Big odour fine
Halton Recycling Ltd. is an organic waste recycler that was the subject of a large number of odour complaints. It was charged with two counts of discharging odour into the environment which adversely affected its neighbours. The company was also charged with failing to have all recyclables b…
View the post titled Big odour fineBig fine for environmental consultant
Fines of $201,500, plus the 25% victim fine surcharge, have been imposed on an environmental consultant, his company and its client, for violations of the Ontario Water Resources Act. The client was also sent to jail.
View the post titled Big fine for environmental consultantSelf-incrimination when they make you talk
The police cannot force someone to talk and then use the answers against them; can environmental regulators do so? The courts have always allowed them to, but now the rules are changing.
View the post titled Self-incrimination when they make you talkSet fines under Reg. 347
Many environmental offences can be enforced either as a full-scale prosecution, where the maximum fines are enormous, or as a ticket, where there are modest set fines. For example, the set fine for operating a waste collection vehicle that is not “leakproof”, contrary to section 16 (3) of Re…
View the post titled Set fines under Reg. 347Block 2- The Industrial Water Rate
For major employers in Toronto, the most important incentive to comply with the sewer bylaw is not the risk of prosecution, it’s the risk of losing their preferential Block 2 Industrial Rate for water and sewage service. Block 2 can save large companies tens of thousands of dollars or…
View the post titled Block 2- The Industrial Water RateWhat was she thinking?
In R. v. Matchim, a recent case before the Ontario Court of Justice (March 18 2011), firefighters extinguished a blaze in the basement of a home on Vincent Street, in Newmarket. An explosion then occurred in the main sanitary sewer line on the street.
View the post titled What was she thinking?More on Can they make you talk?
Decades after the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights, and Freedoms, and after thousands of Miranda warnings on TV, most Canadians think they have a right to remain silent when the government comes after them. To some extent, this is true–people pulled off the street by uniformed poli…
View the post titled More on Can they make you talk?Legal wastewater samples
Samples that are not properly taken, recorded, handled and analyzed are useless in court, and can lead to unjustified enforcement proceedings. The Canadian Water and Wastewater Association has released a useful Guideline on Sampling, Handling, Transporting, and Analyzing Legal Wastewater Sam…
View the post titled Legal wastewater samplesHow reliable are odour units?
345 Given that there are many steps in the process of attempting to calculate odour units which are problematic, and which contain so many points of bias and subjectivity, the Panel finds that the ultimate number or value coming out of an odour unit measurement cannot be relied upon as me…
View the post titled How reliable are odour units?Flying rock a discharge?
The prosecutor asked the Court to trust the ministry not to prosecute in absurd and inappropriate circumstances.
View the post titled Flying rock a discharge?Receive Blog Posts
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