It’s been another record-breaking year for Canada — too often for the wrong reasons, such as how the country is on track to have the warmest year on record.
This year saw politicians and polluters play roulette with our planet. Many of us experienced firsthand the human cost of climate chaos when extreme weather events, like the devastating Jasper wildfire, impacted communities across Canada.
And while there is much to do in the year ahead, it is important to remember that 2024 saw its share of success and progress too. Celebrating these wins is crucial. This is one way to prevent burnout and hold onto hope — even as hard times test our resolve.
Something that brings the team at Ecojustice hope is each one of you. We are so grateful to the Ecojustice community — our clients, colleagues, collaborators, donors, supporters — for fighting alongside us. As you’ll read below, together we achieve incredible things.
10 wins your support delivered in 2024
1. A landmark climate victory with seven Ontario youth
The Ontario Court of Appeal sided with the seven young people Ecojustice has backed in a historic climate lawsuit against the Ontario government. The Court’s ruling confirmed that Ontario’s weak climate target risks the lives and well-being of Ontarians. A new hearing has been ordered, and Ontario will have to answer for its record as a climate laggard.
While this ruling is not yet the end of the road for this lawsuit, the seven remarkable young people leading it — with the support of the Ecojustice community — will continue to push their precedent-setting case with all the urgency the climate crisis demands.
Photo credit: photographer – Tilly Nelson, set design – Kendra Martyn & Kira Evenson.
2. Redside Dace protections
After delays totaling more than 15 years, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada issued the finalized Recovery Strategy and Action Plan for the endangered Redside Dace.
A Recovery Strategy and Action Plan for the Redside Dace is now in force.
3. Canada’s first environmental justice bill
Advocates for social justice, equity, environmental protection, and public health cheered in 2024 when the Senate passed Bill C-226, the National Strategy on Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Act (Environmental Justice Strategy Act).
The Environmental Justice Strategy Act will require the government to examine the links between racialization, socio-economic status, and environmental risk, and develop Canada’s first national strategy on environmental racism and environmental justice.
4. Standing up to a 900-km fracked gas pipeline in B.C.
The Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association, and Kispiox Band, represented by Ecojustice lawyers, are taking the BC Energy Regulator to court to hold it accountable for breaking its own rules and ignoring concerns from communities directly impacted by the proposed Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline project.
5. A historic win for the Spotted Owl
Ecojustice lawyers secured a court ruling that deemed federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s eight-month delay in recommending an emergency order for the Spotted Owl violated the federal Species at Risk Act. This precedent-setting decision is the outcome of a 25-year struggle by conservation groups, including Ecojustice, to save the Spotted Owl from extirpation.
6. Justice for Aamjiwnaang First Nation
Aamjiwnaang, an Anishinabe community near Sarnia, Ont., has endured more than a century of environmental racism. Industrial pollution in the area, known sometimes as Chemical Valley, has made their community one of Canada’s most polluted.
Ecojustice’s work with Aamjiwnaang in 2024 helped elevate their voices on the international stage, force the closure of a styrene production site near the community, and support calls to action for the federal and provincial governments to take concrete steps in collaborating with Aamjiwnaang to develop real and lasting solutions that address this environmental injustice.
7. Strengthening the Competition Act
Ecojustice advocated for amendments to the federal Competition Act, introduced via Bill C-59, which was aimed at protecting consumers and genuinely green businesses by requiring companies to back up their environmental claims. Thanks to cross-party collaboration with environmental and health groups, amendments Ecojustice championed were introduced, expanding the scope of Bill C-59 so that it applies to claims about products and claims about companies and their activities.
8. Scrutiny of toxic tailings pond substance
The federal ministers of environment and health have agreed to assess whether naphthenic acids, a dangerous component in tar sands tailings ponds, are toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. This positive decision came in response to a formal request submitted by environmental groups, including Ecojustice and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, to assess the harms caused by toxic naphthenic acids, given their known environmental and health impacts.
9. A major victory for Mitchikanibikok Inik First Nation
This year, the Superior Court of Québec recognized the Québec government’s decades-long failure in fulfilling its constitutional duty to consult the Mitchikanibikok Inik First Nation (also known as the Algonquins of Barriere Lake) when mining claims were granted on their territory. As a result of the ruling, the Québec government must now consult and, as appropriate, accommodate the Mitchikanibikok Inik First Nation on existing and new claims.
Québec has decided to appeal this ruling, which means Mitchikanibikok Inik First Nation, represented by Ecojustice and the Centre Québécois du droit de l’environnement will be heading back to court in the new year to defend the Mitchikanibikok Inik’s rights.
10. Accountability for nature on the table
Ecojustice celebrated when the federal government finally tabled Bill C-73, the Nature Accountability Act.
Getting legislation tabled was a significant first step of many in getting an accountability law for nature on the books. Ecojustice and our partners at Greenpeace Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, and a coalition of environmental groups, have since called on House leaders and the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development to prioritize the passage of the bill, and will continue to urge the government to keep the bill moving in 2025.
All this is just a sample of what we have accomplished together this year. Be proud, celebrate, and take time to recharge.
The new year is coming in quickly, we are preparing for more big court cases, pushing for stronger laws, and continuing to tackle the most pressing environmental issues people in Canada are facing.
The Ecojustice team looks forward to making a big impact with you in 2025!