Anti-fracking and Great Lakes Bills to Committee
The Ontario Legislature rose for the summer on June 4, with two environmental proposed environmental laws having received second reading, but awaiting Committee review and public hearings. The third environmental law, Bill 52, Protection of Public Participation Act, 2015 (anti-SLAPP) has bee…
View the post titled Anti-fracking and Great Lakes Bills to CommitteeWeird loophole in Toronto sewer bylaw
Toronto seems to have a weird and expensive loophole in its sewer bylaw. Virtually every municipal sewer bylaw prohibits the discharge of non-municipal water, such as storm water or groundwater, into its sanitary sewers. Stormwater and groundwater are permitted only in storm or combined sewe…
View the post titled Weird loophole in Toronto sewer bylawEndangered Species exemptions survive court challenge
Sweeping exemptions from Ontario’s protection for endangered species have been upheld by the Divisional Court, despite concerns that they reduce the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act, 2007. In Wildlands League v. Lieutenant Governor in Council, 2015 ONSC 2942, Ecojustice, the…
View the post titled Endangered Species exemptions survive court challengeWhy special rules for endangered species on roads to turbines?
Why should endangered species protection in Ontario be different for roads to wind turbines, as opposed to roads leading anywhere else? Ontario has an elaborate system that allegedly protects endangered species. Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), endangered, threatened or extirpated spe…
View the post titled Why special rules for endangered species on roads to turbines?Cheese whey spill: $80,000 fine
Even seemingly innocuous substances, like human food and drink, can be hazardous to the natural environment. And spills of food and drink must be reported. Silani Sweet Cheese Limited manufactures a cheese at a facility in Bradford, West Gwilliumbury. In January 2013, ricotta cheese whey ove…
View the post titled Cheese whey spill: $80,000 fineEven brief discharges must be reported
Metcan Industries, which manufactures synthetic slag products, was convicted of failing to report a discharge of particulate that lasted “a couple of minutes”. The company was fined $10,000 plus the $2,5000 victim fine surcharge, under the Ontario Environmental Protection Act. (…
View the post titled Even brief discharges must be reported$350,000+ fine for cement plant dust and noise
Essroc Canada Inc. was fined $350,000, plus the victim fine surcharge of $87,500, for dust and noise from its cement manufacturing facility near Picton. The fine was suggested jointly by the company and by the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. Essroc pleaded guilty to disch…
View the post titled $350,000+ fine for cement plant dust and noiseUS recommends reducing fluoride in drinking water
Communities throughout Canada and the US add fluoride to their drinking water supplies to prevent dental cavities. As we’ve written about before, some opponents claim that the risk of adverse health effects outweighs the public health benefits of fluoridation. A recent report by the U.…
View the post titled US recommends reducing fluoride in drinking waterCarnival Shut Down for Air Pollution Health Hazard
In August 2012, the Health Services Appeal and Review Board (HSARB), for the first time ever, held air pollution (aside from second hand smoke) to be a “health hazard” under Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act (HPPA). Air Pollution Health Hazard Under section 13(1) of the Act, a pu…
View the post titled Carnival Shut Down for Air Pollution Health HazardOslo Principles on Climate Change: Governments are Breaching Legal Duties
A group of preeminent international jurists have put together a series of legal principles, called the Oslo Principles on Global Obligations to Reduce Climate Change. These principles demonstrate that the governments of the world are breaching their legal duties to their citizens, by doing …
View the post titled Oslo Principles on Climate Change: Governments are Breaching Legal DutiesReceive Blog Posts
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