The Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic (EJSC) is excited to announce a new partnership with leading Aboriginal law firm Olthuis, Kleer, Townshend LLP (OKT) for a pilot summer student fellowship. This summer OKT will be sponsoring one EJSC student to work with both the firm and the clinic. Through the fellowship, an EJSC student will […]
News & Posts
Why Environmental Lawyers Should Care About Gentrification
Why Environmental Lawyers Should Care About Gentrification By: Alexandra Potamianos Community Over Commodity Activist. Source: Communities Over Commodities Report. The early environmental justice movement fought against the disproportionate placement of toxic waste facilities and other locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) in low-income communities of color. More recently, environmental justice movements have expanded their […]
Municipalities and Climate Change: How Municipalities Can Make Climate Emergency Declarations Meaningful
By: Sarah Murphy How Do Municipalities Fit into the Climate Change Conversation? Many governments are turning their minds to how they can respond to climate change and growing public concern. Federal and provincial governments in Canada are battling over jurisdiction to implement climate change policies on issues such as carbon taxing and pipeline expansion. However, […]
Environmental Law: What 2019 Can Tell Us About 2020
By: Ryan Chawner A flurry of important environmental law and policy news closed out 2019 and lay the groundwork for 2020. Climate justice activists scored a big win with the Dutch Supreme Court decision in The State of Netherlands v Stichting Urgenda (Urgenda). This decision affirmed that there is a real threat from climate change, […]
Can Toronto enact a by-law that bans single-use plastics?
By: Madhavi Gupta The Environmental Context Concern about single-use plastics has come to the forefront of the public’s attention, with a rising wave of support calling corporations to reduce their use. At a result, restaurants such as Harveys and East Side Mario’s are adopting biodegradable straws, while grocery stores such as […]
Federal Environment Minister approves Regional Impact Assessment following submission from Osgoode Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic
In what is being described as “a stunning success,” Osgoode Hall Law School’s Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic has received word from the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change that its request for a regional impact assessment for proposed mining and road infrastructure in Ontario’s Ring of Fire has been accepted. Dayna Scott Minister […]
New Ontario Law Could Restrict Government Liability for Harms to Aboriginal and Treaty Rights
By: Grace Hermansen On May 29th, 2019, the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act, 2019 (CLPA) officially became law in Ontario, replacing the Proceedings Against the Crown Act (PACA). This legislation outlines when and how lawsuits can be brought against the provincial government. Without this statutory framework, the common law principle of sovereign immunity dictates that […]
Beyond the Climate Emergency: Exploring Municipal Solutions to a Global Problem
Osgoode students are formally invited to participate in a national law school research-a-thon, Beyond the Climate Emergency: Exploring Municipal Solutions to a Global Problem hosted by Osgoode’s Environmental Justice Clinic and Windsor Law’s Cities and Climate Action Forum. The event will take place on Monday, November 18, 2019, the Student Law Clinics Global Day of […]
Upcoming seminar on the new environmental assessment regime
Generating Change with Your Dollar: Can B-Corporations be the Start to a More Sustainable Future?
By: Alex Dumais On October 8, 2018, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its report on climate change. Among other things, the report warned the world was approaching a devastating and irreversible environmental “tipping point” in the battle against climate change. But while governments drag their feet, action is coming from an […]
