Friday, December 14, 2012 On November 20th Team U of Alberta won the world’s second-ever Twitter Moot, arguing that we all have a right to a healthy atmosphere. Meanwhile our friends at Ecojustice and David Suzuki Foundation are asking Canadians to demand environmental rights. Why are more and more environmental
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Environmental Law Alert Blog: Living Democracy from the Ground Up: Why Local Voices Matter
Thursday, December 6, 2012 Living Democracy from the Ground Up is a mini-documentary series produced by West Coast Environmental Law that takes an up close and personal look and the impacts that individuals could feel on the ground from rollbacks to our environmental laws. The stories in the series demonstrate
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Gutting Canada’s environmental laws = increased litigation
Thursday, December 6, 2012 Almost a year ago, Natural Resources Minister, Joe Oliver, made an unfounded accusations that environmental organizations were adopting "a quintessential American approach: sue everyone and anyone to delay the project even further." Now, one year later, it's become clear that the government's attack on Canada's environmental
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Help for local governments on the frontlines of a changing climate
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Local governments in BC are on the frontlines of the impacts of climate…
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: CEAA 2012 – On the Ground
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Jay Nelson has a unique perspective on the new Canadian Environmental …
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Cohen Commission: Put Wild Salmon First!
Friday, November 2, 2012 The final report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River was released on October 31st, contrary to rumours that the document would not be made public. The report, while not finding any single cause of declining Fraser River
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Environmental law is funny (really)
Thursday, November 1, 2012 When asked in polls, a large majority of Canadians think that it’s important for BC and Canada to have strong environmental laws. The trouble is, when public interest environmental lawyers start talking about different models of environmental assessment, or the legal definition of “critical habitat”, most
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Is Canada-China Investment Treaty (FIPA) an attack on Aboriginal Rights?
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 The Canadian government is preparing to ratify the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) possibly as early as tomorrow (November 1st) – an agreement which many individuals and organizations, including West Coast Environmental Law, have grave and deep concerns about. But one clear legal
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Upholding the Law, Protecting the Land, Sharing the Wealth
Friday, October 12, 2012 A recently announced agreement between the Province of British Columbia and the Gitanyow Nation is of deep significance not only for the people, the land, and the water of the Gitanyow territories in the mid-Nass and Skeena (upper Kitwanga and upper Kispiox) watersheds, but for all
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Lessons from a fish farm defamation lawsuit
Friday, October 12, 2012 Congratulations to Don Staniford – and his lawyer, David Sutherland – who, last month, defeated a lawsuit brought against him by fish farm giant, Mainstream Canada (with help from our Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund)! The fish farm company had sued Don for a series of mock
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Talkin’ bout a res-o-lu-tioooooon, yaaaaaaa, we know
Thursday, October 11, 2012 At the end of September, local government elected representatives from all over British Columbia listened to their constituents: On September 27, a majority of municipal councillors and mayors assembled at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), annual convention and adopteda resolution, proposed by the District of
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Regulating raw bitumen exports: an extremist notion or Conservative election promise?
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 In 2008 the Conservative Party promised to ban the export of raw bitumen to countries with lower environmental standards. Wow! In all the excitement of Government Ministers branding opponents of the Enbridge Pipeline and Tankers Project as radicals, Canadians have forgotten all about a 2008 election
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Responsible fiscal leaders agree: we need a price on carbon
Tuesday, September 25, 2012 If you’ve been watching Parliament in the past week or two you may have just heard mention of the phrase “carbon tax.” We’d be delighted if this meant that there was an intelligent debate going on in Parliament about how to address climate change, but unfortunately
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Douglas Channel Islands: Enbridge erases, Lori Waters replaces
Monday, September 17, 2012 One Sunday morning, Lori Waters received an intriguing link to the “Route Safety” animation videos for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. As one of many British Columbians opposed to the pipeline and to any lifting of the tanker ban along our coast, she watched Enbridge’s
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Evidence suggests carbon tax is good economic policy
Thursday, September 13, 2012 West Coast Environmental Law recently submitted our recommendations on improving BC’s carbon tax to the BC Carbon Tax Review Committee, including recommendations to make the application of the tax more comprehensive. But the BC Jobs and Investment Board (BCJIB) thinks the tax should be scrapped. But
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Will your tax dollars subsidize BC’s unsustainable fish farms?
Tuesday, August 14, 2012 How’s this for a business model: You bring together thousands of fish, stick them in an open net in the ocean, despite warnings that the conditions invite infectious disease, and then, when they all get sick, you receive compensation from the Canadian taxpayer. Both Grieg Seafood
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: 5 rules for a science-based decision on the Enbridge Pipelines
Monday, August 13, 2012 Prime Minister Harper was in Vancouver on August 7 and took the opportunity to tell Canadians that any decision on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines and tankers project would be made through an “independent process” and on the basis of science, not politics. The Prime Minister
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Enbridge foes: Schedule your statement so you don’t get Calgaried
Wednesday, August 1, 2012 All right, maybe Calgary is not a verb. But if you’re among the 4000+ Canadians who have registered to make an oral presentation to the National Energy Board Joint Review Panel (JRP) that’s considering the controversial Enbridge Pipelines and Tankers Project, and you haven’t scheduled a
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Yes to a national energy strategy, no to tankers
Friday, July 27, 2012 Today (July 27th) Premier Christy Clark walked out of the Council of the Federation meetings, being held between Canada’s Premiers in Halifax, vowing that she would not discuss a National Energy Strategy until Alberta agrees to share revenue that it gets as a result of the
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Don’t do the environmental crime if you can’t pay the fine
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 Imagine that a corporation is charged, convicted and fined for destroying your local stream. Now imagine that they don't pay the fine. Imagine that more money has to be spent to hassle them through collection agencies and legal demand letters to pay the fine, but that
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