Environmental Law Alert Blog

Through our Environmental Law Alert blog, West Coast keeps you up to date on the latest developments and issues in environmental law. This includes:

  • proposed changes to the law that will weaken, or strengthen, environmental protection;
  • stories and situations where existing environmental laws are failing to protect the environment; and
  • emerging legal strategies that could be used to protect our environment.

If you have an environmental story that we should hear about, please e-mail Andrew Gage. We welcome your comments on any of the posts to this blog – but please keep in mind our policies on comments.

2020 Canadian Law Blog Awards Winner

The Liberal Party of Canada was elected in part on the basis of a promise to restore lost environmental protections – including reviewing the “elimination of the Navigable Waters Protection Act” in order to “restore lost protections and incorporate more modern safeguards.”  On March 23rd the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport

Back in December we blogged that it was worth taking a moment to celebrate and reflect on the final rejection of the long-beleaguered Enbridge Northern Gateway project, even though it was announced simultaneously with the federal approval of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain proposal (an

In early April, the Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund team had an opportunity to visit some of our grantees in Secwepemc territory/Kamloops and participate in a declaration of solidarity and support for the Secwepemc decision to reject the proposed Ajax mine.

Revelations about the amount of corporate money coming to the BC Liberals have many people asking: what are these companies getting in return? It's important to recognize that large corporate donations may be aimed at achieving a more sympathetic regulatory environment – one in which a failure to comply with BC's environmental laws may not result in major consequences.

By sharing their Life on the Coast photography collection with West Coast Environmental Law, April and Tavish are ensuring their work continues to inspire us and you to protect the Great Bear Sea. Thank you April and Tavish!

This column was originally published on Slaw – Canada's online legal magazine.

“Canadian governments can and must do much more to protect Canadian ecosystems and biodiversity,” says the latest report from the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development – a must-read for anyone concerned about biodiversity protection in Canada. Staff Counsel Linda Nowlan breaks down the Committee’s recommendations, and how they could help ramp up marine protection on the Pacific coast.

While for many people budding trees and bulbs signal the return of spring, for coastal ecosystems and communities in British Columbia the changing of seasons is marked by the annual spawning of Pacific herring.

Many of us feel some pressure, or even guilt, about our environmental footprint and our role in creating climate change. West Coast's Anjali Appadurai breaks down this common narrative and points to the need to hold Big Oil accountable for the much bigger part it has played in creating and perpetuating the climate crisis.

Alright Vancouver Island peeps. Listen up: