(Ottawa) “We will appeal the judgment,” confirmed the Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, Monday. Last week, the Federal Court struck down the ban on six single-use plastic items. She believes that the decree adopted in April 2021 “was overbroad” and that it is “both unreasonable and unconstitutional”.
Far from being discouraged, Minister Guilbeault affirmed that the government would maintain its “strategy to combat plastic pollution”.
“We want to eliminate this plastic from our environment, from our neighborhoods, from humans – plastic microbeads are now found in the human brain. This affects the fetuses and the growth of our children,” he added.
In a written statement sent less than an hour before the press conference, Minister Guilbeault and his colleague at Justice, Arif Virani, accused Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of feeding false information. Contrary to what it claims, the government does not want to “ban all plastics”.
They recall that the government has banned “six harmful single-use plastic products”. The Liberal cabinet designated manufactured plastic items as toxic in 2021 to subsequently allow the Minister of the Environment to regulate their use in Canada.
It is on this decree that the Regulation banning single-use plastics of June 2022 which banned shopping bags, utensils, stir sticks, straws, take-out food containers and rings to bind beverage cans.
The companies Dow Chemical, Nova Chemicals Corporation and Imperial Oil challenged in Federal Court the addition of plastic items to the list of toxic substances in Schedule 1 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA).
“The Governor in Council acted beyond the limits of his authority and the regime of the relevant provisions of CEPA by including the broad category of manufactured plastic articles in Schedule 1,” writes Justice Angela Furlanetto in her decision rendered THURSDAY.
She notes that the decree has the effect of “subjecting all manufactured plastic articles to the regulatory powers provided for in section 93 of CEPA”.
“Similarly, the decree exceeded the criminal law jurisdiction, because there is no reasoned fear that all the manufactured plastic items listed in Schedule 1 will have a harmful effect on the environment,” adds -She.
Minister Guilbeault recalled that the government’s intention is to move towards a circular economy where plastics can be reused instead of ending up in landfills and the environment.
With The Canadian Press
Ottawa cracks down to protect elephants and rhinos
Canada will now be prohibited from importing and exporting raw elephant ivory and rhino horns and importing them as hunting trophies. The Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, made the announcement at a press conference on Monday. Rare exceptions will be made for tusks and horns intended for a museum, zoo, scientific research and law enforcement activities. A permit will also be required for articles for domestic use, personal objects made of ivory or worked rhino horn. These measures will come into force on January 8, 2024. They have been welcomed by the Humane Society International and Rhino and Elephant Defenders, two groups which campaign for the protection of these mammals. Nearly 450 elephant tusks and a few rhino horns were illegally imported into Canada between 2010 and 2019, according to the Humane Society International. The elephant population has fallen 70% since 1980, from 1.3 million to 415,000 individuals. The survival of rhinos is also threatened.