While international mechanisms are increasingly recognizing the human rights to water and sanitation, states must take action too. Concerns about the human rights to water and sanitation (HRWS) under international law have gained increasing attention in recent years. In Canada, ongoing water … [Read more...]
Unleashing the Environmental Power of Municipalities: Recommendations to Strengthen Alberta’s Municipal Government Act
Municipalities play a key role in the management and protection of Alberta’s environment. This occurs through regulation of private land uses and through local land use planning. Municipalities can also direct local changes that reduce the trajectory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and create … [Read more...]
Teacher’s Talk LawNow: Host an Earth Summit
The environment and Canada’s resource driven economy has been a recurring top story in the national news. There is currently an abundance of teachable moments to discuss the environment. The latest issue of LawNow magazine explores environmental causes and the law and is the perfect backgrounder for … [Read more...]
Viewpoint 37-4: The Economy and The Environment
The economies that will dominate in the future will be those that embrace environmental challenges and see them as opportunities and not cost. For the longest time, the message has been that dealing with environmental issues incurs a cost to the economy that will harm our competitiveness. More … [Read more...]
Nickel Shower: An Environmental Class Action
Introduction The recent Smith v. Inco Limited case is the first Canadian environmental class action lawsuit to proceed through a trial and appeal. It shows how the courts mediate between the interests of industry and of private landowners. Inco refined nickel near the small southern Ontario city … [Read more...]
The Difference a Year Makes: Changes to Canadian Federal Environmental Assessment Law in 2012
In 2012, the landscape of Canadian federal environmental assessment law was completely altered. Following on the heels of a truncated statutory review process in late 2011, federal environmental assessment law was re-written with the passage of Bill C-38 (the federal omnibus budget bill). This … [Read more...]
Civil Disobedience, Environmental Protest and the Rule of Law
What is civil disobedience? Civil disobedience involves intentional violation of the law to achieve a result the law-breakers believe is in the public interest. Civil disobedience is a form of protest intended to draw attention to a wrong or injustice which the protesters believe is sufficiently … [Read more...]
The Oil Sands: Westward – How?
Last summer, I mentioned to our editor that I couldn’t understand why Enbridge chose to route Alberta oil via its Northern Gateway line to Kitimat, with its long and narrow channels to open water, when the Port of Prince Rupert had no such obstacles and was closer to Asia. She told me to find out. … [Read more...]
The Constitutional Right to a Healthy Environment
Fifty years ago, the concept of a human right to a healthy environment was viewed as a novel, even radical, idea. Today it is widely recognized in international law and endorsed by an overwhelming proportion of countries. Even more importantly, despite their recent vintage, environmental rights … [Read more...]
The land gives us more than food, but can the law give back?
Set foot on Ruzicka Sunrise Farm and something feels different. Whether it is the diversity of birds, the native prairie, or dugouts that test cleaner than some municipal water sources, Don and Marie Ruzicka are clearly deserving of the recognition they have received for environmental conservation. … [Read more...]
