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Published on: 1 Dec 2014 By

B.C. Court: No Abuse of Water Approvals for Fracking

Becauseย fracking consumes a huge amount ofย water, Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) and the Sierra Club of B.C. recently challenged howย the B.C. government grants water use approvals to oil and gas companies. The government gives a series of short term approvals for fracking, frequently renewed, without regulatingย the cumulative water taking of an entire project. Does thisย violate...

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Published on: 18 Nov 2014 By (Dianne Saxe)

INTERPOL environmental crimes unit

International environmental wildlife and pollution crimes are attracting growing attention fromย INTERPOL, partly becauseย many of themย are committed by organized crime.ย For example, in response to the recent surge of ivory tracking, INTERPOL formed a ย dedicated environmental crime team in Africa. As InterPOL puts it: “Environmental crime is a serious and growing international problem, and one which takes...

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Published on: 23 Mar 2015 By (Dianne Saxe)

Kawartha oil spill cost recovery litigation drags on

City of Kawartha Lakes taxpayers continue to pay heavily for the Ministry of the Environmentโ€™s 2009 order, which required the City to cleanup an oil spill that it did not cause. While everyone agreedย that the City was an innocent victim of the spill, the Ministry saddled the City with $471,691 in cleanup costs, arguing that...

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Published on: 4 Jun 2015 By

Why special rules for endangered species on roads to turbines?

Why should endangered species protection in Ontario be different for roads to wind turbines, as opposed to roads leading anywhere else? Ontario has an elaborate system that allegedly protects endangered species. Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), endangered, threatened or extirpated species and their habitats cannot be harmed or destroyed, except by permit or if...

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Published on: 29 Jul 2015 By

Citizens have some success against quarry, but…

Citizens Against Melrose Quarry must feel a bit like Groundhog Day all over again. They won, sort of, but are now back at the beginning again. The quarry owner may feel the same way. The citizens’ groupย is a not-for-profit group incorporated in 2013 and consisting mainly of local residents, farmers and others opposed toย new or...

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Published on: 25 Aug 2015 By

The Dutch Climate Case: Beginning of a New Era of Climate Litigation?

In an worldwide first, the Hague District Court has ordered the Dutch government to cut its greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by at least 25% compared to 1990 levels by the end of 2020. The decision, an English translation of which can be found here, has been widely reported and discussed (including in an interview on...

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Published on: 17 Nov 2015 By

Why buy a contaminated site, then sue?

I continue to be amazed by the number of people who knowingly (or carelessly) buy a contaminated site, wrongly assuming that they will have an automatic right toย successfully sue a neighbour for the cost of cleanup. What advice are they getting from the real estate and litigation bar? I can’t thinkย of a single case (except...

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Published on: 8 Aug 2016 By

Reforming the Ontario Municipal Board

The province recently announced, with little fanfare, that it was initiating a review of the Ontario Municipal Board (โ€œOMBโ€). The OMB is an independent adjudicative tribunal that plays a crucial role in land use planning in the province. It reviews decisions made under a number of statutes, though the bulk of its work relates to...

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Published on: 14 Sep 2016 By

Municipal orders under section 100.1 of the EPA

The seemingly never-ending litigation related to a spill of furnace oil fuel in the City of Kawartha Lakes is inching closer to resolution. In Technical Standards and Safety Authority v Kawartha Lakes, 2016 CanLII 41685 (ON ERT) the Environmental Review Tribunal (the โ€œTribunalโ€) tackled the issueโ€”apparently for the first timeโ€”of who can be ordered by...

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Published on: 4 Nov 2016 By

Endangered Species Regulation Upheld at Court of Appeal

In a decision released last month, Wildlands League v Ontario (Natural Resources and Forestry), 2016 ONCA 741, the Court of Appeal has held that a regulation made under the Endangered Species Act (โ€œESAโ€) is valid. The regulation exempts certain industrial activities from the ESAโ€™s prohibitions against killing, harming, harassing, or capturing listed species at risk...

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