Protesters in Ottawa take part in a climate march in September 2024.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Seven young activists are a step closer to holding the Ontario government to account for its weakened target on greenhouse gas emissions after a court victory in a groundbreaking climate-change lawsuit.
The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday denied the government’s request for leave to appeal a lower-court ruling that found its climate plan must comply with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“I’m really happy. This was kind of the best-case scenario for us,” said Sophia Mathur, an 18-year-old resident of Sudbury, who is one of the seven applicants. “I’m really hopeful because of this. It feels like I’ve been participating in this case for so long. There’s been a lot of legal battles.”
Ms. Mathur and the other activists launched a legal challenge in 2019 in a novel attempt to hold the Ontario government responsible for allegedly violating their constitutional rights by watering down the province’s climate plan. Their lawsuit is one of a growing number of climate-litigation cases around the world.
The young activists argue that the province is risking their Charter rights to life, security of the person and equality by not doing more to combat the climate crisis. They want a court to order the Ontario government to set a science-based emissions-reduction target and to strengthen its climate-change plan in line with international standards.
In the first decision of its kind in Canada, the Ontario Court of Appeal found last October that government climate-change targets must comply with the Charter.
The Ontario government asked the country’s top court in December for leave to appeal the appellate court’s decision. The Supreme Court declined on Thursday to hear the case. The court does not provide reasons when it decides whether it will hear an appeal.
The Supreme Court’s decision means that the case will return for a new hearing at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
In 2023, Superior Court Justice Marie-Andrée Vermette dismissed the activists’ application on the basis that they could not claim relief under the Charter. However, she wrote that, based on the evidence, “it is indisputable that, as a result of climate change, the Applicants and Ontarians in general are experiencing an increased risk of death and an increased risk to the security of the person.”
The Court of Appeal overturned the Superior Court decision but did not decide on the case, instead ruling it should be sent back to the lower court.
“This effectively boxes Ontario into a corner and subjects their climate record to the full scrutiny of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” said Fraser Thomson, a lawyer at Ecojustice, an environmental-law charity that represents the seven activists.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney-General noted that the matter remains before the courts.
“To be clear, no decision has been made regarding the constitutionality of Ontario’s climate-change plan or target,” Keesha Seaton said in an e-mail.
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns said he is encouraged that the climate activists are continuing their legal battle.
“I think governments have a duty to protect the lives and livelihoods of their citizens,” he said. “What we have in Ontario is a climate plan that is grossly inadequate.”
In 2018, Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government announced that it would scale back Ontario’s climate-change target from the more-aggressive approach of the former Liberal provincial government.
The PC government said it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. By contrast, the former Liberal government committed the province to a reduction of 37 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.
In its ruling last year, the Court of Appeal said the current Ontario government’s smaller reduction “falls short of the international scientific consensus of the reductions recommended to mitigate the most catastrophic effects of climate change.”