Last year, Friends of the Earth Canada (FOE) launched a lawsuit against the Minister of the Environment to hold him accountable for the fact that Canada won’t meet its Kyoto target. Not only the country won’t meet its Kyoto target, but the actual Government didn’t even try.
The lawsuit rests on the fact that the Minister ignored the will of the Parliament by not complying with the requirements set by the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act (KPIA). The KPIA required the Minister of the Environment to release, within 60 days after the Act came into force, so before August 21st, 2007, an environmental plan that would enable Canada to meet its Kyoto target. Obviously, when the KPIA was adopted by the Parliament, I was hoping it would have an impact on the Government. Visibly, it didn’t.
Consequently, when Friends of the Earth launched its lawsuit, I was intrigued and excited, for different reasons. It was mainly about the fact that the “case raises the fundamental question of whether a Minister of the Crown is accountable for ignoring the will of Parliament” because what if he is, in fact, responsible? Wouldn’t it give us arguments and, more importantly, a strong mean of action? Lawsuits have been used for many years by individuals and by the Government against companies and other individuals that broke environmental laws and have been proven to work pretty well, so why not use the same mean against the Government itself!
As time passed, I started to rethink about my initial enthusiasm. Lawsuits sure are a mean of action, including in the environmental domain, but they have many inconvenient. Among others, they are time consuming and expensive, which can easily stop people from launching them. But I was also wondering about how I felt about the fact that an environmental group had to bring proceedings against the Minister of the Environment to see if, maybe, he has the legal responsibility to act to fight climate change.
I have to say, I don’t feel that good about it.
There is the fact that I consider action to fight global warming as a moral obligation that makes me hesitate. But since I know it is not the same for everybody, I’m all for the legal obligation and for its enforcement. I think what really bothers me, in the end, is that even though I am glad to see environmentalists use all the tools they have to their disposal, I don’t like the fact that we have to prosecute our own Government for it to take action to fight climate change. I don’t like the fact that although environment is an increasing priority for many Canadians, our Government refuses to take serious action. And I don’t like the fact that the current Government refused to respect the will of the Parliament (and therefore the will of the population), expressed in the KPIA, even though it does not hold the majority at the House of Commons.
I salute the Friends of the Earth’ initiative, but I really hope the Government will come to realize, without us having to sue it repeatedly, that real action is needed now.
