Interview with Angus Kennedy and ALPACA

Earlier this semester, in late September, I had the chance to interview Angus Kennedy, a fourth-year Honours Biology student, who is a recognized student leader and pioneer on campus. Mainly as president and founder of the Antigonish League of People Advocating for Climate Action, a student society (ALPACA StFX) and community organization (ALPACA) at StFX and in Antigonish. He is currently working on his honours thesis and is also the Captain for the X-Men Rowing Club team. Ethan Copp (Class of ‘24), who has also been on the StFX Men’s rowing team since his first year, is featured in this article as well. Finally, I was able to reach out to some esteemed StFX alumni, Alex Cook (Class of ‘23) and Peter MacGregor (Class of ‘23), who are featured at the end of this article.

Why did you start ALPACA in the first place?

      In the summer of 2021, I was driving home from a landfill that I had been using as a site of a study I was doing. I was listening to the radio with my field partner and the CBC was reporting on the most recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report. They were reporting that the IPCC found we were already past some of the climate change tipping points that they had previously warned of. I was frustrated. I knew we were not changing things as fast as we needed to. I started thinking about what could be done and I thought about activism and advocacy. I brought this idea to some friends of mine who had similar environmental inclinations, Peter MacGregor, Ethan Copp, and Alex Cook. Together we decided to start the Antigonish League of People for Climate Action (ALPCA) later changed to the Antigonish League of People Advocating for Climate Action.

Why are you still running it?

      I'm still running it because, simply, I have not yet left Antigonish, and I still feel I have much to contribute to this group and the environmental movement in Antigonish.

Why do you think it's important to keep it going?

      We need to keep going because there is still so much work to do. To be frank, it doesn't feel like we have accomplished many concrete things at StFX since our inception. We have put on events, made progress on some projects, and built momentum and organization, but we are far from the accomplishments we hope to achieve.

      Momentum can die quickly for movements at post-secondary institutions. Students graduate and then whatever project they had been working disappears. So, we need to keep ALPACA or an environmental group like it going, so that when one group of students graduate the movement doesn't need to start all over again.

Do you worry at all about it not continuing when you leave StFX? Why or why not?

      I have worried about it not continuing after I left StFX. When we started everyone involved was a part of my immediate friend group. Last year a lot of them graduated. This year though we have a good number of 2nd and 3rd years getting involved, which puts my mind at ease. I think that ALPACA will be in good hands when I leave, and I wish them the best of luck.

What are some of the goals of ALPACA? Have some of those goals been accomplished?

      ALPACA's broad goals are, as outlined in our constitution: 1. To serve and protect the environmental needs of the Town and County of Antigonish, their wider communities, and the world as a whole, and 2. To promote accountability and ambition on environmental goals and benchmarks within the Town and County of Antigonish, as well as their surrounding communities.

      Those goals are a little abstract to declare as accomplished, but we do have some specific projects that we are looking at. Those projects being Divest@X, a project to get StFX fully divested from fossil fuels, the replacement of the heating plant on campus, making transit in Antigonish more efficient and accessible, and stopping Atlantic Gold's gold mine project near Archibald's Lake in Guysborough County. The only of those that is resolved is the gold mine project. I'm unsure how much you can attribute that to us, but Atlantic Gold, to our knowledge has given up there. The other projects are still being worked on.

Finally, I reached out to Ethan Copp, Alex Cook and Peter MacGregor to learn about what they are up to these days.

Ethan Copp is a fourth year Honours Climate and Environment (CLEN) student from Palmer Alaska. These days, he says that he is “working on completing my degree and doing research on air quality in Kincaid Park in Alaska”. Upon completing his degree, he intends to “go home and pursue graduate school at Alaska Pacific University in the Outdoor and Environmental education program”. Additionally, it is his final year of rowing, so he is finishing with his last few regattas as well. 

Alex Cook and Peter MacGregor have both relocated to the western side of Canada for the year upon graduating last spring. I was curious to see what they were up to, knowing that they were heavily involved as organizers within ALPACA, and remembering them as being leaders and mentors in and out of the StFX Rowing team. I asked them what they were doing now. Here is what they had to say:

“My name is Alex and I recently graduated from StFX with a Bachelor of Arts, Major in Psychology. I was a part of ALPACA for two years, as the social media coordinator and the Fridays for Future organizer with Franny [MacGregor]. I am currently taking a year off school, where I am living out West and working! I am planning on coming back to StFX in the Fall of 2024 for the BEd program. My name is Peter and I also graduated from StFX this spring! I graduated with an honours in biology. When I was a part of ALPACA I sort of helped to organize all different facets of the club, but focused mainly on our work with the Saint Mary's Association and Archibald Lake. I am living in Revelstoke for the winter to enjoy the mountains and winter there while I figure out what my next step will be!”