29 Facts About Mike Hudema

Micheal George Henry Hudema is a Canadian activist who has worked for advocacy organizations including Greenpeace, Global Exchange, the University of Alberta Students' Union, and the Ruckus Society.

Mike Hudema is best known for his work opposing the development of the Alberta oil sands and reliance on fossil fuels in general, but has engaged in civil liberties and student activism.

Mike Hudema is the published author of a book on direct action tactics.

Mike Hudema was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta in 1976 from Ukrainian and English origin parents and attended Crescent Heights High School.

Mike Hudema graduated from the University of Alberta with a bachelor of education, majoring in drama, and a bachelor of law degree, specializing in labour and environmental law.

Mike Hudema protested the opening of the Cheviot mine near Hinton, Alberta in 2004 by setting up a mock open pit mine on the lawn of Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan's constituency office.

Mike Hudema has opposed the harvesting of Alberta's boreal forest, and in 2004 followed logging executives down the Athabasca River as the executives took a boat trip as part of a logging conference.

In 2005, Mike Hudema was hired as the Freedom From Oil Director for Global Exchange, and relocated from Edmonton to San Francisco.

In 2006, Mike Hudema implored Canadians to "save hockey" by fighting climate change, which he called "the biggest threat to hockey since the NHL labor talks".

In July 2007, Mike Hudema returned to Edmonton to work as the Climate and Energy Campaigner for Greenpeace Canada at its newly opened Edmonton office, which was created to lobby for an end to the Alberta oil sands, which Mike Hudema called "one of the dirtiest, oiliest projects in the world".

Mike Hudema made headlines after the election when he and two other Greenpeace volunteers lowered a banner - reading "$telmach, the best premier oil money can buy" - behind Stelmach at a fundraising dinner.

In September 2011, Mike Hudema helped organize the largest climate-related civil disobedience action in Canadian history when more than 200 people risked arrest on Parliament Hill by crossing a police line set-up to bar public entry into the building.

Mike Hudema is a "climb trainer" for the Ruckus Society, and has held activist training camps which teach aspiring activists skills ranging from climbing to blockades.

In 2002, Mike Hudema was elected president of the University of Alberta Students' Union, defeating six opponents after campaigning on a more militant approach to tuition and on increased interaction between the Students' Union's elected officials and its members.

Mike Hudema's candidacy came after his activities as a member of the Student Worker Action Group, which had been critical of the previous president's more moderate approach to opposing tuition increases, including efforts to support the reduction of tuition increases, rather than insisting on their elimination.

Mike Hudema opposed the extension of degree granting powers to colleges, advocated against the inclusion of education in the General Agreement on Trade in Services and Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, and unsuccessfully lobbied the City of Edmonton to stop assessing property taxes on university residences.

Mike Hudema expanded the Students' Union's involvement in environmental issues - creating a Students' Union environmental office, spearheading an energy audit of the Students' Union's building, passing an ethical buying and purchasing policy, helping to open a Women's Centre on campus, and founding a car pool registry.

Mike Hudema created the Revolutionary Speaker Series; the speakers that Hudema brought to the series included consumer advocate and American presidential candidate Ralph Nader, environmentalist David Suzuki, author Inga Musico, and Palestinian activist Younis al Khatib.

Mike Hudema helped create a new university course on citizenship and activism, which he suggested should become mandatory for all undergraduate students.

Mike Hudema was criticized during his time as president for being too focused on tuition and for fostering an adversarial relationship with the university administration.

Mike Hudema was criticized for politicizing historically apolitical events, opposing an increase in law school tuition despite support for the increase from the law students' association, and for using the campus food bank to make political points.

Mike Hudema was charged, along with other members of the EBS, with "unlawfully and willfully altering, defacing or destroying a ballot or the initials of the Deputy Returning Officer signed on a ballot contrary to section 167 of the Canada Elections Act thereby committing an offence under subsection 489".

In March 2004, Mike Hudema said that he was unsure whether he was going to vote in the 2004 federal election, saying that he went "back and forth" on the question of whether it was more useful to perform a "theatrical" stunt to draw attention to problems with the electoral system or to work to get progressive candidates elected.

Mike Hudema was critical of the US-led invasion of Iraq, which he called "an occupation by a rogue state".

Mike Hudema has attributed the invasion to North America's "addiction to oil".

Mike Hudema opposes most trade liberalization, and protested at both the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas negotiations in Quebec City with the theatre troupe FUNK in 2001 and the G8 summit in Kananaskis in 2002.

Mike Hudema was featured in the 2011 Canadian documentary Peace Out where he discussed impacts of Alberta's Athabasca oil sands.

Mike Hudema is co-founder and former co-host and co-producer of Rise Up:Radio Free Edmonton, a current affairs show on CJSR, the University of Alberta's campus-community radio station.

Mike Hudema ran in the 2001 Alberta election as a candidate for the Alberta New Democrats in the riding of Edmonton Meadowlark.