Supreme 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 enoughLiability insurer need not pay for voluntary delineation and cleanup
According to Ontario’s Court of Appeal, General Electric Canada (GE) can’t make its liability insurer pay for the delineation and cleanup of a former GE property contaminated with trichloroethylene (“TCE”), because it voluntarily complied with a Ministry of the Environment …
View the post titled Liability insurer need not pay for voluntary delineation and cleanupEnvironmental Assessment not statutory authority?
An environmental assessment, no matter how “extensive and wide ranging”, does not amount to statutory authority, or provide a defence in nuisance, according to the British Columbia Court of Appeal in Appeal in Heyes v. Vancouver, now Susan Heyes Inc. (Hazel & Co.) v. South C…
View the post titled Environmental Assessment not statutory authority?Heyes appeal: Subway construction a nuisance?
Is transit construction a nuisance? The British Columbia Court of Appeal has released its decision in Heyes v. Vancouver, now called Susan Heyes Inc. v. South Coast BC Transportation Authority. The court overturned a $600,000 judgment awarded to a local store owner, who was driven out of bus…
View the post titled Heyes appeal: Subway construction a nuisance?Successful 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 wasteReceive Blog Posts
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