ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
We use the law and we help shape the law with our precedent setting interventions
Friends of the Earth Canada stands on guard for people and the planet. As a member of Friends of the Earth International, we work in solidarity with our global counterparts in 75 country groups.
By intervening in the highest court, the Supreme Court of Canada, Friends of the Earth is able to offer distinctive advice to the Justices as they weigh the pleadings of parties in a case.
FOE Canada has a long history of legal cases and interventions.
Most recently, FOE joined with the National Association of Women and the Law to intervene on behalf of women and girls in the reference case on the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.
It’s Time to Modernize the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (dealing with pollution prevention and the protection of the environment and human health in order to contribute to sustainable development.)
We support vulnerable people and communities
People from vulnerable communities are on the front lines, confronting the health and environmental impacts of toxic contaminants from mines, nuclear power plants and climate chaos.
While climate chaos will impact everyone, it will be experienced differently based not only on where people live, but also their socio-economic status, age, gender, race and culture.
We insist that environmental rights are human rights and work for justice for victims and to hold corporations accountable
Too often big business captures political decision making spaces, such as development of laws and regulations nationally and UN negotiations globally, and, in so doing, shapes environmental and human rights policies to suit its interests rather than those of vulnerable people and communities.
We need a legally binding treaty to pave the way for justice for victims and to hold corporations to account. Relying on businesses to voluntarily regulate themselves simply does not work. To ensure rights for people, we need rules for business. The UNHRC treaty process commenced in 2014 has yet to deliver on these rules.
The Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNAC) has developed a draft model legislation to provide lawmakers with a blueprint for a new international corporate accountability law in Canada.
#MakeDentalAmalgamHistory
Canada’s position as of February 4, 2023 shows stalling on action to halt use of dental amalgam. The Government of Canada supports the Convention’s phase-down approach to dental amalgam use and has met its obligations under the Convention through the implementation of various actions to minimize the need for dental restoration, reduce mercury releases to the environment from dental facilities, and restrict the use of dental amalgam to its encapsulated form…
Human rights and environment due diligence legislation in Canada
Canada has international human rights obligations to protect, respect and fulfill human rights, including protecting against human rights abuses by Canadian companies operating overseas. Yet there is at present no legal framework in Canada that sets out companies’ obligations to respect human rights throughout their global operations and supply chains, nor that defines corporate liability for harms caused as a result of their business activities.
Fukushima “you can’t go back to normal”
“Almost no one is coming back to this district anymore … there are no young people, at all.” FoE Japan, in cooperation with the NGO Peace Boat have launched a new video testimony of the current situation in Fukushima in various languages.
