dome, which spanned June 25 to July 1 and was responsible for the deaths of 600 people in B.C.
In the wake of this tragedy, Doherty and his group contend that those deaths were caused by burning fossil fuels over several decades. He added that the tragedy could have been averted if previous governments had not denied the climate crisis.
While commemoration was one of the event’s main goals, raising awareness about the current climate crisis was another.
Doherty said he hoped the gathering would spark discussions among attendees, their loved ones and next of kin, and potentially start a chain reaction demanding climate action from politicians.
“The clearest one is to stop subsidizing fossil fuels like fracked gas being exported at LNG,” he said. “Shift those billions of dollars over to renewable energy, to public transit and subsidizing heat pumps for people.”
Other ways to make a difference, Doherty argued, included connecting with local climate action groups and getting involved in bringing climate issues to the forefront of the public agenda.
“Most people in this region have a pretty dramatic heat dome story, and we need to get people talking to their friends and families about this,” he said. “One of the most important climate actions you can do is to talk about the climate crisis.”
With this summer set to welcome an El Niño – a natural climate pattern bringing temperatures much warmer than average – other heat-related deaths may be on the horizon.
However, Doherty believes it is not too late to bring changes and avert another tragedy in the near and far future.
“A lot of young people are really just depressed, and they’re feeling betrayed by politicians, and by the older generations,” he said. “But we can create a situation where young people actually think they have a future as opposed to now.”
