PMRA failing to fulfill its mandate
The Federal Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development (“Commissioner”) tabled her audit findings on January 26, 2016 of the management of pesticides by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulator Agency (“PMRA”). The Commissioner reviewed PMRA’s efforts to protect Canadians and the Environment from the unacceptable risks associated with the use of pesticides. The report concluded With respect to conditional...
Continue reading the post titled PMRA failing to fulfill its mandateThe GM Salmon debate: allow, label, or outlaw?
To what extent should we continue to welcome genetically modified organisms (“GMOs”) into our food systems? The question has continued to invoke impassioned responses in recent years, with GMOs simultaneously touted by some as the salvation to global food security issues while decried by others as a menace to human health, the environment, and development. With the recent...
Continue reading the post titled The GM Salmon debate: allow, label, or outlaw?Little Brown Bat the latest critter to shut down proposed wind farm
The Environmental Review Tribunal (“ERT”) has again demonstrated its willingness to allow appeals of renewable energy approvals (“REA”) for wind project on the basis that it will cause serious and irreversible harm to animal life, plant life or the natural environment. In Hirsh v Director, Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change–a 123-page decision–the ERT allowed...
Continue reading the post titled Little Brown Bat the latest critter to shut down proposed wind farmEnergy East pipeline project faces further legal hurdles
Regional concerns over the contentious Energy East project have taken on an interesting twist recently. Quebec is seeking an injunction against the proponent of the proposed Energy East pipeline project, Trans Canada Corporation, forcing the company to submit the project to provincial environmental assessment. The request came shortly in advance of environmental hearings conducted by the Bureau...
Continue reading the post titled Energy East pipeline project faces further legal hurdlesThe Paris Agreement
Over the weekend, representatives from 195 countries signed an historic agreement aimed at curbing climate change. The “Paris Agreement,” which has yet, of course, to be ratified, is being touted as a “universal” climate agreement, with 195 signatories. Industry, policy-makers, ENGOs, and others will no doubt continue to digest the Agreement, and its implications, over the...
Continue reading the post titled The Paris AgreementFurther wind litigation in the Oak Ridges Moraine: Part II
Recently, the Environmental Review Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) allowed in part the appeal of a Renewable Energy Approval (“REA”) approving the construction of a wind turbine facility in the Oak Ridges Moraine Area in the City of Kawartha Lakes (the “Project”). The Tribunal concluded that, with respect to harm to the woodlands, neither the compensation nor...
Continue reading the post titled Further wind litigation in the Oak Ridges Moraine: Part IIHalf of World’s Natural Heritage Sites Are Under Threat
A chilling report recently released by WWF (formerly World Wildlife Fund) has found that nearly half of the world’s UNESCO-designated natural World Heritage Sites are threatened by industrial activities including oil, gas, and mineral extraction, overfishing, and illegal logging. Sadly, some of the world’s most iconic natural sites have made it onto the WWF’s list,...
Continue reading the post titled Half of World’s Natural Heritage Sites Are Under ThreatFurther momentum on cap and trade
The Ontario government announced earlier this week the signing of an MOU between Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba to link their respective cap and trade programmes. The agreement was signed while the Premiers of the three provinces were participating in the Paris Conference on Climate change (COP21) that is wrapping up this week. Manitoba is a...
Continue reading the post titled Further momentum on cap and tradeEndangered Species Litigation in Court of Appeal
Earlier this week, two environmental groups, Wildlands League and Ontario Nature (the “Appellants”), were in the Court of Appeal for Ontario seeking to have struck down a 2013 regulation that significantly altered the regime for protecting species at risk in Ontario. When initially introduced in 2007, the Endangered Species Act (the “Act”) was hailed as...
Continue reading the post titled Endangered Species Litigation in Court of AppealShell fined $500,000, pays $200,000 to First Nation following 2013 spill
In case you missed it, nearly 3 years following the event, Shell Canada Ltd has been sentenced for a spill of “flare knock-out liquids” at a Sarnia-area refinery. The January 2013 spill affected members of the nearby Aamjiwnaang First Nation, who experienced a variety of adverse health effects (including sore eyes and throats, vomiting, nausea,...
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