BURST
A lawsuit by seven young people designed to win Ontario government action on climate change is expected to proceed after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear an appeal by the province.
Lawyers for the young plaintiffs contend the high court’s refusal to take up the appeal marks “a significant victory for climate litigation in Canada” and will force the province to answer for its greenhouse gas emissions policy.
“It’s decision time,” Stockwoods lawyer Nader Hasan, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said Thursday.
“The Ontario government is out of runway and will finally have to face the music for gutting its climate targets and putting our collective health, safety, and futures at risk.”
One of the applicants, Shelby Gagnon, said the case shows even small acts of courage can create change. “Our case is a call to all generations to take action as we stand together to show that the rule of law matters, science matters, and justice matters,” she said Thursday.
News that the case will proceed comes one day after Ontario Premier Doug Ford levelled harsh criticism against Ontario judges, whom he argued are too often making decisions based on ideology. Ford raised the idea of electing judges to hold them accountable for their decisions.
“These judges that are bleeding hearts, I can’t wait until they retire,” Ford said in reaction to an Ontario Superior Court decision to grant an injunction against his government’s plan to remove some downtown Toronto bike lanes.
“As a matter of fact, I’ll pay them to retire earlier,” Ford said. “I’ll pay you out, for two, three, four years. Just get out of the system.”
The climate change case began in 2019 when seven young plaintiffs filed a statement of claim, arguing that Ontario’s climate policy would not protect them from the impact of climate change.
Backed by lawyers from Ecojustice and Stockwoods LLP, the lawsuit alleged the Ontario government’s decision to claw back greenhouse gas emissions targets in 2018 violated the Charter’s guarantee of the rights to equality, life and security of the person.
In April 2023, an Ontario Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit as a “positive rights case” – a case that established novel legal rights.
But in October 2024, the Court of Appeal for Ontario disagreed, and said the group’s lawsuit could proceed. The appeal court said a new hearing must determine whether the government’s actions on greenhouse gas emissions complied with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The three-justice panel said “it is indisputable that, as a result of climate change, the appellants and Ontarians in general are experiencing an increased risk of death and an increased risk to the security of the person.”
The lawsuit was triggered by the Progressive Conservative government’s decision to reduce the province’s emission goals to 30 per cent from 37 below 2005 levels by 2030.
In court, the province did not contest the existence of climate change, its risks to human health or the need for all countries to take action to mitigate its adverse effects.
Instead, lawyers for the Ontario government argued its actions would have little or no effect on climate change given the scope of the problem, and that the environmental impacts described by the young plaintiffs were not the result of the province’s greenhouse gas policies.
One of the seven young plaintiffs is Alexandra Neufeldt, 28, of Ottawa, who joined the legal bid to win provincial action on climate change.
Neufeldt, a freelance fashion designer, has said the case is important because the potentially catastrophic impact of climate change will be borne by those who are young today or as yet unborn.
Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed.