Residents of Vancouver Island’s Shawnigan Lake are currently in B.C.’s Supreme Court fighting a waste discharge permit that will allow five million tonnes of contaminated soil to be dumped in their watershed over the next 50 years.

The ongoing case marks the third legal challenge the community has brought against the B.C. Ministry of Environment for granting the hazardous waste disposal permit to company South Island Aggregates.

The feeling of betrayal in the community is palpable, where frustrations with B.C.’s permit granting process and seeming close connection with industry are running at an all time high.

Sonia Furstenau, Cowichan Valley Regional District elected official for Shawnigan Lake, said people in the community have voiced their opposition to the project since day one.

Shawnigan Lake residents fought to prevent the original permit from being granted in 2013 and, when it was granted, challenged it through the Environmental Appeal Board (EAB). The community is now in the B.C. Supreme Court where a judicial review of the EAB’s ruling, which was favourable to the project proponent, is currently underway.

The Cowichan Valley Regional District is also fighting a separate legal battle, arguing the region’s zoning rules don’t allow for the dumping of hazardous waste.

Furstenau said she hopes the judicial review will out the community on a new trajectory.

“So we have a judge looking at all that evidence which was weighed so heavily against this site going forward,” she said. “I hope the judge is going to give us the ruling this community deserves to have.”

She said a win like that could really “help us keep the momentum moving forward.”

“There’s no relenting until the permit is revoked and the soil that’s been dumped already is removed. That cannot sit in our watershed. We are not going to let it stay.”

“I’m an advocate for justice and I always have been,” Furstenau said, “but it’s always been global issues, or climate change, or hunger or poverty — things that are a little bit removed.”

“To have it be so personal is very different and yet I’m motivated by the same things: justice, fairness and what’s right, what’s wrong.”

Right to Healthy Environment Proactive, Provides Access to Justice

Alaya Boisvert, lead for the David Suzuki Foundation’s Blue Dot movement, said if communities like Shawnigan Lake had a more definite right to clean water, it could change the way they engage with government permitting processes.

“We believe all Canadians have the right to a healthy environment which means — in addition to having the right to breathe fresh air, eat safe food, enjoy a stable climate — they fundamentally have the right to clean water,” Boisvert said. “It’s of critical importance that we have laws to substantiate those rights.”

Boisvert said currently Canada has a disconnected patchwork of environmental laws and regulations, “which do not recognize, fulfill and protect Canadians’ right to a healthy environment.”

“That’s a problem at all levels of government,” she added.

The David Suzuki Foundation, along with legal partner Ecojustice, is currently campaigning for a legislative change that would embed the right to a healthy environment within the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Boisvert said giving Canadians substantive environmental rights could change the way decisions are made about things like hazardous waste disposal.

“This would mean Canadians have access to adequate and safe waste management, which is an issue that is front and centre in the Shawnigan Lake situation.”

“It will also give Canadians procedural rights that include the right to know if there is pollution or contaminants being released in your environment.”

If that were the case, a fundamental right to a healthy environment would mean you would have the right to participate in environmental decision-making about those contaminants, Boisvert said.

“This is also relevant to the Shawnigan Lake situation where citizens have had long-standing concerns about the environmental impact assessment, about the quality and stability of … the infrastructure that is handling the waste disposal.”

A fundamental right to clean water might also give communities more legal standing to challenge decisions after the fact. “It’s also about access to justice,” Boisvert said.

“If there are cases where the environmental rights of citizens are being violated, it’s critically important that citizens are able to seek legal recourse for that, have their rights protected, fulfilled and respected.”

The Cowichan Valley Regional District is one of the more than 100 municipalities in Canada that have passed resolutions recognizing a citizen’s right to a healthy environment.

Legal Challenges Costly

Celine Trojand, community organizer with democracy-advocacy organization Dogwood Initiative, said the right to a healthy environment could compliment the battle for community self-determination that is currently being waged across the province in places like Shawnigan Lake, near the Site C Dam, or in the Walbran Valley’s old-growth forests.

“I think at the municipal, provincial, or federal level it would give communities something to point to that could back up their advocacy work,” Trojand said.

She added, however, that legal protections may not be enough without “boots on the ground” activism that ensures those rules are actually enforced.

