Category Archives: Conferences

Environment in the Courtroom – A Free Symposium on Environmental Inspections and Enforcement Actions: On-site and in Court, February 26 & 27, 2016

By: Allan Ingelson

PDF Version: Environment in the Courtroom – A Free Symposium on Environmental Inspections and Enforcement Actions: On-site and in Court, February 26 & 27, 2016

This is the fifth national environmental law symposium funded by Environment Canada (now Environment & Climate Change Canada), organized by the Canadian Institute of Resources Law (CIRL) in the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary, and its partners. During the last four years, practitioners, judges, and academics from across Canada have attended either in person or online and have contributed questions and comments to the discussion of current important environmental law issues. Last year we had 299 registrants from across Canada and in the United States. This year one presenter (Jonathan Leo) will discuss the American experience with environmental inspections and enforcement actions. Registrants can obtain the symposium program and papers in both official languages. Symposium presentations will be in either French or English, depending on the speaker, and will address civil and/or common law perspectives. Attendees at previous symposiums have reported that the information that has been provided is both practical and useful. We encourage active audience participation in the panel discussions. Last year the symposium was held in the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary. This year the national symposium has been organized by CIRL, the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa, and the Ontario Bar Association.

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News from the Canadian Law and Society Association

By: Lyndsay Campbell

On January 16 & 17 the Canadian Law and Society Association (CLSA) held its midwinter meeting in Waterloo, Ontario. This small conference featured a variety of panels, on topics ranging from legal identities and legal pluralism to AirBnB and Uber, the duty to consult, aboriginal title, legal education, and the corporation.

The CLSA is currently gearing up for its main annual conference, to be held May 28-30 at the University of Calgary as part of the Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities 2016. Our meeting overlaps with that of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT, May 30-31) and, as well, a one-day interdisciplinary symposium on social justice (May 28) entitled “Building A2SJ: An Interdisciplinary Conversation about Problems and Solutions.” Our founding dean, John McLaren, has agreed to give a keynote address at the jointly held CLSA-CALT banquet on May 31. Calls for papers for the CLSA and CALT conferences are available here and here (note proposals are due January 31), and registration for Congress is now possible via the link here.

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Bringing Environmental Law Students Together: the CAELS Conference in Calgary

By: Jennifer Cox

PDF Version:  Bringing Environmental Law Students Together: the CAELS Conference in Calgary

Conference Commented On: Igniting a Spark, Canadian Association of Environmental Law Societies 2015 Conference, Calgary

While many students travelled or relaxed during February’s reading week, I was fortunate enough to be a part of a group of second and first year students from the University of Calgary’s Environmental Law Society (ELS) who put together the 3rd Annual Canadian Association of Environmental Law Societies (CAELS) Conference. The two-day conference was attended by over 100 delegates from all across Canada and covered a wide array of topics with a focus on energy law.

CAELS is a Canada-wide and student-run association which gives Canadian law students a forum to discuss issues in environmental law. The conference, first held in 2013, is now a major part of this forum. ELS members attended the first two years of the CAELS conference, then held in Ottawa. We were impressed by the quality of the speakers and the discussions at the conference, and started talking about what a Calgary-led CAELS conference could look like. We wanted to bring students excited about environmental, natural resource, and energy law to Calgary to gain exposure to the city’s wealth of knowledge in that area. Led by CAELS Coordinator and second year University of Calgary law student Scott Allen, we were able to achieve that goal.

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Canadian Law and Society Association Midwinter Conference

By Lyndsay Campbell

PDF Version: Canadian Law and Society Association Midwinter Conference

Conference commented on: Canadian Law and Society Association Midwinter Meeting

I recently attended the midwinter meeting of the Canadian Law and Society Association in Toronto. This meeting combines a small academic conference with a board meeting, mid-way between our annual meetings. The program is available here.

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Safe Sites for Illegal Drug Consumption: In Need of Insight

PDF version: Safe Sites for Illegal Drug Consumption: In Need of Insight

Legislation / case commented on: Bill C-65, An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, First Session, Forty-first Parliament, 60-61-62 Elizabeth II, 2011-2012-2013 (“Respect for Communities Act”); Canada (AG) v PHS Community Services Society, 2011 SCC 44.

Last week I attended the Law on the Edge conference in Vancouver, which Jonnette Watson Hamilton recently blogged on. One of the highlights for me was a field trip led by UBC Professor Margot Young to visit Insite, Vancouver’s safe injection site for intravenous drug users. Insite was the subject of constitutional litigation that went to the Supreme Court of Canada (see Canada (AG) v PHS Community Services Society and previous ABlawg posts on the case here and here). In brief, the Supreme Court ordered the federal Minister of Health to extend Insite’s exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, SC 1996, c 19 (CDSA), on the basis that the refusal to do so violated Insite users’ section 7 Charter rights to life, liberty and security of the person in a manner that was arbitrary and grossly disproportionate in light of the government’s aims. In June 2013, the federal government introduced amendments to the CDSA in the so-called “Respect for Communities Act” that would make it more difficult for other communities to open safe injection sites. What does the Insite experience suggest in terms of the impact these amendments might have on other efforts to establish safe injection sites in Canada?

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