Just days before Environment Minister John Baird leaves for the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Canada is facing a legal challenge for missing a key deadline under global warming legislation. The government was served on Wednesday with a second Application for Judicial Review for violating the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, the Canadian law that requires reductions in greenhouse gas emissions according to the Kyoto Protocol commitment.
The application was filed on behalf of Friends of the Earth Canada by Paliare Roland Barristers and Ecojustice (you might remember them as Sierra Legal) and alleges that the federal Minister of the Environment and federal cabinet ministers are ignoring the rule of law by failing to comply with yet another requirement of the KPIA.
The federal government was legally required to publish draft regulations by October 20, 2007 that would enable Canada to meet the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. By failing to do so, it is thus out of compliance with the KPIA.
"Missing this deadline demonstrates that Canada continues to be missing in action on global warming," says Ecojustice lawyer Hugh Wilkins. "We cannot sit idly by while the government drags its feet and flouts our laws. The government must be held accountable to the will of the Canadian people and the will of Parliament."
Read more at ecojustice.ca, or - for a much different opinion - read Eco-Cultists to sue Canadian government
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