• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
‘Remarkable Rebuke’: 130 U.S, EU Legislators Ask UN to Ditch Fossil CEO as COP 28 Chair May 23, 2023
Ontario Overrules Cities to Push Gas Plant Expansions May 23, 2023
Climate Concerns Drive Job Choices for 40% of Workers Under 40 May 23, 2023
PEROVSKITES: Qcells Plans First Production Line for ‘Miracle’ Solar Cell May 23, 2023
Tokyo Residents Rally to Protect Trees, Stop Skyscrapers in Iconic Urban Park May 21, 2023
Next
Prev

Judge Dismisses Youth Court Challenge, Scorches Ontario Climate Plan

April 19, 2023
Reading time: 4 minutes

Youth climate applicants in Mathur v. Ontario, Emily Chan/Ecojustice

Youth climate applicants in Mathur v. Ontario, Emily Chan/Ecojustice

4
SHARES
 

Applicants in a landmark youth-led climate lawsuit against the Doug Ford government are vowing to appeal their loss this week, buoyed by the judge’s rebuke of Ontario’s emissions targets and its cynical bid to skirt litigation by declaring its own climate plan to have no status in law.

Ecojustice lawyer Danielle Gallant compared Queen’s Park inadequate efforts on climate change to “bringing a glass of water to put out a house on fire,” the Toronto Star reports, even as Justice Marie-Andrée Vermette ruled that the Ford government’s 2018 Cap and Trade Cancellation Act (CTCA) did not fully violate the Charter rights of Ontario youth and Indigenous peoples. The law replaced the previous government’s emissions reduction target of 37% below 1990 with a less stringent target.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

Vermette found that the province’s watered-down climate goal engaged Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms dealing with life and security of the person, but did not violate principles of fundamental justice since the target itself was not arbitrary. She did affirm the scientific consensus on the need to rapidly cut emissions, an urgency missing from the CTCA.

“While the decision was a setback, it still broke new ground in charter climate litigation in Canada—and included a damning indictment of Ontario’s weak and dangerous climate target,” Ecojustice said in a release. “The court found that the case is justiciable, which means it is an appropriate question for courts to weigh in on. This has been a significant obstacle for other Charter-based climate cases in Canada.”

The court “also found that it was ‘indisputable’ that because of climate change, Ontarians are experiencing increased risk of death and serious bodily harm and that the Government of Ontario—by enacting a target to reduce GHG emissions that falls well below what the global scientific consensus says is required—is contributing to that risk of harm,” the Vancouver-based environmental law charity added.

Launched in 2019, the youth climate lawsuit alleged that courtesy of the CTCA, Ontario will emit an additional 200 megatonnes of carbon by 2030, thereby breaking its promise to help uphold Canada’s Paris agreement commitments. The Ford government was “tearing up the province’s climate laws” and violating the youth applicants’ charter rights to life, liberty, and security of the person, the lawsuit contended. Their fight continues to be supported by lawyers from Ecojustice and Stockwoods LLP.

Vermette ruled that the Ford government had not violated the applicants’ charter rights under the charter’s equality provision, Section 15, when it reduced its emissions target. “I agree with the Applicants that the evidence in this case shows that young people are disproportionately impacted by climate change,” she wrote. “However, this disproportionate impact is caused by climate change,” not by the provincial laws.

But that’s not to say the actions of Ontario’s government do not matter, she added.

The judge rejected claims by one of the government’s expert witnesses, a well-known climate denier, that provincial efforts at emissions reductions will have no bearing on the fight to rein in global heating. She said she “rejected the notion that since climate change is ‘an inherently global problem,’ each individual province’s greenhouse gas emissions cause no ‘measurable harm’.”

Ontario’s contribution to global heating is “real, measurable and not speculative,” Vermette wrote, and its emissions contribute to climate change and the increased risks it creates. “Every tonne of carbon dioxide emissions adds to global warming and leads to a quantifiable increase in global temperatures that is essentially irreversible on human time scales.”

