Professor Thériault on Climate Justice

Professor Sophie Thériault was recently interviewed for Je vote pour la science about social injustices in the wake of global warming and associated severe weather events, as we have recently witnessed ravaging the Caribbean and the southern United States. 

In Canada, Aboriginal peoples in the North are among the most vulnerable to climate change. How can justice be done for these groups? If a group wants to file a complaint, how can it do so?

Listen to the broadcast here: http://www.sciencepresse.qc.ca/baladodiffusion/2017/09/27/injustices-sociales-face-climat

Food Law Course

The University of Ottawa Faculty of Law will be offering a brand new course on Food Law in the Winter 2018 term. The course, co-taught by Professor McLeod-Kilmurray and doctoral student Angela Lee, is one of the first of its kind in Canada. 

The course is intended to provide a basic overview of food law and policy in Canada. In addition to reviewing the primary acts and actors relevant to this area, the course will survey major topics covering all aspects of the food chain, from production to consumption. This will include topics such as agricultural law and policy, food safety, food and health labelling, marketing and advertising, public health, and the practice of food law in Canada. 

Conference on Human Rights and Natural Resource Extraction

Professor Nathalie Chalifour will be presenting at a conference on human rights and natural resource extraction, to be held October 26-28 at the University of Ottawa. Her presentation, entitled: Integrating gender considerations into Canadian environmental policy, will stress the importance of ensuring that economic and environmental policies are developed in a way that promotes gender equality. She argues that while the federal government's "Gender-based analysis Plus (GBA+)" tool is meant to achieve this, it has not lived up to its potential. Thus, applying an environmental justice framework, and using climate change (specifically carbon pricing policy) as a case study, she will discuss: (1) the policies’ relevance to gender equality; (2) how a tool like GBA+ could, if applied properly, influence the development of climate policy; and, (3) the opportunity of integrated policies to achieve co-benefits and ultimately contribute to sustainable development in Canada.

Global Conference on Environmental Taxation

Professor Nathalie Chalifour will be presenting at the Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, to be held September 27-28, 2017 in Tucson, Arizona, on the topic of Canadian climate policy.

One presentation is entitled:  Taking Flight – Aviation and Climate Change Policy in the Post-Paris World (with Laurel Besco).

The other is: Turning up the Heat – Key Issues and Latest Developments in Canadian Climate Policy.

Realizing Rights 2017

The Realizing Rights 2017: Human Rights and Constitutionalism conference took place June 8-10, 2017 at the University of Ottawa. The conference sought "to bring together, for the first time, the full range of practitioners, scholars, and advocates working on human rights across Canada and beyond, in order to discuss challenges and opportunities for the effective realization of human rights and related constitutional and governance arrangements."

Professor Nathalie Chalifour chaired a panel on "Incorporating International Norms in Canada’s Approaches to Domestic Human Rights Protection", and the range of topics covered by the conference presenters throughout the course of the conference touched on many issues relevant to environmental justice. 

Canadian Association of Law Teachers Conference 2017

Professor Heather McLeod-Kilmurray presented at the Canadian Association of Law Teachers Conference 2017, held at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law from June 8-10, 2017. 

The theme of the conference, jointly organized with the Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education (ACCLE), was “The Whole Lawyer and the Legal Education Continuum”. Professor McLeod-Kilmurray's presentation, on a panel called "Training Lawyers for Sustainability", was called “Integrating Sustainability throughout the Law School Curriculum”.

Earth v. Emissions

Professor Nathalie Chalifour's latest piece on climate change, featured in Corporate Knights, addresses the topic of climate litigation. Drawing on a series of recent climate-related cases around the world, including several from Canada, Professor Chalifour remarks that "[t]he question for Canada is not so much whether climate litigation will come here (it already has), but rather which climate-based lawsuit will be the first to win."

She further notes that "[t]he success of a climate-based Charter challenge will depend on a number of factors, including who would bring the case, what government conduct would be challenged and whether the courts would accept the causal link between the present and future harms of climate change and the government’s management of GHG emissions." Climate litigation has not been uncontroversial, and it will be interesting to see how it develops in Canada. As with many other environmental concerns, the actions and decisions of citizens, lawmakers, and judges will all be crucial in addressing the issues and the impacts posed by climate change.