For environmental liability, who is an "officer"?
Who is an “officer”? Section 194 of the Ontario Environmental Protection Act imposes substantial duties on corporate officers and directors, without defining who they are. It is essential for people to know whether these duties and this environmental liability applies to them. If…
View the post titled For environmental liability, who is an "officer"?Cascades/ Superior paper mill cleanup: final settlement?
Going after individuals for cleanups of historic contamination continues to pay off for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.
View the post titled Cascades/ Superior paper mill cleanup: final settlement?Baker (Northstar Directors') liability appeal has settled
Ten corporate officers and directors have paid $4.75 million to be released from the Northstar Canada cleanup order, even though the Ministry of the Environment admits that none of them were at fault for causing the contamination. Some were not even on the Northstar Canada board. The Enviro…
View the post titled Baker (Northstar Directors') liability appeal has settledNo personal environmental conviction without knowledge or participation
When is an individual liable to conviction for a corporate environmental offence? The Ontario Ministry of the Environment has insisted that management personnel are automatically liable for corporate environmental offences, and has laid numerous charges on this basis. The Summary Conviction …
View the post titled No personal environmental conviction without knowledge or participationUnlimited personal no fault liability for directors and officers?
The Ontario government argued in Superior Court on April 18 that former corporate directors and officers have presumptive, unlimited, personal, no-fault liability to orders to pay all environmental costs associated with the assets of their former corporation, or of the subsidiaries of that c…
View the post titled Unlimited personal no fault liability for directors and officers?No stay for Order to former officers and directors
The Environmental Review Tribunal has refused to stay a multimillion dollar order to the former officers and directors of a bankrupt company and its parent, pending appeal, whether or not the Ministry of the Environment had jurisdiction to issue the Order.
View the post titled No stay for Order to former officers and directorsSuccessful nonsuits- hazardous waste
Successful non-suits of environmental prosecutions are rare. A non-suit is granted only when the Crown has failed to offer any evidence, no matter how manifestly unreliable, of the essential elements of the offences charged. I was therefore particularly pleased to achieve three non-suits o…
View the post titled Successful nonsuits- hazardous wasteDrinking water safety: Worried yet about 2013?
Anyone elected to municipal council this fall, October 25, 2010, will still be in office on January 1, 2013, when section 19 of the Safe Drinking Water Act comes into effect. This is the unprecedented duty of care that requires municipal councillors and staff to “act honestly, competen…
View the post titled Drinking water safety: Worried yet about 2013?Receive Blog Posts
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