Media Releases

VANCOUVER, BC, Musqueam, Squamish & Tsleil-Waututh Territories – Lawyers at West Coast Environmental Law are calling on the BC Liberal Caucus to correct misinformation aimed at undermining environmental organizations and lawful resistance to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in Wet’suwet’en territ

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Marine Protection, Environmental Legal Aid, EDRF Legal Aid Fund

Support crumbles when costs exceed $12 billion, new poll finds

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

Estimated cost jumps from $7.4B to $12.6B, prompting calls for government to abandon the project

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

Narrow Federal Court of Appeal decision is a blow for reconciliation and sustainability, lawyers say  

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

VANCOUVER, BC, Coast Salish Territories – BC is not doing enough to investigate, prepare for, and protect taxpayers from the looming costs of climate change, say 25 BC-based organizations and 4 leading academics.

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

Groups launch petition demanding full disclosure by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

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

Amending legislation passed in Bill C-69 or C-48 would diminish public trust, say enviro lawyers

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

VICTORIA, BC – Territory of Songhees and Esquimalt Nations – Bill 38, the Climate Change Accountability Amendment Act 2019, introduced today in the BC Legislature, could transform how the Province works to achieve its climate goals.

Topics: Climate and Energy, Climate Solutions

VANCOUVER, BC, Coast Salish Territories – Climate campaigners at West Coast Environmental Law and the Georgia Strait Alliance responded to today’s announcement by the City of Victoria at the Union of BC Municipalities that one of Canada’s foremost legal minds, Joe Arvay of Arvay Finlay, will

Topics: Climate and Energy, Sue Big Oil

Legislation loses points for regulations that exempt high-carbon projects from review

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

OTTAWA — The Canadian government has surpassed its commitment to protect at least 10 per cent of its oceans before 2020.

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

Today, Vancouver City Council voted 7-4 to take a series of actions demanding that global fossil fuel companies share in the climate change costs incurred by the City. 

Topics: Climate and Energy, Sue Big Oil, Climate Solutions

VANCOUVER, BC, Coast Salish Territories – In an 8-1 vote, the City of Richmond voted last night to ask BC Premier John Horgan to enact a Liability for Climate-related Harms Act confirming the right of local governments to recover a fair share of climate costs from global fossil fuel comp

Topics: Climate and Energy, Sue Big Oil

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

West Coast Environmental Law reacts to federal government’s re-approval of the project

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

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

WILLIAMS LAKE, Secwepemc Territory – Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law, made the following statement in response to Resolution 21, passed today at the North Central Local Gove

Topics: Climate and Energy, Sue Big Oil, Climate Solutions

Ottawa, Ont.

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

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