Media Releases

OTTAWA/VANCOUVER – Late yesterday evening Senators voted to pass Bill C-69, which contains important changes to Canada’s laws pertaining to impact assessment, energy regulation, and protection of navigable waters.

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Canada's Environmental Reviews, Environmental Assessment

VANCOUVER, BC, Musqueam, Squamish & Tsleil-Waututh Territories – Environmental lawyers welcome the news that Bill C-48, the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, has passed a final vote in the Senate and will become law.

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Climate and Energy, Tar Sands, Pipelines & Tankers, Marine Protection, Protected Areas

Environmental and conservation groups respond to modernized Fisheries Act

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Canada's Environmental Reviews, Fish & Wildlife, Marine Protection, Protected Areas

Government rejects Senate amendment that would add unneeded re-assessment of the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Climate and Energy, Tar Sands, Pipelines & Tankers, Marine Protection, Protected Areas

Motion tabled in House of Commons today would restore key safeguards Canadians voted for in 2015, environmental lawyers say

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Canada's Environmental Reviews, Environmental Assessment, Climate and Energy

OTTAWA – Over 90 per cent of Canadians support the call to protect 30 per cent of the country’s oceans by 2030, according to a survey released today by Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, David Suzuki Foundation, West Coast Environmental Law and World Wildlife Fund Canada.

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Fish & Wildlife, Healthy Waters, Marine Protection, Protected Areas, Great Bear Sea

Federal bill renewing Canada’s Oceans Act receives Royal Assent

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Fish & Wildlife, Healthy Waters, Marine Protection, Protected Areas

Canada’s top court will be called on to resolve constitutionality of BC’s proposed law

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Climate and Energy, Tar Sands, Pipelines & Tankers, Marine Protection, Protected Areas

Unelected Senate must honour government commitment to a B.C. North Coast oil tanker moratorium, groups say

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Fish & Wildlife, Healthy Waters, Climate and Energy, Tar Sands, Pipelines & Tankers, Marine Protection, Protected Areas, Great Bear Sea, Green Communities, Coastal Communities

OTTAWA - Members of the Senate committee reviewing Bill C-69 have unleashed a tsunami of 240 amendments that threaten to destroy the integrity of the bill, say environmental groups.

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Canada's Environmental Reviews, Environmental Assessment

Williams Lake, Secwepemc Territory – Andrew Gage, a staff lawyer from West Coast Environmental Law, is attending this week’s North Central Local Government Association (NCLGA) meeting to hear firsthand how wildfires and other climate-related impacts have affected northern communities – and how th

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Climate and Energy, Sue Big Oil, Community Climate Adaptation, Climate Solutions

Ottawa, Ont.

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Fish & Wildlife, Climate and Energy, Marine Protection

All projects that pose a climate risk must receive a rigorous assessment, say environmental lawyers

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Canada's Environmental Reviews, Environmental Assessment, Climate and Energy, Tar Sands, Pipelines & Tankers, Climate Solutions

Environmental lawyers welcome government’s commitment to better ocean protection

Topics: Marine Protection, Protected Areas

Environmental groups and intervenors warn of further legal challenges

Topics: Climate and Energy, Tar Sands, Pipelines & Tankers, Marine Protection

VICTORIA, Territory of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations – Lawyers with West Coast Environmental Law applauded BC’s Budget 2019 for delivering on funding promises to implement the government’s climate plan, CleanBC.

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Environmental Assessment, Climate and Energy, Climate Solutions

VANCOUVER, BC, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories – Environmental lawyers are optimistic about new legal protections for free expression in BC, after the reintroduction of a bill to protect British Columbians from strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP).

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Canada's Environmental Reviews

VANCOUVER, BC, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories - The Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources voted unanimously yesterday to travel to select regions in Canada during its study of Bill C-69, which introduces important measures to improve federal

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Canada's Environmental Reviews, Environmental Assessment, Climate and Energy, Tar Sands, Pipelines & Tankers

Ensuring federal assessment of high-carbon projects is critical if Canada is to step up Paris Agreement ambitions at COP 24

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Canada's Environmental Reviews, Environmental Assessment

But lawyers say more must be done to ensure independent evidence and safeguard climate

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Environmental Assessment

VANCOUVER, BC, Coast Salish Territories – West Coast Environmental Law is calling for stronger and more consistent legal standards for Canada’s marine protected areas (MPAs) and other conservation areas, following the release of a new report from a National Advisory Panel appointed to offer guidance to the federal government regarding categories and associated protection standards for federal MPAs.

Topics: Fish & Wildlife, Marine Protection, Protected Areas, Great Bear Sea

Pushback is an attempt to bypass crucial environmental oversight

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Canada's Environmental Reviews, Environmental Assessment, Climate and Energy, Tar Sands, Pipelines & Tankers

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Fish & Wildlife, Marine Protection, Protected Areas, Great Bear Sea

VANCOUVER, BC, Coast Salish Territories – The federal government’s “first step” to proceed with the Trans Mountain pipeline and tanker project fails to address the critical issue of Indigenous consultation, says West Coast Environmental Law.

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Climate and Energy, Tar Sands, Pipelines & Tankers, Indigenous Law, Indigenous Law

VANCOUVER, BC, Coast Salish Territories – Lawyers at West Coast Environmental Law issued the following statement in response to the

Topics: Indigenous Law, Indigenous Law, Marine Protection, Protected Areas