Environmental Regulators Getting More Vigilant by James Mahony, June 20, 2012, Daily Oil Bulletin
An Edmonton lawyer who defends companies charged with environmental “crimes” summed up his advice yesterday for anyone considering playing on the edge of laws affecting the environment. “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later,” Stuart Chambers told a Calgary business audience, explaining his workload has been bolstered recently by the notably more proactive approach prosecutors — both federal and provincial — have taken in pursuing environmental offences in Alberta. While fines and warnings were once typical, criminal prosecutions are more common now, with fines soaring well above the modest sums of years past. As well, increased vigilance by regulators has come as interest groups — typically, environmentalists — and the media more closely scrutinize companies’ operations in the resource sector. Now, when a company errs, it’s more likely to hit the evening news, Chambers told the Canadian Institute’s conference on Environmental Law & Regulation in Alberta. “The ducks at Syncrude Canada Ltd. made CNN,” he noted in reference to the 2008 incident on the company’s northern Alberta tailing ponds. As well, he cited other trends affecting producers and oilfield service firms, among other players in the province’s oil and gas sector. One is a growing tendency for environmental regulators to pursue criminal charges against companies, with no willingness to spare contractors, sub-contractors or employees who happen to be caught in the web. In addition, it’s becoming more common now for individuals, whether employees or executives, to be prosecuted, in addition to the company itself. Like an earlier speaker, Chambers cited a recent Alberta case in which an individual was convicted of a criminal offence. In a similar case, a manager got a four-month jail term for lying to regulators. “We see enforcement as being ever-more prevalent,” Chambers said, noting that maximum penalties on a range of environmental offences have been increased across the board. In many cases, prosecutors will charge companies with so-called “strict liability” offences. Unlike common criminal offences like theft, prosecutors need not prove the offender intended to commit the offence, he said. With a strict liability offence, the prosecutor need only prove the facts underlying the offence, say, a release of toxic effluent in a river. Once the facts are proven, the onus shifts to the accused — typically, the company — which must then raise a defence of due diligence, in effect, showing it took all reasonable steps to avoid committing the offence. … “A due diligence defence cannot be constructed after the fact,” he said. “In order to have [that] defence, you need to have your system in place [before the incident].” … Earlier in the day, Alberta Crown Prosecutor Peter Roginski outlined some of the conduct likely to get his attention, when it comes to environmental incidents. Apart from the adverse consequences of the incident itself, such as a spill, he said any evidence that a company, its executives, employees or agents — including contractors — have shown deceit, falsification or misrepresentation is a red flag for prosecutors. [Emphasis added]
-
Recent Posts
- NEBC, region of *prolific* unconventional oil and gas frac’ing: Another study showing harm to pregnant women near frac’d wells June 27, 2024
- Christie Belcourt, Indigenous artist, honoured with Canada Post stamp: “The earth is my government.” June 26, 2024
- Must Watch: Dr. Sandra Steingraber on Pore Space in context of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) June 25, 2024
- Pierre Poilievre thinks he can seduce Quebec with Steve Harper/IDU’s big bad common sense: Good thing Québécois are too wise to fall for those lies. June 24, 2024
- From loving AI to hating it: Why a computer scientist who spent over a decade studying and programming AI, now hates it June 23, 2024
- Fur farming and highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1, 2023: “Dead and culled animals, which might have already been infected, were taken from the farms to be processed as feed for other fur animals.” How hideous the human species is. June 22, 2024
- Global warming: Human pollution caused temperature extremes linked to brain damage in kids (before they’re even born). June 19, 2024
- Happy Pride month, all year every year! Especially you Cruella Daniella Smith, UCP, TBA and hate farmers Pierre Picklehead/Harper reforma cons. June 5, 2024
- AI Ancestry June 3, 2024
- Felonias Diaper Don Trump. Of course USA will vote him president again serving Putin, idiots. May 30, 2024
- How I hate AI, most abusive rude ‘n crude human tech creation ever. Alberta UnInnovates: AI Fools Advancing Health Care backwards with $9.5Million May 30, 2024
- Dr. Karen Elias on CCS: “Pore space means more space for the fossil fuel industry. … Nothing in carbon storage technology guarantees that buried deposits of massive amounts of CO2 will remain locked in place forever.” May 30, 2024
- Power to the people! Power to the students! Ceasefire! Divestment! Ontario Federation of Labour to U of Toronto President Meric Gertler: “If you move against the students, you’ll have to go through workers first” May 26, 2024
- Hahahaha shitza ha! Alberta Minister of Justice proves me wrong, revokes Douche’s Counsel (KC) for loudmouthed bigot misogynistic lawyer Rob Rakochey, formerly partner with Field Law, before that, senior partner, Norton Rose Fulbright. May 24, 2024
- Another human pollution-caused global warming “Oh no!” As arctic warms four times faster than elsewhere, thawing permafrost releases toxic metals, rusting over 75 rivers and streams in Alaska’s Brooks Range, turning them orange (like acid mine leakage), deadly to fish and other life. May 24, 2024