A group of seven young people from across Ontario are hoping to proceed with a lawsuit that would force the Ontario Government to increase its targets for reducing greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Back row: Shelby Gagnon, Aroland First Nation and Thunder Bay (third from left), Shaelyn Wabegijig, Chippewas of Rama and Timiskaming First Nations (fourth from left). Front row: Beze Gray, Aamjiwnaang (far right). Photo supplied

By Colin Graf

AAMJIWNAANG FIRST NATION A group of seven young people, including three First Nation youth, lead efforts to prevent the Government of Ontario from weakening its climate change targets.

The young group, backed by the environmental law charity Ecojustice, are suing the government becausethey believe that lowering targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions will violate portions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that protect rights to life, liberty, and security of the person, and are therefore unconstitutional.

Lawyers representing the youth argued in court earlier in July againstgovernment lawyers trying to convince the court to strike down the lawsuit before the case is heard in full.No date has been set for a decision on the governments motion.

Beze Gray, 25, of Aamjiwnaang First Nation, says she is excited to join the case after several years of environmental activism in her community, which is located next to the cluster of refineries and petrochemical plants near Sarnia known as Canadas Chemical Valley.

Since I started in environmental work, people have been asking me, Why dont you take this to court? she says in an interview.

Citing financial support from Ecojustice, Gray is pleased she and the other applicants, some as young as 12, can finally get their day in court.

In 2018, Premier Doug Fords Progressive Conservatives repealed what Ecojustice calls relatively strong greenhouse gas reduction targets, set by the former Liberal government.By weakening the targets, the government will allow significantly more greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change-related impacts such as heatwaves, floods, fires, and poor air quality, the group claims.

This court case echoes events around the world, according to Ecojustice lawyer Fraser Thomson.

Our young clients have seen and heard politicians promise things before, and theyve continued to see broken promises, and a failure to act on climate change.They are coming to the court in the same way youth from around the world are going to their own courts, as a last hope, he tells Anishinabek News.

The case came to be through connections some of the group made through the Fridays for the Future group, which organized student school strikes to protest against government inaction on climate change around the world. One of the youth, Sophia Mathur of Sudbury, Ont., was the first to stage a climate-change school outside of Europe, says Thomson. Members of the group saw there were legal cases in other countries, so, after a conversation between them and Ecojustice, the case against the Ontario government was launched.

Were in a climate emergency. The best available science is telling us we have 10 years to drastically cut our greenhouse gas emissions before we risk locking the planet into irreversible climate change, Thomson says. We have to act very quickly and our clients think going to court is one way to force this issue.

Georgian College Anishinaabemowin and Program Development graduate says her environmentalism comes from growing up feeling that she lived somewhere different situated amid the pipe structures, cooling towers, and flare stacks of the Chemical Valley.

What are those things that shot out fire? What are the things (smokestacks)that I thought were cloud-makers? What a pipeline was. I used to use them (pipelines)as bridges to cross the creek, Gray recollects wondering as a child. My parents would take me off reserve and we would see different towns and would see that not everyone had a refinery in their backyard.

At a young age, Gray and family were forced to evacuate their homes because of a chemical leak, but the next day in school, it was clear only the Aamjiwnaang students had that kind of experience the previous night.

Grays sister Vanessa was acquitted of charges with two other activists after being accused of criminal mischief when the Enbridge Pipeline Line 9 was shut off near Sarnia in 2015. More recently, Vanessa has worked with the University of Toronto to create a cell phone app that enables Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia residents to report chemical spills and leaks quickly and easily to the Ontario Spills Action Centre.

The young group is facing an uphill battle with the court case, admits Thomson.Similar cases have been launched around the world, he says, but Canadian courts have yet to rule on the issue.

The facts matter; the window in which governments and societies have to fix the climate crisis is rapidly narrowing, and I think judges understand that. Judges understand this is not a battle about science, this is about either the government accepting the scientific consensus on climate change or not.

Thomson thinks his clients have a good shot at winning their case.

Shaelyn Wabegijig of Peterborough grew up in Chippewas of Rama First Nation and joined the lawsuitfor everyone, for future generations and for our non-human relatives.

If I ever bring children into this world, I want to be able to share healthy air, land and water, a safe climate, and my culture. As a member of the Caribou Clan, my cultural identity is interconnected with Ontarios boreal caribou, and it risks disappearing if this species is wiped out, she says.

Another plaintiff,Shelby Gagnon, 23, Anishinaabe of Thunder Bay, says she is worried about how climate change will impact food sovereignty for Indigenous peoples across Canada.

This makes me sad for myself and for future generations, who may one day be unable to harvest traditional medicines.

Excerpt from:

Group of youth take on province to protect climate - Anishinabek News