INTERPOL environmental crimes unit
International environmental wildlife and pollution crimes are attracting growing attention from INTERPOL, partly because many of them are committed by organized crime. For example, in response to the recent surge of ivory tracking, INTERPOL formed a dedicated environmental crime team in Afr…
View the post titled INTERPOL environmental crimes unitContaminated sites change in Provincial Policy Statement
The Ontario Provincial Policy Statement (PPS)has recently changed how it refers to contaminated sites. The PPS is the official expression of the provincial government’s policies on land use planning. It applies province-wide and “provides clear policy direction on land use planning to …
View the post titled Contaminated sites change in Provincial Policy StatementChevron intervention: what is the “public interest”?
The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) has been engaged in a fierce internal debate over the Association’s decision, now revoked, to intervene in Chevron’s appeal to the Supreme Court. The Ecuadorian plaintiffs in the case are seeking to enforce a $9.5 billion judgment obtained in Ecuador for te…
View the post titled Chevron intervention: what is the “public interest”?New Biodiversity Treaty in effect this week
Fair sharing of biodiversity: The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization, under the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), enters into force this week. The Protocol is an international environmental a…
View the post titled New Biodiversity Treaty in effect this weekAs minimum fines get higher, is there a work-around?
As minimum fines on multiple charges lead to increasingly unfair results, defence counsel, and occasionally judges, are looking for ways to reconcile the law with what they consider to be just results. Earlier this year, the Ontario Court of Appeal slammed the door shut on two such ideas: cr…
View the post titled As minimum fines get higher, is there a work-around?Second shoe falls: flyrock discharge after Castonguay
If every rock that flies through the air, and does damage, is a "pollution" offence, what else is?
View the post titled Second shoe falls: flyrock discharge after CastonguayFirst “climate refugee” case going to appeal in New Zealand
On 1st May, 2014, the New Zealand Court of Appeal will hear Ioane Teitiota’s claim to become the world’s first climate refugee. Mr. Teitota is from a remote atoll in the Pacific nation of Kiribati, one of the lowest-lying nations on Earth. He is trying to convince New Zealand jud…
View the post titled First “climate refugee” case going to appeal in New ZealandBlue Box arbitration update
Intense work is underway preparing for the highly anticipated Blue Box arbitration. The arbitration will decide the multi-million dollar amount that stewards must pay to municipalities for the 2014 Stewards’ Obligation under s. 25(5) of the Waste Diversion Act, 2002. This is the first …
View the post titled Blue Box arbitration updateWaste Diversion groups can sit uncomfortably with the Competition Act
The industry funding organizations used to provide, or to fund, waste diversion can have anti-competitive effects. There is a natural tendency for large companies with market power to use that power to design waste diversion programs and organizations in their own interest and to create obst…
View the post titled Waste Diversion groups can sit uncomfortably with the Competition ActSupreme Court: Honest efforts to understand the law are not enough
The Supreme Court of Canada has made compliance with ambiguous regulations tougher than ever, by ruling that honest efforts to understand the law (however confusing) are not enough. In La Souveraine, Compagnie d’assurance générale v. Autorité des marchés financiers, Sovereign General (SG) wa…
View the post titled Supreme Court: Honest efforts to understand the law are not enoughReceive Blog Posts
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