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Twitter Moot announces 3rd Judge, releases rules

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Vancouver.  With four weeks to go until the World’s first-ever legal appeal argued over Twitter, the event’s host, West Coast Environmental Law, has announced that noted lawyer and Law Professor Kathleen Mahoney of the University of Calgary will be the third and final judge of the event.  Professor Mahoney joins lawyer blogger, Omar HaRedeye, and lawyer, turned award-winning mystery writer, William Deverell as the Twitter Moot’s three judges. 

Ethical Oil attack ads expose un-"fairness" of Vivian Krause

18 January, 2012

On January 13th, our Executive Director, Jessica Clogg, appeared on the Bill Good Show on CKNW radio, opposite blogger Vivian Krause, to defend West Coast against the recent American-style attack ads launched against us by the oil industry advocacy group, Ethical Oil.  Even though  Ms. Krause has distanced herself from the ads, the Ethical Oil campaign, in our view, vividly illustrates at least three sources of bias and misinformation in her work:

  • Krause’s so-called  “fair” questions are asked only of non-profit  environmental groups  - in this case the groups opposed to Enbridge (but not those who support it);
  • Krause, and Ethical Oil, mischaracterize the relationship between funders and fundees;  
  • Krause, and Ethical Oil, without any evidence, imply that U.S. charitable foundations are not advancing their charitable objectives (as required by charities law), but are instead advancing undisclosed national or corporate U.S. interests.

On January 13th, our Executive Director, Jessica Clogg, appeared on the Bill Good Show on CKNW radio, opposite blogger Vivian Krause, to defend West Coast against the recent American-style attack ads launched against us by the oil industry advocacy group, Ethical Oil.  Ethical Oil has publicly acknowledged Kraus

The ear of government and the mouths of the oil industry

16 December, 2011

With French-language CBC reporting that Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent is meeting far more often with the oil and gas industry than with environmental organizations, we have 2 questions.  First, what does that mean for Canada's environmental laws and policies?  Second, where is the English-language media coverage on this issue?

Last April (2011) we wrote about media coverage from Quebec’s La Presse about the fact that senior Canadian government officials had about 30 times more meetings with the oil and gas industry than they did with environmental organizati

Environmental law appeal to be argued over Twitter – for the First time ever

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

VANCOUVER. On Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 at 10am PST (1pm EST), West Coast Environmental Law will be hosting the world's first ever Twitter Moot.  Moot Courts – a simulated court hearing – are a common activity in law schools, but are new to most of Twitter's more than 300 million users.  Law students from 5 prominent Canadian law schools are scheduled to compete in this first moot. 

A new era of pesticide special reviews in Canada

30 November, 2011

So what does last week’s federal court win by Josette Wier, a pesticide activist based in Smithers, against Health Canada mean for pesticide regulations in Canada? If Health Canada implements the decision of the Honourable Mr. Justice Kelen in Wier v. Health Canada, we believe that the result will be more transparency and accountability in Health Canada decisions. We hope to see Health Canada conducting more special reviews at the request of members of the public in the future – to help ensure that Canadians, and our environment, are not unnecessarily exposed to dangerous pesticides.

So what does last week’s federal court win by Josette Wier, a pesticide activist based in Smithers, against Health Canada mean for pesticide regulations in Canada?  Josette, with help from our Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund, won her legal challenge against Health Canada in the Federal Court.  The

Polluters get off more lightly than hunters

28 November, 2011

While violators of all BC environmental statutes are much less likely than they used to be to be charged and convicted of an offence than used to be the case, it turns out that violators of the Wildlife Act – primarily hunters and fishers - are almost 4 times as likely to be convicted than violators of the Environmental Management Act – who are primarily commercial and industrial operations.  But the tickets used instead are little more than a slap on the hand for industrial and commercial polluters, raising the question of why there are not more charges being laid under the Environmental Management Act. 

In preparing a presentation about the collapse of the enforcement of environmental laws in British Columbia over the past decade, I noticed something interesting: violators of the Wildlife Act – primarily hunters and fishers - are almost 4 times as likely to be convicted as violators of the Environmental Management Act – who are primarily commercial and industrial operations. 

How about we have strong environmental laws and job creation?

21 November, 2011

As part of the Premier’s job creation strategy, the BC government has introduced legislation to remove permitting requirements for certain so-called “low-risk” mining operations – notably related to exploration.  But the best information is that strong environmental regulations have little or no impact on the available jobs in an economy. Strong environmental laws could actually result in job creation – in the mining sector, for example, jobs developing and building technology aimed at accurately identifying mineral deposits while minimizing surface disturbance. Amendments to BC’s mining legislation are desperately needed, but not this type of ad hoc relaxing of legal requirements based on an ill-informed belief that this will create jobs.  The evidence shows that we can have a healthy environment and jobs as well.

As part of the Premier’s drive to promote mining, the BC government has introduced legislation (Bill 19) to remove permitting requirements for certain so-called “low-risk” mining operations – notably related to exploration.  Christy Clark has framed this relaxing of environmental standards as part of her jobs creation strategy.  Our friends at

A climate change challenge to foresters, engineers and biologists

17 November, 2011

A new, ground-breaking report from West Coast Environmental Law – Climate Change and Professionals – is asking professional associations to ensure that their members provide responsible advice on climate-related issues. Folks in Delta, Richmond and other regions subject to flooding from rising sea-levels will want to know that professionals designing and implementing strategies to protect them from these impacts have the training and direction related to climate change that is required to do these tasks well. The same goes for other professionals carrying out other climate change-related tasks. 

You know those little letters that come after people's names that indicate that they get paid the big bucks for giving people – and governments and corporations – advice?  Letters like (in addition to LLB or JD), RPF (Registered Professional Forester), RPBio (Registered Professional Biologist<

Professional associations invited to take Climate Change leadership

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Vancouver.  West Coast Environmental Law, a non-profit environmental law organization, today released a report – Professionals and Climate Change: How professional associations can get serious about global warming.  This report is perhaps the first in the world to examine the implications of climate change for professional associations regulating the qualifications and activities of resource and planning professionals, suc

Dimethoate re-evaluation reads like a riddle

14 October, 2011

Riddle me this. Riddle me that. ... Health Canada is in the process of re-evaluating large numbers of old pesticides. Every so often they will put out a Re-evaluation report for public comment, and we’ve been reading Health Canada’s proposed decision in its re-evaluation of the risk levels of the pesticide Dimethoate. And frankly there are a few riddles buried in this technical document that have us scratching our heads

Riddle me this. Riddle me that.

Health Canada is in the process of re-evaluating large numbers of old pesticides. Every so often they will put out a Re-evaluation report for public comment, and we’ve been reading Health Canada’s proposed decision in its re-evaluation of the risk levels of the pesticide Dimethoate. And frankly there are a few riddles buried in this technical document that have us scratching our heads.

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