Greenpeace is suing the Ontario Government
Doug Ford can now add the world's most prominent environmental organization to his long and ever-growing list of courtroom opponents.
That's right: Greenpeace Canada joins the City of Toronto, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario and automaker Tesla (among others) this week in deciding to take legal action against the province of Ontario over new PC government policies.
The NGO announced in a press release this week that it has launched a lawsuit against Ford's government for unlawfully "denying the rights of Ontarians to be consulted on its wholesale revision of Ontario’s laws for combating climate change."
BREAKING: We’re suing the Ford government on climate change.
— Greenpeace Canada (@GreenpeaceCA) September 11, 2018
We’re arguing the Ford government’s attempt to kill the cap-and-trade program is not only undemocratic, it’s illegal.
RT to support! Press Release: https://t.co/7yZh76yd1t #onpoli #ActOnClimate pic.twitter.com/RFAA760Rrz
Filed on Tuesday by Ecojustice lawyers and the uOttawa-Ecojustice Environmental Law Clinic, the suit alleges that the PC government's "rash teardown" of the former Liberal government's cap and trade program was "irresponsible."
"The Ford government’s first action when it stepped into office was to gut a program designed to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, without offering any immediate alternative,” said Ecojustice lawyer Charles Hatt in the Greenpeace release.
"We're suing to remind the Premier that winning an election does not give his government carte blanche to ignore the statutory rights of Ontarians to be consulted on major changes to the laws and regulations that protect them from climate change."
The environmental organizations are asking Ontario's Superior Court of Justice declare the Minister of Environment's failure to comply with the mandatory public notice and comment process "unreasonable and incorrect, procedurally unfair, and therefore unlawful."
They also want the regulation that scrapped cap and trade, which was approved by Ford's government in July, quashed.
An expedited hearing is currently set for September 21, at which point the residents of Ontario will be watching carefully to see how much losing this one could cost us.
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