| Montreal, 5/02/2007 – The Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) of North America today released a factual record on allegations that Canada is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law in relation to clearcut logging that allegedly destroyed over 45,000 migratory bird nests in central and northern Ontario during the nesting season in the summer of 2001.
The Ontario Logging submission was filed with the CEC Secretariat on 6 February 2002, by Sierra Legal Defence Fund, acting on behalf of Canadian Nature Federation (now Nature Canada), Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Earthroots, Federation of Ontario Naturalists, Great Lakes United, Sierra Club (United States), Sierra Club of Canada, and Wildlands League. In March 2004 and April 2005, respectively, in its Resolutions 04-03 and 05-04, the CEC Council voted unanimously to instruct the Secretariat to prepare a factual record with respect to the matters raised in the submission.
Factual records provide information regarding asserted failures to effectively enforce environmental law in North America that may assist submitters, Parties to the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and other interested members of the public in taking any action they deem appropriate in regard to the matters addressed. Pursuant to Council Resolutions 04-03 and 05-04, the Ontario Logging factual record provides information relevant to a consideration of whether Canada is failing to effectively enforce s. 6(a) of the Migratory Birds Regulations (“MBR”) adopted under the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994 in regard to clearcut logging activities carried out from 1 January to 31 December 2001, particularly with respect to the migratory bird nesting season, in fifty-three (53) forest management units located in central and northern Ontario. S. 6(a) of the MBR makes it an offence, among other things, to disturb, destroy or take a nest of a migratory bird without a permit.
A summary of facts is included in the factual record.
In developing the factual record, the Secretariat considered publicly available information, information provided by the Parties to the NAAEC and others, and technical information developed by the Secretariat through independent experts.
On 20 June 2006, the Secretariat submitted the final factual record to the CEC Council. On 31 January 2007, in its Resolution 07-02, the Council voted unanimously to instruct the Secretariat to make public the factual record.
The CEC was established under the NAAEC in 1994 to address environmental issues in North America from a continental perspective, with a particular focus on those arising in the context of liberalized trade. The CEC Council, the organization's governing body, is composed of the top environmental officials of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The citizen submissions mechanism of the CEC enables the public to play a whistle-blower role on matters of environmental law enforcement. Under Article 14 of the NAAEC, any person or nongovernmental organization may submit a claim alleging that a NAFTA partner has failed to effectively enforce its environmental law.
For more information, please visit the CEC's Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters page. |
