It has become a platitude to call transparency and accountability cornerstones of democracy, but the extent to which these “cornerstones” are respected under Canada’s and B.C.’s environmental assessment laws will be put to the test in four legal challenges to last month’s approvals of BC Hydro’s proposed Site C dam.
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.
We’ve all seen some of the graphic images of flooding along the East Coast of the United States in recent years: neighbourhoods where streets have become canals, an oddly picturesque parking lot full of yellow taxis floating in blue water up to their windshields, and not-so-picturesque images of people assessing the wreckage of their homes and b
WCEL turns 40
This year, West Coast Environmental Law is proud to celebrate our 40th anniversary and the many accomplishments the organization has achieved over the past four decades.
On the morning of October 27, I was excited not to have to go into the office, but not for the reasons one might think. As an articled student for WCEL, I look forward to going to the office because everyone there is so inspirational and the work they do seems so worthwhile, I am thankful just to be a part of it all. This day was not any diffe
The winners of the 2014 Andrew Thompson award were announced at our 40th anniversary celebration last week.
Canada’s largest oil sands companies – has taken the time to read – and publicly disagree with – our recent report, Payback Time. As you may recall, Payback Time examined the
It is an understatement to say we were disappointed that the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPPA) was recently ratified by the Canadian government, after almost two years of delay.
Remember the Lemon Creek jet-fuel spill?
In my own, perhaps biased, opinion, the most significant thing about our recent report on transnational liability for large-scale greenhouse gas polluters (Payback Time?) is that it is a contribution to a public conversation about liability and compen
