Climate change occurs mostly due to human operations like deforestation, emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere among other environmental pollution. Therefore, climate changes can be classified as national disasters.
Canadian law states that protecting the environment should be a shared responsibility between the federal and provincial areas. This is why Canadian Parks & Trees Protection has been at the forefront to ensure that the government takes adequate action on climate changes. Our main objective is to influence the government to stop atmospheric polluters as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Around December 2019, Canadian Parks & Trees Protection lawyers represented the David Suzuki Foundation as well as the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in the Alberta Court of Appeal.
Our lawyers then asked if the federal government’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act was unlawful. On February 24, 2020, the court gave an unsatisfactory ruling stating that the federal government has no legal rights to stipulate any climate laws.
At this point, Canadian Parks & Trees Protection had to intervene. Canadian Parks & Trees Protection believes that climate change should be a national calamity and that the federal government should be involved in the fight. Besides, the native societies have constitutional rights that demand all government levels to protect their cultural ways.
In another case, which was brought by Ontario Saskatchewan, the lower court passed the federal government’s jurisdiction to get involved in combating climate changes. This final ruling shows that the nation is still in a climate emergency, which requires the federal government to intervene.
