Justice Romaine Weighs in on ‘lifting the stay’ in the Context of Replacement of Operator Provisions in Oil and Gas Joint Venture Agreements

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: Justice Romaine Weighs in on ‘lifting the stay’ in the Context of Replacement of Operator Provisions in Oil and Gas Joint Venture Agreements

Case Commented On: Alberta Energy Regulator v Lexin Resources Ltd, 2019 ABQB 23 (CanLII)

In a crisp and well-reasoned judgment, Justice Barbara Romaine, one of the acknowledged bankruptcy experts on the Court of Queen’s Bench, has weighed in on the question of ‘lifting the stay’ in the context of replacement of operator provisions in joint venture agreements. While she does not rule out lifting the stay in appropriate cases, Justice Romaine emphasizes that this is an exceptional remedy. As such the decision may serve to curb what might have been a growing enthusiasm on the part of non-operators to think that it was easy to lift a stay.

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UN Human Rights Committee Rules Indian Act is Discriminatory in McIvor Case

By: Elysa Darling and Drew Lafond

PDF Version: UN Human Rights Committee Rules Indian Act is Discriminatory in McIvor Case

Decision Commented On: Views adopted by the Committee under article 5 (4) of the Optional Protocol, concerning communication No. 2020/2010

*Note on terminology: “Indian” is used to describe a person defined as such under the Indian Act and is not intended to carry any derogatory connotations in this post.

Introduction

In a decision released on January 14, 2019, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) determined that the Government of Canada violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by discriminating against First Nations women and their descendants through Status requirements under the Indian Act, RSC 1985, c I-5. The decision was one that the claimants, Sharon McIvor and her son Jacob Grismer, had been waiting for more than a decade since their case was first heard by the British Columbia Superior Court in 2007.

To understand McIvor and Grismer’s complaint to the UNHRC and the litigation that preceded it, a review of their family lineage and the many amendments made to the Indian Act will be reviewed in this post. We will also briefly review the Status provisions of the Indian Act and the litigation and legislative amendments that have resulted from claims of sex discrimination under the Act, review McIvor and Grismer’s litigation, and summarize the arguments made to the UNHRC and the Committee’s final decision.

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Let’s Talk About Access to Information in Alberta Part Two: Alberta’s Policy on Wildlife Rehabilitation

By: Shaun Fluker and Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: Let’s Talk About Access to Information in Alberta Part Two: Alberta’s Policy on Wildlife Rehabilitation

Policy Change Commented On: Alberta Orphan Black Bear Cub Rehabilitation Protocol, April 2018

In April 2018, Alberta Environment and Parks revised its wildlife rehabilitation policy to allow for the rehabilitation of black bears less than one year old. This change allows for the rehabilitation of orphaned black bear cubs in Alberta, an activity that has been prohibited since 2010 when Alberta implemented a policy change that heavily limited wildlife rehabilitation. Under the new policy, orphaned or injured black bear cubs and several other species have typically been euthanized by wildlife officers. Injured or orphaned wildlife with the good fortune of being found in the national parks might be spared this fate because of federal policy which is more accommodating to the interests of wildlife. For example, orphan bear cubs found in a washroom in Banff were sent to be rehabilitated outside of the province. The Public Interest Law Clinic at the University of Calgary had been working with a person interested in challenging Alberta’s prohibitive wildlife rehabilitation policy, and after the policy change for orphaned black bear cubs in April of 2018, we filed a freedom of information request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, RSA 2000, c F-25 (FOIP Act) seeking to learn more about this policy shift. In December 2018 we received the disclosure materials, and this post explains what we learned as part of our ongoing series about using the access to information process in Alberta.

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Claims that Bill C-69 Needs More Focus on Economic Factors Ignore the Reality of Government Decision-Making and the Bill’s Details

By: Hugh Benevides

PDF Version: Claims that Bill C-69 Needs More Focus on Economic Factors Ignore the Reality of Government Decision-Making and the Bill’s Details

Legislation Commented On: Bill C-69, An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, to amend the Navigation Protection Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

Much debate has occurred in recent months about Bill C-69, the federal government’s attempt to make good on election promises to strengthen and restore public trust in environmental decision-making. (Martin Olszynski addressed some of the problematic claims last September; other ABlawg posts have looked at various aspects of the Bill). As further set out below, the critics and opponents of Bill C-69, which was referred to a Senate committee in December following Second Reading, refuse to acknowledge that the proposed Impact Assessment Act will give Canadians the chance to have greater input into proposals affecting their communities, and to better trust decisions about projects like mines, dams—and yes, pipelines. It promises to do so by ensuring that people who care about a proposed development can participate meaningfully in its assessment, with a view to more lasting environmental, economic, social and health benefits.

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Sentencing Lake Louise Ski Resort Under the Species at Risk Act and A Comment on the Federal Environmental Damages Fund

By: Shaun Fluker

PDF Version: Sentencing Lake Louise Ski Resort Under the Species at Risk Act and A Comment on the Federal Environmental Damages Fund

Case Commented On: R v The Lake Louise Ski Area Ltd, 2018 ABPC 280 (CanLII)

In December 2017, the Lake Louise Ski Resort pled guilty to unlawfully cutting down and damaging 148 trees without a permit during the summer of 2013 in the Ptarmigan Chutes area of the resort. Some of the trees cut were whitebark pines, a species listed as endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act, SC 2002, c 29 (SARA). Section 32 of SARA prohibits any conduct that harms the endangered whitebark pines and section 97 makes it an offence to contravene this prohibition. Most of the trees cut at the resort were not from an endangered species, but were nonetheless cut down without authorization from Parks Canada, and thus Lake Louise also contravened section 10 of the National Parks General Regulations, SOR/78-213, which is an offence under section 24(2) of the Canada National Parks Act, SC 2000, c 32 (Parks Act). On November 30, 2018 Judge Heather Lamoureux of the Provincial Court of Alberta sentenced Lake Louise to a $1.6 million penalty under SARA for cutting the whitebark pines, and a $500,000 penalty under the Parks Act for unlawful cutting of the other trees, for a total penalty of $2.1 million which will be directed into the federal Environmental Damages Fund. Lake Louise has since filed an appeal with the Court of Queen’s Bench seeking to have this total penalty reduced to $200,000. Continue reading →