Kids With Character Make A Difference

INTRODUCTION

In 2019, 15 Canadian children demonstrated incredible courage, ethics, leadership and character in the youth climate movement the moment they filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court of Canada. The allegation made by the children was that the Federal Government was causing, contributing to and allowing dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions and was responsible for the specific, individualized climate change impacts that these kids were personally experiencing, and that by doing so the Federal Government was violating their rights to life, liberty and security while simultaneously failing to protect essential public resources.

The children were not looking to be compensated financially, but rather aimed to see the court demand a credible climate recovery plan based upon the best available science.

This unforgettable learning experience for both the kids and their legally trained mentors is a working model of character building where the professionals are models for the kids and the kids are models for the professionals, all of it built on a granite pillar of mutual respect.

THE PLAINTIFF'S TEAM

Throughout the case, each of these 15 kids were fortunate to have been exposed to a group of professionals with a wide range of knowledge and life experiences to impart to them. The professional expertise that supported their journey included:

• two law firms, Josep J. Arway, Q.C., and Catherine Boies Parlier, Q.C., of Arway Finlay LLP, Vancouver and Victoria, and Chris Tollefson and Anthony Ho of Tollefson Law Corporation, Victoria, BC.

• The David Suzuki Foundation - the lead Canadian environmental non-governmental organization partner.

• the Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation (CELL) is an educational partner. CELL is a non-profit society incorporated in BC and Chris Tollefson has been a founding Executive Director since 2016. Their mission is to train and inspire Canada's next generation of public interest environmental litigators by providing junior lawyers and law students the opportunity to gain hands-on litigation experience working as part of a team on carefully selected and closely supervised public interest and environmental cases.

• Our Children's Trust (OCT) - a non-profit public interest law firm that provides strategic, campaign-based legal services to youth from diverse backgrounds to secure their legal right to a safe climate.

Photo credit: Robin Loznak via Our Children's Trust.

It is our intention to create similar environmental/work experiences as part of the INSPIRE Learning Program. We believe that such exposures will assist our learners to face the sometimes daunting process of choosing a future education program going forward. This experience is an excellent model.

THE PUBLIC FILING

During the public filing on October 25 2019, the children stood together on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery with a crowd of thousands cheering as they announced their name, age and home. Each spoke of the harm they suffered as a result of climate change, namely crop failure, animal failure, wildfires, flood and drought. A cheering crowd on the gallery plaza heard an impassioned Saj Starcevic, 12, of Melfort, Saskatchewan, say:

"I don't want to die before I ever get a chance to live. I don’t want a career or to think about having children in the face of a deteriorating climate. I am joined in this fight by the millions of young people around the world demanding climate justice."

Hanna Edenshaw, 15, of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia is learning her indigenous Haida language and using her voice to protect her culture, land and the environment.

"Stopping climate change is necessary so that future generations can grow up in a sustainable world, secure about the future of their planet and culture."

GRETA LENDS A HAND

The lawsuit was filed ahead of a climate strike in Vancouver which was attended by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16. Gretta stood quietly alongside the plaintiffs as they made their speeches to the highly supportive crowd. After the gathering in front of the Art Gallery, the crowd began a three kilometer march through the downtown streets of Vancouver. Greta marched with them before delivering a speech.

"Together we are unstoppable," she told the welcoming crowd of some 10,000 people as estimated by the Vancouver Police. "The people in power are still acting as if there is no tomorrow. We young people are telling them to stop doing that, stop ignoring the consequences of their actions and inactions."

A plaintiff in the case, Sierra Robinson, 17, of Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island, is a homeschooled environmental activist, permaculture farmer and teacher. She has been helping her family and community move toward regenerative practices since she was seven years old. Sierra follows Greta with the pointed words, "We're suing the federal government. This is not a publicity stunt. See you in court." The crowd cheered enthusiastically again.

THE STATEMENT OF DEFENCE and CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE

On February 7th, 2020, the federal government filed its Statement of Defence for the youth-led climate change lawsuit. The statement admits that “climate change is real, that it has a significant negative impact on Canadians, and that addressing climate change is 'of central importance to the Canadian government.” However, Canada claims that the 15 young Canadians should not be given public interest standing and that the courts are not the appropriate branch of government to provide the youth plaintiffs with their requested relief. Finally, that "addressing climate change is the shared responsibility of a multitude of different actors..... Only the executive and legislative branches of government may make policy, pass laws and authorize the allocation of public funds."

CONCLUSION

Over a year after the lawsuit was filed, a federal court rejected the lawsuit stating that "the questions raised in the case are so political that the courts are incapable and unsuited to deal with them. However, there is no denying that those questions need to be addressed. These 15 children have done a great deal to bring the issue of climate change into the spotlight in Canada". They proved that children of character can become leading stewards of their communities and the environment by nature, example and plain ordinary learning.