Ecojustice’s Youth-led Climate Lawsuit Against the Ontario Government

As Canada's largest environmental law charity, Ecojustice takes governments and polluters to court; exposes illegal practices; and shapes new laws to meet the urgency of the climate and ecological crises.

Ecojustice uses their legal expertise to take aim at the root causes of environmental harm and protect what we value most - the air, land and water that sustains all life.

For more than 30 years, Ecojustice lawyers have represented grassroots activists, Indigenous communities, environmental organizations, and everyday Canadians — free of charge, thanks to thousands of generous supporters from across the country.

Ecojustice lawyers Fraser Thomson (furthest left) and Danielle Gallant (furthest right) with our clients: seven courageous young people from across Ontario fighting for a safe climate future.

Photo Credit: Emily Chan

The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph proudly supports Ecojustice’s ground-breaking youth-led Charter challenge against the Ontario government for their failure to act on climate change. One of the first cases of its kind in Canada, Mathur et. al. v Ontario builds on a global trend of litigation brought on behalf of young people who will be disproportionally affected by the severe impacts of climate change.

The case made Canadian legal history in 2020 when, for the first time ever, a Canadian court ruled that fundamental rights protected under the Charter can be threatened by climate change and citizens have the ability to challenge a Canadian government’s action on the climate crisis under the highest law in the land.

This September, Ecojustice is heading to court on behalf of seven young Ontarians in a landmark climate lawsuit – marking an unprecedented opportunity to constitutionalize government responsibility for climate action.

You can learn more about this historic case and the seven brave young people who are fighting for a safe climate future on behalf of future generations at #GenClimateAction: Mathur et. al. v. Her Majesty in Right of Ontario (ecojustice.ca).

Our partners at Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) have applied to join the case as intervenors which means they will have the opportunity to present via pro-bono lawyers their own arguments in support of the claims in our case. Indigenous Climate Action is much smaller than Ecojustice but they are mighty. They share our vision of a brighter environmental future for people living today and future generations. Their mission is to inspire action through the development of tools and opportunities created with, by and for our communities, with the goal of uplifting Indigenous voices, sovereignty, and stewardship of the lands and waters for future generations.

International Day of Forests

image: unsplash/Geran de Klerk

Spring has arrived! On Tuesday, March 22nd we will celebrate World Water Day! And in between, you might want to nestle into the breathing lungs of our planet: trees!

The International Day of Forests, celebrated every year on March 21st raises awareness about the values, significance, and contributions of the forests in balancing the lifecycle of the earth.

Nalini Nadkarni shares her love of the forests, the trees that drew her into a career in forest ecology. By researching religious texts of many faith communities, she celebrates with profound awareness, the gift of trees.  Her energy and insight are brought to us in conversation on Tapestry: Connecting to our Roots: the Spirituality of Trees. I found this a joy to listen to. Why not join me in wonder and delight.

Earlier this month Nalini spoke with the CBC, and asked us to reimagine our relationship with trees. Read & listen here.

 -Sister Loretta Manzara, csj

UN Women – Women Voices Growing Stronger

UN Women – Women Voices Growing Stronger

The United Nations on the Status of Women will soon hold their Commission on the Status of Women in 2022.  It will likely be online meetings, but it allows me to pause to better understand the work that has been accomplished by women around the world and how much has yet to be done.  No one person is responsible for the progress that has been made, but the work of so many women, along with men is needed to close the gaps that exist for women’s equality and human rights. 

The United Nations Under-Secretary and Executive Director of the Women, Phumizile Alanbo Ngcuka has stated so well:

“The Commission has recognized the importance of removing structural barriers to women’s empowerment, including ending all forms of violence against women; and harassment of women and girls everywhere, be it in the public or private space.  We have recognized that violence against women is an impediment to full equality, as well as to women’s economic empowerment.  We also recognized the importance of ensuring that all the structural impediments to women’s economic empowerment are addressed…  We have to start at home, by ensuring that there is an enabling environment for women’s economic justice and women’s empowerment.”

During this pandemic time, the curtain has been pulled back on how much more is needed to fully achieve equality and the many goals of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.  We cannot wait until… We each must do what we can to right the wrongs of the past.  If “no one is to be left behind” in this recovery or rebuilding, then we each must do something.  What can you do?

