In the spirit of increased collegiality and collaboration within the Canadian legal blogging community, LawisCool.com and TheCourt.ca have set aside their heated rivalry to bring you their first ever joint posting. What follows is a commentary on the interesting case of Piedra v. Copper Mesa Mining Corporation, 2010 ONSC 2421. Commentator for LawisCool.com: Omar Ha-Redeye, [...]

Newfoundland has failed in its latest effort to compel AbitibiBowater Inc. to clean up industrial sites that the company once owned and operated in the province. The Quebec Court of Appeal decision in Newfoundland v. AbitibiBowater Inc., 2010 QCCA 965, denied the province leave to appeal of an earlier decision by the Superior Court in [...]

Last week marked a pivotal turning point in the development of Aboriginal law and the demarcation of federal-provincial jurisdiction. For the first time ever, the SCC was faced with the challenge of interpreting the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (the Treaty) in its decision in Quebec (Attorney General) v. Moses, 2010 SCC 17.  The [...]

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada released its judgment on MiningWatch Canada v. Canada (Fisheries and Oceans), 2010 SCC 2. MiningWatch deals with the level of discretion that federal ministries have in determining the scope of a given project for the purposes of undertaking an environmental assessment. Writing for the unanimous Court, [...]

In Friends of the Oldman River Society v. Canada, [1992] 1 S.C.R. 3, Justice LaForest wrote that an “[e]nvironmental impact assessment is, in its simplest form, a planning tool that is now generally regarded as an integral component of sound decision-making.” One of the enumerated purposes of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, S.C. 1992 c.37, [...]

The practice of environmental law in Canada has always been fraught with an unanswered question: which level(s) of government have the power to regulate environmental issues? The Supreme Court this week agreed to hear an appeal in Moses v. Canada, 2008 QCCA 741, a noteworthy case where the environmental assessment of a proposed vanadium mine [...]

Last Thursday, the SCC approved leave to appeal in MiningWatch Canada, et al. v. Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, et al. (32797). The case deals with the requirements of the environmental assessment procedures laid out in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, S.C. 1992, c. 37 (CEAA). Specifically, the issue was whether the federal authorities responsible [...]

Several newspaper articles were published yesterday outlining a “constitutional clash” between federal and provincial powers with respect to the environment and the Alberta oil industry: “Constitutional clash: environmental protection versus right to develop natural resources” – by: Kirk Makin “Clash over environment, oil industry coming: Lougheed” – by: Janice Tibbetts On August 14, 2007, Peter [...]