Natural Resources
-
March 11, 2024
Exploring Indigenous peoples’ right to conservation in Canada
The recent adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDA) provides a renewed opportunity to ensure that Indigenous peoples’ right to conserve and protect the environment is upheld. This right emerges from Indigenous peoples’ unique relationship with land that is inseparable from their socio-legal, political and spiritual systems. Upholding a right to conserve and protect the environment is especially important if we are to safeguard the health and well-being of Indigenous communities, who are disproportionately impacted by environmental injustices, and prevent further environmental racism.
-
March 07, 2024
Manitoba aiming to toughen environmental rules following sewage spill
Following a massive sewage spill in its capital city, Manitoba is poised to strengthen environmental laws in the province.
-
March 07, 2024
Modernizing national security laws could also clarify threshold to invoke Emergencies Act: LeBlanc
Ottawa is considering reforming the threshold for invoking the federal Emergencies Act, as part of a broader “more holistic review of national security legislation,” with the Liberal government committed to introducing amendments to “modernize” the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Act, the Security of Information Act, and the Criminal Code “in the coming months,” says Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
-
March 06, 2024
Small business group says firms owed $2.5 billion in carbon tax rebates over past five years
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is calling on the federal government to immediately disperse funds to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Canada that are owed more than $2.5 billion in carbon tax rebates from fuel charges from 2019 to now.
-
March 05, 2024
Federal lawyers ratify new collective agreement gains that achieve ‘comparable’ pay to Ontario Crowns
Members of the union representing more than 3,300 federal government lawyers and Crowns voted overwhelmingly to ratify a “hard won” new collective agreement, featuring pay increases of 12.5 per cent (13.14 per cent compounded) over four years — and making the pay rates for federal Crowns “comparable” to those of their Ontario counterparts, who are the highest paid public-sector lawyers in Canada, says the Association of Justice Counsel (AJC).
-
March 05, 2024
Torys welcomes nuclear energy industry leader Rumina Velshi as strategic advisor
Torys announced that Rumina Velshi will be joining the firm as a strategic advisor. According to the release, with over four decades of experience in the nuclear energy industry, Rumina’s recent roles include the president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, chairperson of the Commission on Safety Standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and chair of the 50th and 51st meetings of the International Nuclear Regulators’ Association. She is sought after by project proponents and technology developers around the world for her strategic expertise in the sector on everything from safety and regulatory matters to innovative nuclear projects, including small modular reactor projects.
-
March 05, 2024
Federal Court orders reconsideration of $250M container transfer project amid health concerns
The Federal Court has directed the environment minister and the federal cabinet to redetermine decisions related to a proposed $250 million intermodal container transfer facility in Milton, Ont. considering the project’s direct adverse environmental effects on human health.
-
March 05, 2024
White and Montour decision: Treaty rights to conflict resolution
This is the last in a four-part series of commentary on the Superior Court of Quebec’s recent decision in R. c. Montour, 2023 QCCS 4154. This part focuses on the court’s finding of a treaty right to a “conflict-resolution procedure” protected by s. 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982; how it can be extended to other historic treaties made in similar contexts; and how this renewed reading of treaties breathes life into Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination in Canadian law.
-
March 04, 2024
Canada sanctions six Russians ‘involved’ in Alexei Navalny’s ‘ill treatment and death’ in prison
Canada has announced dealings bans, including asset freezes, and entry bans against six Russians for their roles in “gross and systematic human rights violations;” the list includes “senior officials or high-ranking employees in Russia’s prosecution, judicial and penitentiary services who were involved in the ill-treatment and death” last month in an Arctic prison of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader and outspoken critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s kleptocratic regime.
-
March 01, 2024
Proposed settlements reached for class actions relating to African oil and gas operations
Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd., a Vancouver-based company, has announced that it has reached a global settlement regarding pending shareholder class action lawsuits against the company in Canada and the United States regarding its operations in Namibia.