A climate activist was arrested on Tuesday morning for painting the iconic Toronto sign in Nathan Phillips Square bright pink and gluing herself to the concrete. 

Laura Sullivan, a member of the Canadian climate change advocacy group, On2Ottawa, filmed a nearly three-minute testimony on why she decided to paint the Toronto sign pink. 

"Tomorrow I'm going to take action with On2Ottawa and spray the white letters of the iconic 'Toronto' sign with bright pink washable paint and then glue myself to the concrete of the sign," Sullivan said. 

"A lot of people might hate me for this action, I'm pretty nervous, I always am because I know that these 'art attacks' get a lot of hate and a lot of controversy, but that's the exact reason that we're doing them."

Activist explains plan to paint iconic Toronto sign pink - 🎥 Laura Sullivan #Toronto pic.twitter.com/oXAa8R25nV

— blogTO (@blogTO) August 8, 2023

The activist then explained that she planned on going through with the art attack to draw attention to the "government's inaction" on the climate crisis. 

"We're responsible, these fires are responsible for 25 per cent of global emissions this year, and our government, the so-called Canadian government, has declared a climate emergency but continues to fuel the fossil fuel industry with money and continues to take no action, no real meaningful action on climate change, which is sentencing us to our deaths," Sullivan explained. 

Laura has had enough of going extinct quietly. Join her and other ordinary Canadians in Ottawa Aug 19 - Sep 9 to protest govt inaction on the Climate Crisis. Please donate https://t.co/JZbxRlJprU pic.twitter.com/PEsmCPi6ee

— On2Ottawa (@on2ottawa) August 8, 2023

"We are disrupting the nation's capital to get our demands met, our demands being to implement a national firefighting agency that trains and employs 50,000 firefighters. So we can really support the people who are already risking their lives up there right now on the frontlines of the climate crisis in Canada," she continued. 

"It's life or death here, guys. I know it might be controversial that I've hit your favourite sign with a bit of pink paint, but I promise it'll wash off. I'm prepared to face any consequences. I don't know if I'm going to end up spending the night or two nights in jail. I really hope not. But if that's the price to pay, it's a very small price to bring attention to this drastic crisis." 

Following the art attack on Tuesday morning, Sullivan was arrested and subsequently released from police custody.

Back in March, three On2Ottawa protestors, including Sullivan, smeared washable pink paint on a model of a Woolly mammoth at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria. The activists were arrested by Victoria police and charged with mischief.