Dear John,
The Ontario Court of Appeal has just granted Ontario Nature and Wildlands League, represented by Ecojustice lawyers, leave to appeal a lower court ruling that puts endangered and threatened species at further risk of disappearing from the province. The original decision upheld exemptions of many major industries such as forestry from the protection of the Endangered Species Act.
We are delighted with this decision as it marks the first time environmental groups have won the right to appeal a case about endangered species and indicates that the court has deemed this case to be of importance to the people of Ontario.
Our grounds for appeal were: (1) by exempting most major industries, the Ontario’s exemption regulation is inconsistent with the act’s central purpose of protecting at-risk species and their habitat; and (2) the Minister of Natural Resources failed to assess the adverse effects on each of the individual species for which the regulation would deny legal protection.
Read more about this ground-breaking decision here.
Our community has stood squarely behind us on this issue. We wanted you to be the first to know and to thank you for your support. We will not stand down and watch exemptions undermine what was once a gold standard act. It’s a matter of survival for more than 150 of our most vulnerable species.
Sincerely,
Caroline Schultz,
Executive Director
Ontario Nature
P.S. Every gift matters ontarionature.thankyou4caring.org/donate.