“The policy is good if there is political will or a constituency organizing around seeing that law or policy enacted and enforced, because otherwise there are loopholes and it will be back to business as usual.”

Trojand said the way B.C. handles resource and development decisions is somewhat “backwards.”

“A company comes in and their sense of accountability is not to people who live in that community,” she said. “When they have a proposal to put forward they advance it, get the support of government and, if they’re able to, go through the hoops to get the support of the community.”

“If the process were that the community needed to be part of the proposal creation first, then we wouldn’t run into this cycle of communities feeling like their interests aren’t being represented at the government level — or anywhere really.”

Trojand said legal challenges — like those currently ongoing against the Site C Dam, Northern Gateway pipeline, the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, and waste disposal in Shawnigan Lake — are expensive and time consuming.

“It’s a long road to walk,” she said.

“However if a legal approach is backed up by a political approach in terms of applying pressure on decision makers and building a grassroots constituency that can organize and mobilize in key moments on an issue — in combination those things are really effective.”

Trojand added whether you’re fighting legal battles in the courts or working on developing stronger policies, like the right to a healthy environment, community participation “hasn’t been made very easy.”

“It’s not often clear to the average voter or citizen how to engage with either of those institutions.”

She added: ”That’s really what’s exciting, I think, about all of these very local community concerns really starting to take centre stage in B.C. as people are seeing that if they become activated on those issues and activated in their local communities they can see the change.”

“Local people are catalyzing around an issue, trying to trigger both legal and political processes, to combat the industry-driven status quo,” she said.

Image:  Shaw Creek near Shawnigan Lake, located below South Island Aggregates sites 21 and 23.* Photo provided by the Shawnigan Residents Association.

* Caption updated January 15, 2016 10:25am.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

This is a guest post by David Suzuki.

The idea of a right to a healthy environment is getting traction at Canada’s highest political levels. Federal Opposition MP Linda Duncan recently introduced “An Act to Establish a Canadian Environmental Bill of Rights” in Parliament. If it’s passed, our federal government will have a legal duty to protect Canadians’ right to live in a healthy environment.

I’m travelling across Canada with the David Suzuki Foundation’s Blue Dot Tour to encourage people to work for recognition of such a right — locally, regionally and nationally. At the local level, the idea of recognizing citizens’ right to live in a healthy environment is already taking hold. Richmond and Vancouver, B.C., The Pas, Manitoba, and the Montreal borough of Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie all recently passed municipal declarations recognizing this basic right.

Our ultimate goal is to have the right to a healthy environment recognized in the Constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and a federal environmental bill of rights is a logical precursor. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms itself was preceded by a federal statute, the Bill of Rights, enacted under Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservative government in 1960.

This isn’t a partisan issue. It appeals to people across the political spectrum and has broad support among Canadians. An earlier attempt to pass a Canadian environmental bill of rights (also led by Linda Duncan) gained the support of MPs from various parties before its passage through Parliament was interrupted by the 2011 federal election. In France, conservative leader Jacques Chirac championed the idea of environmental rights during his presidency. After more than 70,000 French citizens attended public hearings, the Charter for the Environment was enacted in 2005 with support from all political parties.

I’ve seen so many positive changes in our legal systems and social safety net in my 78 years — including adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. My family was incarcerated in the B.C. Interior during the Second World War, just for being of Japanese descent, even though we were born and raised in Canada. Like other people of colour, my parents didn’t have the right to vote until 1948. First Nations people on reserves couldn’t vote until 1960. And women weren’t even considered “persons” under Canadian law until 1918, when they were given voting rights. Homosexuality was a crime punishable by prison until 1969! I’m convinced that legal recognition for environmental rights will be the next big change.

Progress is possible when enough people recognize its necessity and come together to make it happen. Protecting our country and planet, our health and the future of our children and grandchildren is absolutely necessary. We can’t live and be well without clean air and water, nutritious food and the numerous services that diverse and vibrant natural environments provide.

Even in Canada, where our spectacular nature and abundant water are sources of pride, we can no longer take these necessities for granted. More than 1,000 drinking-water advisories are in effect in Canada at any time, many of them in First Nations communities. More than half of us live in areas where air quality reaches dangerous levels of toxicity. And from Grassy Narrows and Sarnia’s Chemical Valley in Ontario to Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, people are being poisoned because industrial interests and profits are prioritized over their right to live healthy lives.

