Media Releases

VANCOUVER, BC, Musqueam, Squamish & Tsleil-Waututh Territories – Jessica Clogg, West Coast Environmental Law’s Executive Director and Senior Counsel, made the following statement in response to Premier John Horgan’s announcement of an October 24th election:

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Climate and Energy, Green Communities

VANCOUVER, BC, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories – West Coast Environmental Law Association applauds the environment-related commitments made today by the BC government on COVID-19 recovery funding.

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Climate and Energy, Green Communities

VANCOUVER, BC, Musqueam, Squamish & Tsleil-Waututh Territories – Reacting to the ground-breaking lawsuit filed today by the State of Delaware against 31 fossil fuel companies, West Coast Environmental Law is calling on the government of British Columbia to follow suit to hold global fossil fu

Topics: Climate and Energy, Sue Big Oil

Please be advised that effective 1 August 2020, West Coast Environmental Law's office address will be changed. 

Telephone and fax numbers remain the same.

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Climate and Energy, Indigenous Law, Marine Protection, Green Communities, Environmental Legal Aid, Legal Advice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Topics: Environmental Legal Aid, EDRF Legal Aid Fund, Legal Advice

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

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

Topics: Environmental Legal Aid, EDRF Legal Aid Fund

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

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.

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Indigenous Law, Indigenous 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 be p

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. This achievement is the result of significant collaboration between Indigenous communities, the Canadian government, conservation organizations, communities and industries.

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

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

Topics: Strong Environmental Laws, Environmental Assessment, Lands & Forests

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

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