Ontario has asked Canada’s highest court to consider a historic challenge led by youth to the province’s climate plan. The case moves closer to a possible hearing at Canada’s highest court. The court has heard parts of the case but has asked for a review. Ontario’s lawyers say the case raises an unresolved issue of national interest.
Ontario’s application for leave to appeal asks the court to determine whether, if at all, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms can impose obligations on Canadian governments to combat climate change.
The case was brought by seven young people. They argue that Ontario’s weak greenhouse gas emissions targets violate the Charter. The targets violate the right to life by discriminating against young people because Ontario emits high levels of greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming.
Their case was initially dismissed in the trial court, but they won an appeal last October. At that time, the Ontario Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower court for a new hearing, raising the possibility of a constitutional challenge.
The youth’s lawyer, Fraser Thomson, said Ontario’s application opens the door to a generational hearing at Canada’s highest court. In a written statement, Thomson, the climate director for the environmental law charity EcoJustice, said “The climate crisis is not over. We are not going anywhere.”
The case was filed when the then-elected Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford repealed legislation that would have reduced Ontario’s cap-and-trade system of greenhouse gas emissions. The government repealed the system in 2018 and set a target for greenhouse gas emissions to be 37 per cent lower than 1990 levels by 2030. The new target is 30 percent less than in 2005.
