Media Releases

OTTAWA, ON, Algonquin Anishnaabeg Territory – Environmental lawyers are welcoming improvements to the federal government’s Strategic Assessment of Climate Change (SACC), released today, but are also expressing frustration at its failure to establish an adequate “climate test” for assessing how in

Environmental lawyers vow to fight on as Court denies leave for Indigenous legal challenges

“The federal government investigating itself is clearly not an option,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, UBCIC

How we’re responding to global efforts to #FlattenTheCurve

These are exceptional times. There is a lot going on in the world and it seems like the news is changing almost by the minute.

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

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

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

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

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.

Groups launch petition demanding full disclosure by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

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

West Coast Environmental Law event marks 30 years of environmental legal aid in BC

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.

VICTORIA, BC, Lekwungen Territories – West Coast Environmental Law Association is celebrating today’s introduction of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which will bring the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (“UN Declaration”) into provincial law.

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

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

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

VICTORIA/VANCOUVER, BC - As Taseko Mines once again attempts to force its way with an injunction to start drilling in Tŝilhqot’in ancestral

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. 

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

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.

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.

Environmental and conservation groups respond to modernized Fisheries Act

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

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