VANCOUVER - BC environmental groups have succeeded in
overturning Federal
expropriation of the provincially owned seabed at Nanoose Bay, according
to
a ruling released today by the Federal Court of Canada.
“The Court has confirmed that the public must have a meaningful opportunity
to object before an expropriation can occur,” said West Coast Environmental
Law staff lawyer Andrew Gage. “The Federal Government clearly
failed that
test in this case.”
Honourable Justice Campbell agreed with the Plaintiff, The Society
Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC), that then Minister of
Public
Works and Government Services Alfonso Gagliano acted beyond his powers
under the Expropriation Act. The judgement strikes down the decision
of
the Minister to expropriate the provincially owned seabed at Canadian
Forces Maritime Experimental Testing Range located at Nanoose Bay on
Vancouver Island.
“This is a lesson that applies to all governments, not just the federal
government,” said David Cadman, President of SPEC. “When the
law requires
public hearings they must be meaningful. If they aren't, government
risks
decisions being overturned.”
“The next step is for the provincial and federal government to decide
together to abide by the wishes of Canadians and ensure that nuclear
weapons and nuclear reactors are not brought into Nanoose Bay and other
Canadian waters,” said David Wright, Q.C., a lawyer with Lawyers for
Social
Responsibility.
The Nanoose Seabed was expropriated by the federal government in September
19 after the province refused to lease the seabed to the federal government
without guarantees that no nuclear weapons would be brought into the
area.
As part of the expropriation process 2,465 members of the public submitted
written objections to the expropriation, and 235 appeared at public
hearings in Nanaimo and Vancouver. The resulting report, which
the judge
ruled was inadequate, summarized these objections into 21 vague and
often
ambiguous one-line responses.
“Major American ports have banned nuclear weapons from entering, yet
Canada
continues to allow the U.S to test nuclear weapons within our waters,”
said
Cadman. “The presence of nuclear weapons in Canadian ports is
no more
necessary to meet our obligations to NATO than landmines are.”
-30-
For more information contact:
Andrew Gage, WCEL (604) 601-2506
David Cadman, SPEC (604) 736-7732
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1992 Nuclear-Free-BC
resolution:
http://www.nanoose.gov.bc.ca/anti_nuclear.html
Nanoose legal challenge:
http://www.spec.bc.ca/spec/nanoose/index.html
Angus Reid poll (nuclear
free Canada):
http://www.islandnet.com/sunshine/peace/angusrd.htm
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SPEC
Society Promoting Environmental Conservation
2150 Maple Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 3T3
phone (604) 736-SPEC, FAX (604) 736-7115
e-mail, enviro@spec.bc.ca
web, HTTP://www.spec.bc.ca
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