Vermette also rejected the province’s efforts to evade the lawsuit by declaring its own climate plan to be little more than a “glossy brochure” courtesy of its communications department, with no power to reduce emissions and therefore not subject to review by the courts.

“I am not prepared to accept that a legislative requirement, or something that is required by law to be approved by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, is meaningless,” she wrote.

Stockwoods partner Nader Hasan, one of the lawyers for the youth, argued last September that allowing a province to “insulate its actions from the Constitution by claiming they’re simply communications exercises” would set a dangerous precedent.

“If the target and plan are not reviewable, then I fear that governments’ action in this country on climate change will be immune from judicial scrutiny,” Hasan said.

The Ford government’s glossy brochure defence was “a blueprint for rendering governments immune from constitutional judicial review on some of the most important decisions that any government in this country will be making for the foreseeable future,” he added. “Fortunately, their position is not supported by law.”

“Legal challenges are becoming a powerful tool for young people to hold their governments accountable for climate action,” said Ecojustice lawyer Danielle Gallant. Despite the “disappointing” verdict, she said lawyers at Ecojustice and Stockwoods “remain inspired by the courage and determination of these young applicants to advocate for a better, safer future for us all.”

“We remain behind them to support their fight, to the Court of Appeal and beyond,” she added.



in Canada, Clean Electricity Grid, Climate Action / "Blockadia", Climate Denial & Greenwashing, First Peoples, Health & Safety, Legal & Regulatory, Ontario, Sub-National Governments

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Arctic Circle/flickr
COP Conferences

‘Remarkable Rebuke’: 130 U.S, EU Legislators Ask UN to Ditch Fossil CEO as COP 28 Chair

May 23, 2023
340
Inspiration 4 Photos/flickr
Climate Impacts & Adaptation

Cooling Upper Atmosphere Has Scientists ‘Very Worried’

May 23, 2023
206
Jon Sullivan/flickr
Clean Electricity Grid

Ontario Overrules Cities to Push Gas Plant Expansions

May 23, 2023
833

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Activités culturelles UdeM/Flickr

Climate Concerns Drive Job Choices for 40% of Workers Under 40

May 23, 2023
151
McDonald's/flickr

McDonald’s Failing to Follow Through on Climate Promises, Critics Say

December 17, 2021
1.4k
Jon Sullivan/flickr

Ontario Overrules Cities to Push Gas Plant Expansions

May 23, 2023
833
University of Oxford Press Office/flickr

PEROVSKITES: Qcells Plans First Production Line for ‘Miracle’ Solar Cell

May 23, 2023
371
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

August 2, 2022
3.4k
Inspiration 4 Photos/flickr

Cooling Upper Atmosphere Has Scientists ‘Very Worried’

May 23, 2023
206

Recent Posts

Arctic Circle/flickr

‘Remarkable Rebuke’: 130 U.S, EU Legislators Ask UN to Ditch Fossil CEO as COP 28 Chair

May 23, 2023
340
Andrés Nieto Porras/wikimedia commons

‘Carbon Neutral’, ‘Net-Zero’ Claims Face Global Greenwash Crackdown

May 23, 2023
186
peellden/Wikimedia Commons

Scientists Sound Alarm on Methane Emissions, Habitat Hazards at U.S. Hydro Dams

May 23, 2023
141
nakashi/flickr

Tokyo Residents Rally to Protect Trees, Stop Skyscrapers in Iconic Urban Park

May 21, 2023
460
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/unrecognizable-from-the-original-design-suburban-renovations-disprove-cookie-cutter-stereotype

Embrace Suburbs, Exurbs in Climate Planning, Researchers Urge Cities

May 21, 2023
45
Trocker767/wikimedia commons

Renewable-Powered Greenhouse Brings Fresh Produce Bounty to Gjoa Haven Inuit

May 21, 2023
55
Next Post
Kristoferb/Wikimedia Commons

Oxford Expert Tackles 20 Myths About Heat Pumps

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}