Tar sands polluting the Athabaska River
How do the tar sands operators get away with polluting the great Athabaska River, despite federal and provincial laws that allegedly protect rivers? By insisting that everything is fine, and that all the pollution is “natural”. Now, Professor David Schindler has blown their cover…
View the post titled Tar sands polluting the Athabaska RiverE-waste enforcement growing across borders
Electronic waste, or ‘e-waste’, has become a significant international environmental enforcement challenge. Each year, hundreds of thousands of used electronic items – containing highly toxic substances like lead, mercury and cadmium – are shipped across the world. Some provinces, like B.C.…
View the post titled E-waste enforcement growing across bordersConservation 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 …
View the post titled Conservation Authority gets injunction, wetland protectedDon't touch that shoreline
Cottagers frequently want to “clean up” their shoreline, but this is usually illegal without a permit. A father and son were each charged with altering their shoreline and removing vegetation without a permit, contrary to the Saskatchewan Environment Management and Protection Act, 2002.
View the post titled Don't touch that shorelinePrivate prosecution gets a boost
There is often tension between the public’s right to commence a private prosecution, and the attorney general’s right to take over that prosecution, often in order to drop it. The Ontario Court of Appeal has given a boost to private prosecutors, ruling that they are entitled to have at least…
View the post titled Private prosecution gets a boostSeizure on consent?
When can ministry investigators seize documents outside the scope of a search warrant? During the execution of a warrant, Ministry of the Environment investigators seized approximately 100 documents that clearly lay outside the scope of the warrant. They showed one set of documents to the co…
View the post titled Seizure on consent?Not every spill is an offence
It’s encouraging to see the courts rejecting prosecutions for minor, low fault spills that are quickly and professionally managed.
View the post titled Not every spill is an offenceEnvironmental penalties gaining steam
Ontario’s environmental penalties regime for spills is gathering steam. The final count for 2009 was 13 penalties totalling $112,143.20, most under the Environmental Protection Act. The highest penalty was $23,750. Thirteen more penalties have already been issued in the first four months of …
View the post titled Environmental penalties gaining steamSewage, Environment Canada and surprising statistics
According to Environment Canada, people in Nova Scotia are willing to pay much more for sewage treatment than other Canadians. To justify the multi-billion dollar cost of the new Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations under the Fisheries Act, Environment Canada has produced a table full of …
View the post titled Sewage, Environment Canada and surprising statisticsExporting monitors to China
CC Ever Better recently pled guilty in Newmarket provincial court to one charge of attempting to ship a container load of used computer monitors to China for recycling without an export permit, contrary to the Export and Import of Hazardous Waste and Hazardous Recyclable Material, contrary…
View the post titled Exporting monitors to ChinaReceive Blog Posts
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