Nicole Peterson is a legal intern with West Coast Environmental Law who is participating in the Osgoode Aboriginal Clinical Intensive Program. She writes:
We’ve all seen some of the graphic images of flooding along the East Coast of the United States in recent years: neighbourhoods where streets have become canals, an oddly picturesque parking lot full of yellow taxis floating in blue water up to their windshields, and not-so-picturesque images of people assessing the wreckage of their homes and belongings.
If you’ve been watching Parliament in the past week or two you may have just heard mention of the phrase “carbon tax.” We’d be delighted if this meant that there was an intelligent debate going on in Parliament about how to address climate change, but unfortunately it’s only a baseless attempt by the ruling Conservative party to associate the opposition New Democrats with a policy that the NDP has (unfortunately) never supported.
On January 30, the Independent Expert Engineering Investigation and Review Panel appointed to investigate the August 4, 2014 breach of the Mount Polley Mine tailings storage facility (TSF) released its report on the causes of the dam failure.
On April 11, 2014, the Yinka Dene Alliance (“YDA”) held an All Clans Gathering in Nak’azdli (adjacent to Fort St. James) in order for their leaders and elders to issue reasons for the rejection of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline in a gathering according to their laws. I was grateful to be invited as a witness at the gathering along with West Coast’s executive director and senior counsel Jessica Clogg.
The Conservative Party election promise, in 2008, to bring in a Cap and Trade system to tackle climate change has recently been in the news. But we’ve not heard any mention about another important energy-related campaign promise from the same 2008 Conservative Party platform (at p.23):
Last week, at the close of the hearings for the legal challenges to the federal government’s Enbridge Northern Gateway approval, Justice Dawson thanked legal counsel for their submissions and added that she could recall, from her days as a lawyer, the feeling at the end of a case when the responsibility shifts from the lawyers who have made the arguments to the judges who must now decide the issues.
The summer is quickly coming to a close, and the West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL) summer law student volunteers want to take this opportunity to thank our friends and mentors at WCEL for their support and guidance during the course of this amazing experience. As we say our final farewell, we would like to share the highlights of our summer at West Coast.
From left to right: Adam, Zach, Lucy, Justine, Ashley, Rachel
Well, tomorrow (January 4th) the Enbridge Joint Review Panel arrives in Victoria. It’s in Vancouver on January 14th, and in Kelowna on the 28th. So this is a big month in the southern part of our province for those concerned about the Enbridge Pipeline and Tanker Project.
West Coast has previously suggested that, in spite of the Province of British Columbia’s “tough talk” on oil pipelines, it has been trying to pass the decision-making buck to the federal government’s National Energy Board (NEB).