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

The decision of the Yukon Court of Appeal in Ross River Dena Council v.

Well, tomorrow (January 4th) the Enbridge Joint Review Panel arrives in Victoria.  It’s in Vancouver on January 14th, and in Kelowna on the 28th.  So this is a big month in the southern part of our province for those concerned about the Enbridge Pipeline and Tanker Project. 

In December 2010, representatives of sixty-one Indigenous nations came together in an historic alliance to protect the Fraser watershed and our coastal waters from the threat of oil spills.The result was the Save the Fraser Declaration, which bans tar sands projects, like the Enbridge pipeline and tankers p

Nerd alert: Discussion of tedious yet vital regulatory procedure ahead.

First Nations in BC are playing a national leadership role in pushing back against the controversial Canada China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPPA), and are hooking up with some non-Aboriginal allies in that fight.  We’ve just received a press release issued today by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), the Hup

“This is your future, you tell me what you want me to know about all this.” – Justice Tom Berger

It’s been almost a year since Natural Resources Minister, Joe Oliver, attacked Canadian environmental groups in an open letter as “radicals”.  Lots has been said since then about the Minister’s inflammatory rhetoric, but very little has been said about

Jay Nelson has a unique perspective on the new Canadian Environmental Assessment act, 2012 (CEAA 2012).  Jay has been representing the Tsilhqot’in National Government (TNG) in the current environmental assessment (EA) of the controversial New Prosperity mine project at

The final report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River was released on October 31st, contrary to rumours that the document might not be made public.  The report, wh

As public interest environmental lawyers, we think that it’s important for BC and Canada to have strong environmental laws.  And, at least when asked in polls, a large majority of Canadians agree.