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

Can you imagine waking up in the morning, looking out the window and being annoyed that your view is blocked by a green leafy tree?  If you live in the City of White Rock and the tree happens to be on city property you can now just apply to the City to have that eyesore removed and your view of the ocean (or whatever view you happen to look

With the federal government’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) currently examining how it re-evaluates pesticides, it’s worth noting that at least one re-evaluation of a pesticide did not go as quickly as expected. 

Health Canada – through the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) – is supposed to approve every pesticide used in Canada before it’s sold or used in Canada.  While the PMRA itself cautions against claims that the pesticides it approves are safe, proponents o

February’s grey weather did not deter the more than 150 people who at

Well, we’ve waded into another controversy over water. You may have read me quoted in the Globe and Mail or the

 Metro Vancouver has given second reading to its new Regional Growth Strategy (RGS), and sent the plan to its member municipalities for approval.  But the plan is coming under attack

If you haven’t heard of “ecocide”, I suspect you will in the coming years.  That’s because British lawyer, Polly Higgins, has made it her life mission to have the UN recognize ecocide as a 5th Crime Against Peace (alongside genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, W

On December 2nd 61 First Nations with territory in the Fraser River watershed spoke up against Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline – the Save the Fraser Gathering of Nations Declaration.  The same day the Nations published a full page ad in the Globe and Mail. 

On November 25th and 26th, 2010, representatives of many First Nations gathered in Williams Lake to hold the Save the Fraser Gathering of Nations meeting, adding their voices to the growin