Home » Posts tagged 'bc civil liberties association'
Tag Archives: bc civil liberties association
Charter Rights at Issue in Fracking Supreme Court Case
Charter Rights at Issue in Fracking Supreme Court Case
Jessica Ernst’s long battle over rights, well contamination reaches highest court Tuesday.
Jessica Ernst stands in front of Encana compressors in Rosebud, Alberta. Photo by Tor Lundberg Tuorda.
An Alberta woman’s landmark eight-year battle over fracking regulation, water contamination and Charter rights will take centre stage in the Supreme Court of Canada Tuesday.
Jessica Ernst claims fracking contaminated the water supply at her homestead near Rosebud, about 110 kilometres east of Calgary. She is seeking $33 million in damages.
Ernst is also taking on the agency that regulates the energy industry in Alberta, claiming it has denied her the right to raise her concerns effectively and is shielded by unconstitutional legislation that bar citizens from suing it for wrongdoing.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Law at the University of Toronto have intervened in support of Ernst’s position and the lawsuit could change the way the controversial technology of hydraulic fracturing is regulated in Canada.
Ernst’s lawyers hope the Supreme Court will eventually rule that the Alberta Energy Regulator violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by limiting her ability to communicate with the agency.
Such a decision would punt Ernst’s case back into Alberta’s courts where it can continue its slow course. Ernst considers the regulator the most at fault in her famous and multi-pronged lawsuit.
In a “factum” prepared for the Supreme Court, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association argues that immunity clauses for regulators are an affront to government accountability and a licence to abuse power.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
If Food Is a Right, Who Should Provide It?
If Food Is a Right, Who Should Provide It?
Nearly 850,000 Canadians visited food banks in one month last year.
At a recent public forum in Victoria, B.C. about the right to food, the first audience question was about federal politics and the October election, which put the panelists in an awkward position.
“We all work for charities that are very non-partisan and would never suggest that you vote in any particular way,” said Laura Track, counsel for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, alluding to federal laws that restrict what organizations with charitable status can say.
The June 2 panel included Peggy Wilmot from the advocacy group Faith in Action, Roberta Bell from the Victoria Native Friendship Centre, Rudi Wallace from the Mustard Seed food bank, and Stephen Portman from the Together Against Poverty Society. A similar event with different panelists is planned for Vancouver on June 24.
Track did allow, “I agree that it’s a political issue for sure, and should be an issue in the next election.”
As the author of a soon-to-be-released report, Hungry for Justice: Advancing a Right to Food for Children in BC, she clearly sees ending hunger as a top priority. The report details rising food insecurity in Canada, critiques the treatment of hunger as a matter for charities to deal with, and considers what it would mean to recognize the right to food as a human right.
“The right to food is clearly protected in international human rights agreements that Canada has signed and agreed to uphold,” wrote Track. “But what does it mean to have a ‘right’ to something when that right so often goes unfulfilled?”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
