Tuesday, February 17, 2015 It has been said that the measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. So when I recently testified the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health about Canada’s Pest Control Products Act (PCPA), I chose to focus my submissions on what
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Environmental Law Alert Blog: Financial Clout v. Right to Speak Out
Friday, February 13, 2015 “The right to speak is more precious than gold”. Members of the Wilderness Committee displayed these words proudly on the steps of the Supreme Court of BC as they prepared for a two-week hearing on a defamation claim by Taseko Mines Ltd. It only took one
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Is this glass half full, and what should it cost?
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 Last Thursday (February 5th) the BC government unveiled its new pricing framework for water use in BC. The new pricing for BC water was undertaken after extensive public consultations, in which, the government reports, “a consistent message from British Columbians was that water is undervalued,” but
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Kinder Morgan v. Freedom of Speech
Wednesday, January 21, 2015 To what extent does our society afford us a right to freedom of expression? This is a question Mr. Alan Dutton must be quizzically trying to answer as he finds himself tied up in a lawsuit with Kinder Morgan. The oil company claims $5.6 million in
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Top Environmental Law Alerts of 2014
Friday, December 19, 2014 It’s been a busy year – with West Coast sounding the alarm on some major changes to BC’s laws and analyzing and commenting on other legal issues related to the future of our communities and planet. Thanks to the magic of Google Analytics we’re able to
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Lost in translation on Burnaby Mountain
Tuesday, December 9, 2014 It’s a bit over twenty years since I was arrested, along with 300 other people who stood on the Kennedy Lake Road on August 9th, 1993, in Clayoquot Sound. So the recent protests on Burnaby Mountain, with over 120 people arrested for protesting Kinder Morgan’s pipeline
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Happy 40th birthday, West Coast Environmental Law
Monday, November 17, 2014 This year, West Coast Environmental Law is proud to celebrate our 40th anniversary and the many accomplishments the organization has achieved over the past four decades. WCEL turns 40 This year, West Coast Environmental Law is proud to celebrate our 40th anniversary and the many accomplishments
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Leading Haida Lawyer and Gitanyow Hereditary Chief Joint Winners of 2014 Andrew Thompson Award
Friday, November 14, 2014 The winners of the 2014 Andrew Thompson award were announced at our 40th anniversary celebration last week. The award was established in 2002 by West Coast Environmental Law and the Thompson family, as a legacy to the late Dr. Andrew Thompson, one of BC’s foremost environmental
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Canada-China Free Trade Agreement is not the end of environmental law
Monday, November 3, 2014 Since FIPPA was ratified we’ve received several inquiries asking what the ratification means for the environment. While the FIPPA provisions are certainly alarming, we do not think anything is to be gained by over-stating the problems associated with the FIPPA as they relate to the field
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Proposed BC Societies Act could invite litigation against non-profits
Thursday, September 18, 2014 We believe that BC’s incorporated societies – community development organizations, church groups, secular groups, community organizations, hunting groups, and, yes, environmental organizations such as West Coast Environmental Law Association – collectively make for a stronger British Columbia. That is why we’re outraged by a BC Government
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Who writes Canada’s Environmental Laws?
Wednesday, September 17, 2014 We’ve written before about the apparent and unacceptable influence of the oil and gas industry on Canada’s environmental laws, which may have extended to a suggestion that the Canadian government roll multiple amendments into omnibus budget bills (as it did in 2012). Two documents obtained recently
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Weakening BC’s environmental laws risks eroding social licence for Government’s Cleanest LNG goals
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 Several of the most contentious changes to environmental laws passed during the 2014 spring session of the BC Legislature seem to have been developed, and pushed through, in a mad rush and without adequate public consultation. The goal of these laws seems, at least in part,
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Challenging U.S. Coal to China from Texada Island, BC
Friday, June 13, 2014 Should BC be used to trans-ship American coal to China? Who gets to decide? And what does that mean for our environment? These issues and others will be considered in a legal challenge brought by Voters Taking Action on Climate Change (VTACC), with support from our
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: “Certainty” for Fish Farms Could Mean Uncertain Future for Fish
Monday, April 28, 2014 New regulations under the Fisheries Act allow Canada’s Fisheries and Environment Ministers to give blanket authorization to cause pollution in fish habitat in a range of circumstances, including pollution from fish farm companies seeking to control “pests” or invasive species. These regulations are the latest in
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: The lowdown on changes to BC’s environmental laws
Monday, April 14, 2014 The current session of the BC Legislature has kept us quite busy. While we’ve had occasion to discuss several bills in our Environmental Law Alert, we haven’t even mentioned a host of others that we are following with interest. This session, the BC government has introduced
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Bill 24 – Agricultural Land Commission Amendment Act: Undermining BC’s Food Security
Thursday, April 10, 2014 Following hot on the heels of the controversial Park Amendment Act (Bill 4), the BC government has introduced another bill that would open up some of the province’s most publicly valuable lands – in this case, its farmlands – to industrial development. Bill 24, the Agricultural Land
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Urgent: Act now to protect Canada’s wild fish
Friday, March 14, 2014 Since 2012, the Canadian government has systematically gutted its laws protecting fish. First, it amended the federal Fisheries Act, dramatically weakening protection of fish and fish habitat. Then, it lifted the moratorium on fish farms in BC, opening the door to a massive expansion of aquaculture. Now, it wants to pass
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: The world is better when charities are heard
Friday, February 7, 2014 You may have heard our sister organization, the West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation, mentioned last night on CBC’s Power and Politics; Power and Politics discussed whether current audits of environmental charities were politically driven. In the current political climate it is important to remember that
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Some applause for administrative penalties
Tuesday, February 4, 2014 A current BC Ministry of Environment public consultation on "administrative penalties" under the Environmental Management Act and the Integrated Pest Management Act is a good thing for environmental enforcement in BC. Administrative penalties fill a gap between the government's main enforcement tools – charges and tickets.
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Canadians have a right to know about fracking, tar sands chemicals
Friday, January 17, 2014 Canadians may soon know more about the chemicals being used to extract bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands, thanks to West Coast Environmental Law and our colleagues at Environmental Defence and the Association Québécoise de Lutte Contre la Pollution Atmosphérique (AQLPA). But, unless the federal government can
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