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

If you value parks as a way to protect biodiversity, here are two chances to speak up:

One of my favourite parts of diving is in the first moments of descent, just after my head slips beneath the sea surface and I am in transition between sinking and floating; passing from the air to the underwater world. Spending time in the ocean allows a glimpse into the strange and wonderful marine environment.

From providing legal aid for communities to defend their environment, to revitalizing Indigenous laws, and holding fossil fuel companies accountable for their role in climate change – this year the West Coast team will continue working toward a better future for people and the environment in Canada.

Living at the edge of the biodiversity-rich and vulnerable Salish Sea, we welcomed the news of one and a half billion dollars to protect Canada’s oceans and coasts, an investment of a scale we’ve not seen for decades.

Congratulations to MiningWatch Canada, which last week launched a private prosecution laying charges against the BC government and the Mount Polley Mining Corporation (MPMC) for their roles in the

 

Next year Canada turns 150. What better present than a gift to the future: preservation of our outstanding heritage sites?  

In 2013 a jet fuel truck operated by Executive Flight Centre, and servicing BC Ministry of Forests firefighting efforts, plunged off a road in the Slocan Valley, crashing into the pristine Lemon Creek and dump

Earlier this year the BC government approved the Great Bear Rainforest Land Use Order, grounding the region’s land and forest protection into law.

Recently we witnessed a major legal victory for First Nations opposing the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines and tankers proposal, as well as all the communities, groups and individuals supporting them.

The Great Bear Sea is the ocean alongside the Great Bear Rainforest. A photo essay in Maclean’s magazine by renowned wilderness photographer Ian McAllister showcases its sublime marine beauty.