Their constitutional challenge, supported by environmental lawyers at Ecojustice, is set to be heard Monday in Ontario Superior Court. “Although climate change is global in scale, how decisions are made at the provincial level and at every level is fundamentally important to addressing this issue that affects us all,” said one of the young women, Shaelyn Wabegijig, at a press conference on Sunday. “We’re here today to face the plight we’re in and be able to tell our kids that we did everything we could, while we could, to change our trajectory.” The substance of the lawsuit dates back to 2018, when the newly elected Progressive Conservative government overturned a law by the former Liberal government that had established a cap-and-trade system to reduce emissions. That law had set a goal of reducing emissions by 37 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The Tories replaced that target with one to cut emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Lowering the percentage target and moving the benchmark year would allow an extra 200 million tonnes, youth experts say. That’s a “dangerously high level of greenhouse gas emissions” and violates the charter’s life and safety and age discrimination sections, the suit claims. “Youth — and, in particular, youth under 18 — and future generations will bear a disproportionate burden of the most devastating impacts of climate change because of their unique characteristics and the fact that the escalating nature of climate change impacts means the most devastating effects will occur in their lifetime,” the activists and their lawyers say in their written arguments. The Ontario government is asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing for “judicial review of environmental and climate policy.” There is no constitutional right that requires a government to take certain actions now to avoid future climate-related harm, government lawyers say in written arguments. Ontario is not disputing human-caused climate change and its risks to human health, but for the lawsuit to succeed, young people would have to prove the province’s new target would cause or contribute to those harms – and they don’t, government lawyers say. “It is fantastic to imagine that canceling Ontario’s plan and target could prevent the harm caused by anthropogenic climate change,” they write, arguing that Ontario’s emissions represent less than one per cent of the global total. “None of the applicants’ experts have provided evidence that any harm to Ontario caused by climate change would be avoided or even measurably mitigated if Ontario set a different target or arrived at a different plan for the year 2030.” But the youth question the credibility of government experts on this point, saying they “fail to recognize the collective action aspect of the global warming problem”. “They focus on Ontario’s relatively small fraction of greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale rather than the fact that jurisdictions like Ontario need to take action to prevent climate catastrophe,” the youth lawyers write in their argument. This case is an opportunity to communicate to Ontario and the rest of the country why strong emissions reduction targets are needed, said Zoe Keary-Matzner, one of the young women involved in the trial. “In all my 15 years, I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t deeply concerned about climate change and the fate of the world,” he said at the press conference. “I wish my government felt the same way.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published on September 11, 2022.
