What do we owe our neighbours?
Property owners must not worsen problems faced by their neighbours. In Donley Investments Ltd. v. Canril Corp., Canril owned a vacant commercial property at 90 George Street in Ottawa, one inch west of the Donley building. The Donley basement began flooding in February 2003, after a broken C…
Continue reading the post titled What do we owe our neighbours?Who’s got BPA, and so what?
What are Canadians made of? Not snakes and snails and puppy-dog tails, or even sugar and spice, as the children’s rhyme goes. Try lead and bisphenol-A (BPA).
Continue reading the post titled Who’s got BPA, and so what?Conservation Authority gets injunction, wetland protected
Is there real enforcement of conservation authority regulations? Often, no, but that may be starting to change. In Lakehead Region Conservation Authority v. DeMichele, the Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a permanent injunction preventing a developer from further dredging and filling in a …
Continue reading the post titled Conservation Authority gets injunction, wetland protectedSyncrude hearing resumes
Today, Judge Tjosvold will resume the Syncrude trial for the killing of 1600 ducks that landed on a badly managed, lethal tailings pond. He will decide whether Syncrude can be punished for both the federal and provincial offences that it committed. Anyone interested in the environmental toll…
Continue reading the post titled Syncrude hearing resumesWeather or climate?
It’s hard to know whether individual weather events are just random fluctuations, or whether they are growing signs of climate change. What we need to look for are patterns– is the weather changing? And how do the changes that are actually happening compare to those predicted for clima…
Continue reading the post titled Weather or climate?Seven years after the blackout
Seven years after ten million people were affected by the August 14, 2003 blackout, our electricity policy remains somewhat schizophrenic. I’m a strong supporter of the Green Energy Act; we do need to shift what we can to conservation and to small scale, distributed, renewable electric…
Continue reading the post titled Seven years after the blackoutHanna lawsuit against wind turbines grinding on
Procedural skirmishing is underway in the Hanna lawsuit against Ontario wind turbines.
Continue reading the post titled Hanna lawsuit against wind turbines grinding onBerendsen going to SCC
I think I forgot to mention it: The Supreme Court of Canada granted Berendsen leave to appeal from the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of his lawsuit against the province for the contamination of his land. The case has now dragged on for more than 20 years…
Continue reading the post titled Berendsen going to SCCOld coal to improve, slowly….
Canada’s electricity sector is responsible for 17 percent of national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Most of that -13%- comes from 51 coal-burning electricity plants, along with mercury, particulates, NOx/ SOx and other health hazards. [i], [ii] Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice has …
Continue reading the post titled Old coal to improve, slowly….Bike tourism: We’re glad to help
One of the joyful things to do on a lovely spring, summer, or fall day is to cycle the beautiful areas around Toronto. We are proud to be sponsors, for the third year running, of Bikes and Transit. This great website has maps, GPS coordinates and encouragement for combining bicycles and publ…
Continue reading the post titled Bike tourism: We’re glad to help