-Sister Joan Atkinson, CSJ, Office for Systemic Justice

Ten Years of Advocacy

Amnesty International’s “Write for Rights” is an activity during Advent that the Sisters of St. Joseph have embraced for ten years - 10 years!!

Each December 10th we join with global citizens to write letters to plead with leaders of countries to free people unjustly incarcerated for working on behalf of social justice and peace. We come together as a group of women armed with pen and paper as well as the names and stories of people around the world who have been apprehended on false and unjust premises.

Sisters Ann & Kitty pens ready!

This year our letters include calls for freedom and justice for a Chinese citizen journalist jailed in 2020 for reporting on the unfolding of the COVID-19 outbreaks in Wuhan. We also advocate for a Guatemalan man jailed seven years now for being a courageous defender of the rights of his people. Another case involves a young woman who was arrested at the Sudan border in 2012 and has never been heard from since that time.

Our letters of advocacy, joined to thousands of others around the world do make a difference. The diligent workers and volunteers of Amnesty International keep us abreast of people who have been freed from their unjust situations. Regardless of age or circumstance, one letter written with love and compassion can make a huge difference - it changes the life of one who we will never meet.

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj

Pictured above, the Sisters hard at work, letter-writing.

We wrote 100 letters so far this year! #W4R21

Generous Listening

Finally, attention to the almost-lost art of listening! September 26th being the National day of Listening, I thought it might be appropriate to focus on how we are called to listening to what Indigenous voices are saying to us these days as Canadians.  To what are we listening and what are we really hearing about Residential Schools, about murdered and missing women, men, girls and boys?

What are we really hearing and believing from Indigenous Elders who are survivors of Residential Schools? What is heard? What is heart-felt? What is the message in the revealing of hundreds of graves found on the grounds of former residential Schools? Are we brave and sufficiently honest to acknowledge this dark history of Canada that was one form of cultural genocide?

Krista Tippett says of listening: “Generous Listening is an everyday art and virtue, but it’s an art we have lost and must learn anew. Listening is more than being quiet while others have their say. It is about presence as much as receiving; it is about connection more than observing. Real listening is powered by curiosity. It involves vulnerability — a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity. It is never in “gotcha” mode. The generous listener wants to understand the humanity behind the words of the other and patiently summons one’s own best self and one’s own most generous words and questions.”

In being present to  Indigenous Knowledge Keepers who have committed themselves to truth telling, I have found from my own experience that it requires of me, the listener, to be open minded, eager to learn the truth, respectful, and have the ability to create an atmosphere of hospitality and to provide a safe environment.  When that happens, relationships begin to develop, because of the mutual respect that grows.

If one has already made up one’s mind about Aboriginal people, true respectful listening cannot happen. One is simply unable to move the shared intellectual truths from the head to the heart. For any steps toward reconciliation to happen, the heart must be affected. 

The Doctrine of Discovery, promulgated in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI, has done incredible harm to the valuing and appreciation of the First Peoples of any land, and especially, in this case, of Canada.

Thankfully, THAT doctrine has been definitively denounced.

The scar tissue left from this doctrine has left a deep wound that is in need of healing. We, non-Indigenous people, need to be healed from our ignorance and arrogance, our shame and shock.  Indigenous peoples need to healed from the belief that they are inferior, less than, and hence are not worthy to be in relationship with all creation and to share the resources of the earth equitably.

If one opens one’s heart in this listening process, one discovers that the First Peoples of Canada have a deep respect for the land, for all creation.  “All my relations” is not just an idle phrase.

For us non-Indigenous people especially, but not totally, there is a useful resource available for further assistance in developing relationships between First Nations peoples and us non-Indigenous people.  It is the guidebook put out by the Jesuit social forum: A Guide to Listening to Indigenous Voices .

Ideally, it is very workable with an Indigenous person or more, to be in these Sharing Circles.

The time is now. The place is here.  Let’s move forward together in creating a more just and sustainable world.

 - Sister Kathleen Lichti, csj

---

Images provided from Unsplash: Jonathan J. Castellon | Lee Campbell