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

It is an understatement to say we were disappointed that the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPPA) was recently ratified by the Canadian government, after almost two years of delay.

Remember the Lemon Creek jet-fuel spill?

In my own, perhaps biased, opinion, the most significant thing about our recent report on transnational liability for large-scale greenhouse gas polluters (Payback Time?) is that it is a contribution to a public conversation about liability and compen

[Updated 28 October 2014]

Earlier this month, a large number of First Nations and organizations celebrated an important step forward when all of their cases challenging the federal approval of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines and tankers proposal were given the green light to proceed by the Federal Court of Appeal.

This past August, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) quietly unveiled new regulations that would drastically reduce federal oversight of the dumping of aquatic drugs, pesticides and waste into wild fish habitat by fish farms.

I’m pleased to announce the release of a major new report – Payback Time? – What the internationalization of climate litigation could mean for Canadian oil and gas companies.

Last week Nobel Peace Prize winner, and one of the spiritual leaders of our time, Archbishop Desmond Tutu called on governments to make fossil fuel companies pay for the climate damages that their product is causing.  In a message

“OK, everyone pull in to the next gas station. Bathroom break, eh.”  The voice on over the walkie talkie crackled.

Northern Gateway’s President, John Carruthers, now accepts that the start date for the Enbridge Pipeline and Tankers Project – which Enbridge had expected in 2018 –