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

This post is Part 2 in a series about NAFTA and its implications on the environment. Read Part 1 here.

In 2016, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reported that plastic debris is currently entering the ocean at a rate of one garbage truck per minute.

Last century, law turned the tide on many plummeting whale populations through a ban on most commercial whaling.

West Coast's 2017 Summer Law Students (left-right): Don Couturier, Nico McKay, Mari Galloway, Karyn Leslie, Matt Hammer.

Last month Michael Sawyer (with funding from our Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund (EDRF) won a major victory against liquefied natural gas (LNG) development – and for environmental oversight of oil and gas pipelines.

Last month, I attended a gathering to discuss Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), co-hosted by the Bear River First Nation in Mi’kmaw territory.

Ask Canadians whether we should protect our oceans, and chances are they’ll say "yes." According to a recent WWF-Canada survey, 98% of Canadians support creating marine protected areas (MPAs) to protect our waters.

West Coast is proud to ally with the Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation (SSN) in their use of their own laws to determine the future of Pípsell (also known as Jacko Lake and environs), a sacred area threatened by the proposed open pit Ajax mine.

At the end of May, as a summer law student at West Coast Environmental Law, I attended Federal Court as an observer at the hearing where the Communities and Coal Society and Voters Taking Action on Climate Change called into question the legalit

Twenty-five years after Canada proposed the idea of World Oceans Day to the United Nations, people around the world are still celebrating on June 8. It's also a time to reflect.