Seven youth continue battle of challenged provincial climate change policies

By Colin Graf

AAMJIWNAANG FIRST NATION— A group of seven young people, including three First Nations youth, have won a legal battle against efforts by Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government to stop them challenging Ontario’s climate change policies.

A judge of the Ontario Superior Court recently ruled against the province’s attempt to stop a lawsuit brought by the youth over a year ago. With the support of the environmental law charity Ecojustice, they are suing the government because they believe changes to greenhouse gas emission reduction targets will cause “widespread illness and death,” according to an Ecojustice news release. The seven believe reductions to climate change targets violate portions of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms that protect rights to life, liberty, and security of the person, the organization says.

The youth “have made various claims – which are deemed valid and proven at this point of the proceedings – that their, and future, generations will bear the brunt of various impacts of climate change,” Justice Carole J. Brown wrote in her decision.

“[They] should be given standing for their generation, as well as for future generations,” she added.

The recent ruling is “a landmark victory” and “a legal first” in Canada, according to Ecojustice. The group claims this is the first time a Canadian court has determined fundamental rights under the Charter can be threatened by climate change and citizens have the ability to challenge a Canadian government’s action on the climate crisis, according to the group’s website.

Beze Gray, 25, of Aaamjiwnaang First Nation, joined the case last year after several years of environmental activism in the community located next to the cluster of refineries and petrochemical plants near Sarnia known as Canada’s Chemical Valley.

Gray’s environmentalism comes from growing up feeling Aamjiwnaang was “somewhere different”, situated amid the pipe structures, cooling towers, and flare stacks.

“What are those things that shot out fire? What are the things (smokestacks) that I thought were cloud-makers? What a pipeline was? I used to use them (pipelines) as bridges to cross the creek,” Gray remembers wondering as a child. “My parents would take me off reserve and we would see different towns and I would see that not everyone had a refinery in their backyard.”

At a young age, Gray and family were forced to evacuate their homes because of a chemical leak, but the next day in school, it was clear only the Aamjiwnaang students and not those in Sarnia upwind of the leak, had that experience the night before, Gray recalls.

Shaelyn Wabegijig of Peterborough grew up in Chippewas of Rama First Nation and joined the lawsuit “for everyone— for future generations and for our non-human relatives.”

“If I ever bring children into this world, I want to be able to share healthy air, land and water, a safe climate, and my culture. As a member of the Caribou Clan, my cultural identity is interconnected with Ontario’s boreal caribou, and it risks disappearing if this species is wiped out,” she says.

Another plaintiff, Shelby Gagnon, 23, Anishinaabe of Aroland First Nation and Thunder Bay, says she is worried “about how climate change will impact food sovereignty for Indigenous peoples across Canada.” “This makes me sad for myself and for future generations, who may one day be unable to harvest traditional medicines,” she adds.

Nader Hasan, a lawyer working with Ecojustice on the case, says the government tried to argue the courts are not the right place to address climate change, and “the problem is so big and complicated that Ontario’s targets can’t impact Charter rights.”  He calls the ruling “a resounding rebuke of those claims.”

Fraser Thomson, Ecojustice lawyer, says his clients believe Ontario’s 2030 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels is “inadequate, unconstitutional, and must be struck down.”

In 2018, Ford’s Progressive Conservatives repealed what Ecojustice calls “relatively strong greenhouse gas reduction targets,” set by the former Liberal government. By weakening the targets, the government will allow “significantly more” greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change-related impacts such as heatwaves, floods, fires, and poor air quality, the group claims.

This court case echoes events around the world, according to Thomson.

“Our young clients have seen and heard politicians promise things before, and they’ve continued to see broken promises, and a failure to act on climate change. They are coming to the court in the same way youth from around the world are going to their own courts, as a last hope,” he says. “We’re in a climate emergency. The best available science is telling us we have 10 years to drastically cut our greenhouse gas emissions before we risk locking the planet into irreversible climate change.”

He thinks his clients “have a good shot” at winning their case when and if a hearing is held.

“We have to act very quickly and our clients think going to court is one way to force this issue.”

The province is continuing efforts to stop the suit by seeking to appeal the recent decision to a higher court, Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks spokesperson Lindsay Davidson said. The government’s position is that “it is plain and obvious that the application will fail; the application alleges that Ontario’s climate change plan violates the Charter.”

If the court grants the province leave to appeal, it will “almost certainly delay this urgent litigation – and could jeopardize these young people’s chances of ever getting their day in court,” according to Ecojustice.