Environment suit brings fines for politicians

Press, 15 June 1982, Page 18

Environment suit brings fines for politicians

Wellington reporter

In an historic court action, the first convictions under the new Ontario Environmental Assessment Act (1981) have been of two Ontario Provincial Ministers. The Minister of Transport (Mr James Snow) and his Deputy (Mr Harold Gilbert) were convicted for their role in starting to build a highway north of Toronto without the necessary approval under the Act,

The prosecution was launched by the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. The last successful court action against .an Ontario Minister was in ‘ 1923. Concern about the highway construction originally focused on the rare plants of White Rose Bog — a small relict .wetland next to the highway route. But when a botanist (Mr Steve Varga) from the Univer- ’• sity of: Toronto requested a hearing under the Act. it was revealed that construction had ■ already begun two weeks earlier. •

Ontario's Premier .(Mr William Davis) publicly rebuked the provincial servants involved, but then proceeded to exempt the project so that construction work could continue.

Fearing this eleventh-hour exemption would serve as a precedent for future abuse of the Act if left unchallenged, the Federation of Ontario Naturalists decided to prosecute. The Canadian Environmental Law Association provided counsel. A reluctant Justice of the Peace was persuaded to issue summonses against Mr Snow and Mr Gilbert, after an initial hearing of written and verbal evidence on the nature of the alleged offence. Because no Ontario Minister had been prosecuted, successfully since 1923 there was difficulty in establishing that a Cabinet Minister and a senior civil servant were not immune from prosecution.

But with this hurdle cleared, the Crown Law Office agreed

to take over the case. There were fears that , prosecution might be stopped, but the Crown attorney had begun a police investigation ' into the circumstances, when a dramatic intervention occurred. Mr Gilbert stunned everyone involved by appearing in court one day to plead guilty on behalf of Mr Snow and himself.

Even more surprising was the sentence handed down by Judge E. M. White a few weeks later. Noting the importance of the principle that no-one can be above the law, and calling this case a “deliberate defiance, if not a flouting, of the law,” Judge White assessed 53500 against Mr Snow and $2BOO against Mr Gilbert. These fines were clearly intended to send a message to the authorities in Ontario that they must take environmental laws seriously. The fines handed out were more than triple what the Crown attorney had sought from the court. ■