THUNDER BAY – Two local youth are among the group of seven who celebrated a landmark victory handed down by the province’s top court on Thursday.
Shelby Gagnon and Madison Dyck sued the provincial government, alongside five others from across the province, saying Ontario's climate targets aren't strong enough to protect the wellbeing of young people.
“We filed (the suit) over five years ago now," said Dyck.
“It is challenging the Ontario government on their climate target, saying that their current climate targets don't uphold young people's rights to life, liberty and security of the person as defined in the charter of rights and freedom and that we should be guaranteed the right to a safe environment to live in,” Dyck said.
This has been a long time coming, she said. “It feels exciting, it feels really hopeful. We were in that courtroom in January. So, this decision, I've been anticipating something for quite some time now.
“To hear that the court is on our side in this case and that there's an opportunity, maybe a bit more of a clear path forward towards the victory and a win in our favour. The big picture feels really quite thrilling.”
Dyck said a decision like this has never been made in Canadian legal history, and that lower court first ruled that a decision could not be made, “then this Ontario court of appeal has said actually, you can make a decision about this.
“Now some of those things that were maybe preventing a judge from making a decision are a bit clearer forward.”
Dyck said she’s hopeful to go back and have another trial as soon as possible to get a final decision.
Gagnon said it's exciting to know this is the furthest the case has gone in the court system and to know it will impact future cases.
However, climate change still needs to be urgently addressed.
"Creating these laws and policies to have stricter protocol when it comes to carbon emissions, it was kind of somewhat of a disappointment because we're going back to the lower court," she said. "There was mixed feelings for sure."
Seeing the impacts of climate change is what spurred Gagnon to get involved in the climate lawsuit, particularly thinking about generations to come, not just of people but also plants and animals.
"Wanting to give back somewhat of a voice in the system that we live in is why I kind of got involved and agreed to be part of this case," said Gagnon.