It’s not about hindering industry; it’s about ensuring that companies operating in Canada, as well as our governments, maintain the highest standards and that human health and well-being are always the priority. Evidence shows strong environmental protection can benefit the economy by spurring innovation and competitiveness and reducing health-care costs. This is about giving all Canadians greater say in the democratic process and looking out for the long-term prosperity of Canada.

More than half the world’s nations already recognize environmental rights. It’s time for Canada to live up to its values and join this growing global movement.

There’s no date yet for a vote on Bill C-634, but its introduction has started a conversation among politicians in Ottawa. Let’s hope people from across the political spectrum will recognize the importance of ensuring that all Canadians have the right to a healthy environment.

Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor Ian Hanington.

Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

This is a guest post by David Suzuki.

As an elder, I’ve watched Canada and the world change in many ways, for better and worse. Thanks in part to cheap energy and technological growth, the human population has more than tripled, from 2.2 billion in 1936 when I was born to about seven billion today. As a boy, I could drink from streams and lakes without worrying about getting sick. My father took me fishing for halibut, sturgeon and salmon on the Vancouver waterfront. Pretty much all food was organic.

Although my parents were born and raised in Canada, our family was incarcerated in the B.C. Interior during the Second World War. Like other people of colour, my parents didn’t have the right to vote until 1948. First Nations people living on reserves didn’t have voting rights until 1960. And, until 1969, homosexuality was a criminal offence, often leading to prison (now same-sex couples in Canada can marry). Without a health-care system, my parents had to worry far more about illness than Canadians today.

Although we’ve degraded our natural environment since my childhood, we’ve made great strides in human rights and social programs. But those advances didn’t come without struggle. It’s important to protect and improve the hard-won rights and social safety net that make Canada one of the best countries for citizens and visitors alike — but it’s crucial to protect the natural systems that make it all possible.

We’re too often asked to choose between a healthy environment and a healthy economy, between health care and environmental protection. But these are false choices. Long-term prosperity and good health absolutely depend on conserving and using our resources wisely and on ensuring our air is pure enough to breathe, our water clean enough to drink and our food nutritious and plentiful enough to keep us healthy and alive. Protecting the environment is good for human and economic health!

Consider water. We can’t survive without it. Most Canadians take our abundant fresh water for granted. But according to the recent Ecojustice report Waterproof: Standards, “Canada’s drinking water standards continue to lag behind international benchmarks and are at risk of falling even farther behind.” At any time, more than 1,000 drinking water advisories are in effect across the country, many in First Nations communities. Canada doesn’t even have a national water policy. Nor do we have legally binding national air quality standards.

People died in Walkerton, Ontario, because of E. coli in the water. Grassy Narrows residents are being poisoned by waterborne mercury. Toxins in the air and water are affecting people’s health in Sarnia’s Chemical Valley, as are a deadly mix of oilsands chemicals in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta.

This is clearly unacceptable in prosperous, resource-rich Canada. So how do we ensure that all Canadians have the right to enjoy clean air and water and healthy food? We could follow the lead of more than half the world’s nations and enshrine the right to a healthy environment in our Constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

That’s one of the goals of the Blue Dot Tour I’ve embarked on with the David Suzuki Foundation and friends, supporters and, I hope, you. It’s a testament to the importance of this tour and the movement it intends to spark that so many musicians, artists and thinkers have volunteered their time to get the word out, including Shane Koyczan, Neil Young, Tanya Tagaq, Feist, Blue Rodeo members, Margaret Atwood, Hey Ocean, Bruce Cockburn, Joel Plaskett, Roy Henry Vickers, Whitehorse, Barenaked Ladies, Danny Michel, Kinnie Starr, Stephen Lewis, Ovide Mercredi and many more.

The events in 20 cities across Canada promise to be fun and entertaining, but there’s a serious purpose: To start a national conversation and movement to make sure we all look after this land that gives us so much.

History shows that informed individuals who come together to build a groundswell of opinion and pressure are a powerful force for positive change. We hope this tour will inspire Canadians to take action in their communities, that those communities will in turn inspire provinces to get on board and that ultimately, our right to a healthy environment will be recognized at the national level.

It’s a long road, but together, we can get there. Are you in?

Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor Ian Hanington.

Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.