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

“Our ancestors knew that their survival depended on clean water and taking only what was needed. Indigenous peoples lived by the natural laws of the land and waters, and that allowed our societies to thrive.” - Bev Sellars, Elder and former chief, Xat’sull Nation

This World Oceans Day, let’s create a wave of momentum for a Blueprint for the Coast 

In 1992, Canada first proposed the idea of a World Oceans Day at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, as a day to encourage protection of the ocean and the sustainable management of its resources. Twenty-nine years later, on World Oceans Day 2021, the message of World Oceans Day is needed now more than ever in British Columbia. 

All of us can benefit from respectfully learning about Indigenous stories on the territories we live, work and play on. Whether you are Indigenous or not, this blog is for you.

Soon, your Member of Parliament will debate whether to move forward with the National Strategy to Redress Environmental Racism Act (Bill C-230). This is a chance that Canada cannot afford to miss.

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Lately, my colleague Georgia Lloyd-Smith and I have been thinking a lot about the Site C dam.

On December 17, 2020, Bernadette Jordan, the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans announced that open-net salmon farm licences in the Discovery Islands would be phased out by June 30, 2022.

This year will live in our memory as one of surprises, uncertainty, kindness, and the power of community.