{"id":48468,"date":"2021-05-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/?p=48468"},"modified":"2021-12-06T06:23:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T11:23:05","slug":"doug-ford-well-see-you-in-court-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/story\/48468\/doug-ford-well-see-you-in-court-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug Ford, we\u2019ll see you in court… today!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s the day. <\/p>\n\n

Ten months ago, Doug Ford\u2019s government passed the \u201cCOVID-19 Economic Recovery Act\u201d \u2013 Bill 197<\/a>, a huge omnibus bill that covered almost everything but Covid. The law made major changes to Ontario\u2019s Environmental Assessment Act, the Planning Act, and other laws essential for maintaining a clean and healthy environment. Ford did not consult the public on any of these changes<\/strong> prior to passing Bill 197 into law \u2013 even though his government is legally required to<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

So, we launched a lawsuit<\/strong> against the Ford government<\/a> together with Wilderness Committee and Ecojustice, and we\u2019ve been waiting for our day in court ever since.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
“Fine! We’ll see you in court!” @giphy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Meanwhile, the consequences of Bill 197 have been playing out in frontline battles<\/strong> in communities across the province. The legal changes in Bill 197 restricted which types of projects require a comprehensive environmental assessment. Major highways of less than 75 km are now excluded, like the controversial Highway 413 proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Bill 197 also enhanced the government\u2019s power to unilaterally issue Minister\u2019s Zoning Orders (MZOs)<\/strong> to approve controversial development projects without consultation. The government has since issued dozens of MZOs and many of these carry serious environmental concerns \u2013 like the push to pave over the provincially significant Duffins Creek wetland in Pickering for a warehouse<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Now, finally, we\u2019re facing the Ford government in court<\/strong>. Today Ecojustice will argue Greenpeace Canada and Wilderness Committee\u2019s case against the Ford government before the Ontario Divisional Court. Our lawsuit says that the Ontario government intentionally broke the law by failing to consult the public on the sweeping environmental changes in Bill 197. Furthermore, since Ford has already done this in the past when cancelling carbon cap-and-trade<\/a>, we\u2019re arguing that his government\u2019s behaviour forms a \u201cpattern of illegal conduct.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Our lawsuit with Wilderness Committee and Ecojustice argues that the Doug Ford government’s
repeated failure to consult Ontarians is a \u201cpattern of illegal conduct.\u201d photo via Niagara at Large<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

And we\u2019re not the only ones suing the Ford government<\/strong> on Bill 197. It\u2019s a full week as two other separate lawsuits will be argued in the court following ours \u2013 one by a coalition of First Nations<\/a> and another by a second environmental coalition<\/a>. The government will then present its response.<\/p>\n\n

Bill 197 is a major milestone in Doug Ford\u2019s continuing, ongoing attempts to limit public participation and environmental due process. But all along the way, Ford has met with stiff resistance. We are honoured to be fighting for the health of Ontarians, our rights and the environment alongside so many amazing others.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Stay tuned!<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDonate\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Greenpeace is a people-powered, science-based, and action-oriented organization that does not take money from corporations or governments. This means we rely on individual donations from generous people like you to carry out our work.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n Take action\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today Ecojustice will argue Greenpeace Canada and Wilderness Committee\u2019s case against the Ford government before the Ontario Divisional Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":48477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23,27,35],"p4-page-type":[16],"class_list":["post-48468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","tag-climate","tag-forests","tag-supportgreenpeace","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48468"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51163,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48468\/revisions\/51163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48468"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=48468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}