Doug Ford’s climate backtrack is exactly why youth litigants vow to press on

This repeal takes a hatchet to some of Ontario’s last remaining legislative climate safeguards. It eliminates Ontario’s statutory obligations to have a climate target and plan, without which Ontario’s already feeble response to the climate crisis is all but certain to fail. Perhaps that’s why the government is also removing its climate reporting obligations.

These changes mark an unprecedented rollback of accountability, leaving Ontario rudderless as we sail into a climate catastrophe.

From devastating forest fires to torrential floods and fatal heatwaves, the climate crisis is causing chaos in our communities and making life more expensive. Repealing our targets and giving carte blanche to billion-dollar fossil fuel corporations to pollute with impunity will pour fuel on this raging fire.

What’s more troubling is that this doesn’t appear to be a coherent policy change, but rather a last-minute attempt to avoid accountability before the courts.

You see, the Ford government was supposed to be in court last fall in what would have been a monumental moment in the fight for climate justice.

While their scramble to dodge this landmark court case may reveal the desperation behind this last-ditch amendment, it also provides hope that the fight over Ontario’s climate record is far from over. But first, some context.

With government-fueled climate harms being so severe, so scientifically certain and so unjustifiable, there is a compelling case that they violate Charter-protected rights to life, security of the person and equality.

While governments have been sued over climate issues before, they have always escaped scrutiny by relying on the limits of their own legislation to shield them from accountability.

But the Charter is different. It provides an overriding guarantee that our rights are to be upheld by the courts, regardless of the content of existing legislation. If governments violate Charter rights, it is the duty of the courts to stop them.

Charter litigation thus inspired hope on the climate front. With government-fueled climate harms being so severe, so scientifically certain and so unjustifiable, there is a compelling case that they violate Charter-protected rights to life, security of the person and equality.

The best available science shows that runaway, government-fuelled climate change risks the lives of thousands of Ontarians through unprecedented fatal heat waves, climate-fueled infectious diseases and catastrophic extreme weather. If the Charter is supposed to protect us from unjustifiable government harms, how are Ontario’s contributions to massive climate harms consistent with it?

Over the last six years, the youths’ case has made legal history by advancing these arguments. When the Court rejected the Ford government’s attempts to strike the case, precedents were set that climate-Charter arguments belong before the courts. It also became the first climate-Charter case to be heard on its merits.

Notably, the courts concluded it was “indisputable” that climate change is putting the lives and safety of Ontarians at risk and that Ontario was driving these risks by not reducing its emissions.

Last October, when the Court of Appeal made a groundbreaking ruling that climate targets must comply with the Charter, it set the stage for a watershed moment. With momentum, strong factual findings and the law behind them, our clients hoped that Ontario would finally have to answer for its climate record.

Then, three weeks before our scheduled hearing, the Ford government released the Fall Economic Statement.

In response to the Court of Appeal’s ruling that its climate targets must adhere to the Charter, Ontario simply repealed its targets. They seem to be saying: You don’t like our target? Fine, you don’t get a target. 

It’s hard to imagine a more cynical approach in dealing with one of the greatest threats to humanity. But importantly, our clients are confident these eleventh-hour attempts to avoid accountability will fail.

While this case has relied on Ontario’s climate law, Charter rights do not disappear because a government repeals a law. The whole reason this case has inspired such hope is that Charter rights are embedded in our Constitution, the highest law of the land.

This isn’t the Ford government’s first attempt to have this case thrown out — but they have failed every time.

While our scheduled hearing is adjourned, our clients will work as fast as possible to get back before the courts to ensure that all Ontarians — especially young people and Indigenous youth — have a right to a safe climate.

If anything, these last-minute tactics deepen their resolve to fight for climate justice to hold the Ford government to account.

Fraser Thomson is a lawyer at Ecojustice, Canada’s largest environmental law charity, based in Toronto.