AWA News: Caribou Court Case Update

AWA and our environmental and First Nations colleagues were in court in Edmonton yesterday, seeking a court order to force federal Environment Minister Peter Kent to recommend emergency protection of critical habitat for threatened caribou herds in northeastern Alberta. AWA and Pembina Institute were represented by Ecojustice.

Caribou have been federally listed as a threatened species since 2002. provincially, they were first listed as an endangered species in 1987. Twenty-four years of recovery hasn’t done them much good.

Judge Crompton listened to Ecojustice talk about how the Recovery Strategy for caribou was four years overdue. He heard how the Minister refused the request from environmental groups and three First Nations to bring in emergency measures to protect caribou habitat.

So now we wait – for up to 6 months – to see what the judge’s decision will be. Let’s hope it is a beginning of a sea change in the way we treat this much abused species.