It was a historic spring in Canada: alongside a record number of wildfires across the country, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) was finally reformed.
On May 30, for the very first time, the right to a healthy environment was incorporated into federal legislation. In Canada, Quebec was the very first jurisdiction to take this step decades ago, recognizing this right first in the Environment Quality Act, then in the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. . Internationally, hundreds of countries have adopted various versions of this fundamental right in their constitutions.
Last year, a United Nations resolution recognized the right to a healthy environment as a universal right. These legal recognitions are essential since they provide the necessary anchor to allow the claiming of this right before the courts. It also establishes obligations for governments to act preventively to protect environmental health.
Although this is an important step, remember that the work has only just begun. The challenge is daunting, and the example of Quebec demonstrates it well: simple recognition of this right is not enough and it is imperative to effectively transpose this right into stronger and more decisive environmental protections. As environmental inequalities multiply in indigenous and socio-economically marginalized communities, it is clear that the right to a healthy environment is far from being a reality for everyone.
The amendments to CEPA create an obligation for the government to protect each individual’s right to a healthy environment and, in doing so, uphold the principle of environmental justice. These reforms represent the first reference to environmental justice in Canadian law, at a time when the country’s history is tinged with serious environmental injustices, which still persist to this day.
The collective book The nature of injustice (Écosociété), published on May 23, details many of these injustices. In Canada, African Nova Scotian communities have long protested the harmful and toxic effects to which they are exposed in connection with dangerous sites, such as dumps. Inuit communities, for their part, still face food insecurity and chemical contamination of food, in addition to being disproportionately affected by global warming caused by the production and consumption patterns of populations in the south of the country. . In Quebec, mining laws, through mining claims, do not respect universally recognized Indigenous rights, while communities in Rouyn-Noranda face persistent health inequalities due to the activities of the Horne smelter.
Moreover, knowing that climate change will increase the number of forest fires as well as their intensity, it seems appropriate to invoke this new right to a healthy environment to force our governments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. and to better protect the communities most at risk of suffering the consequences, including those of the First Nations.
In these circumstances, it is essential to continue to bring together and shine a light on the constantly growing panoply of environmental injustices in order to reveal the disproportionate risks that rest on the shoulders of racialized and marginalized Indigenous peoples and communities. socio-economic, both here and elsewhere in the world.
To make the right to a healthy environment a reality, our governments must take ambitious steps now to improve the realization of this right so that no one is left behind. To do this, we must absolutely fight against the invisibilization of environmental injustices, in particular by obliging governments to monitor and expose the environmental and health realities of historically marginalized populations.
This work is fundamental so that the right to a healthy environment goes beyond legal terms and can truly support those who need it most.