Law Commons^™

“Vancouver’S Favourite Country Music Pub,” Single Room Occupancy Hotels, And The Context Of International Frameworks: Mapping Vancouver’S Urban Law And Cultural Policy, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The public and private spaces of cities, their design, and the urban law and policy that shapes the lived spaces within cities provides a potent example of overlapping and often contested heritage(s) and heritage spaces that may have built heritage merit, may carry a high intangible value as gathering spaces for art, culture, and performance, or may be both characterized by their tangible and intangible heritage merit. The layers of diverging, contested, or interwoven heritage within the same urban spaces can diverge in what they mean to a group, community, or individual. They may represent significant moments of architectural grandeur, …

Issue Brief: Impact Assessment And Responsible Business Guidance Tools In The Extractive Sector: An Environmental Human Rights Toolbox For Government, Business, Civil Society & Indigenous Groups, Sara L. Seck, Penelope Simmons, Charlotte Connolly

Responsible Business Conduct and Impact Assessment Law

This issue brief provides an overview of the impact assessment and responsible business conduct toolbox for the extractive sector. The toolbox provides guidance on how governments, businesses, civil society, and Indigenous groups may encourage and adopt a human rights approach to impact assessment (IA). It forms part of a broader research project aimed at highlighting the interrelationship between IA laws and Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) tools, funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Knowledge Synthesis Grant: Informing Best Practices in Environmental & Impact Assessments (the “KSG”).

Indigenous Rights And Interests In A Changing Arctic Ocean: Canadian And Russian Experiences And Challenges, Anna Sharapova, Sara L. Seck, Sarah L. Macleod, Olga Koubrak

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The Arctic has been home to Indigenous peoples since long before the international legal system of sovereign states came into existence. International law has increasingly recognized the rights of Indigenous peoples, who also have status as Permanent Participants in the Arctic Council. In northern Canada, the majority of those who live in the Arctic are recognized as Indigenous. However, in northern Russia, a much smaller percentage of the population is identified as Indigenous, as legal recognition is only accorded to groups with a small population size. This article will compare Russian and Canadian approaches to recognition of Indigenous peoples and …

Responsible Business Conduct In The Extractive Industries: Prospect Of Respecting Women's Human Rights In Ghana, Veronica Dossah

LLM Theses

Business operations in the extractive industries (EI) continue to violate women’s human rights and the environment in the communities in which they operate. In Ghana, existing laws and regulations do not preclude businesses from such violations. This makes it important to reflect on innovative means including soft laws which could encourage companies operating in the EI in Ghana to respect women’s human rights and the environment over and above compliance with national laws and regulations. This thesis examines the problem of land grabbing by EI companies operating in Ghana, the unique negative impacts women in mining communities face as a …

Wolastoqiyik And Mi’Kmaq Grandmothers - Land/Water Defenders Sharing And Learning Circle: Generating Knowledge For Action, Sherry Pictou, Janet Conway, Angela Day

Reports & Public Policy Documents

This report is a summary of the Grandmothers/Defenders’ stories and are interwoven with corresponding news articles, press releases, and other public documents. This is followed by an overview of some of the critical common issues and importantly, strategies for moving forward proposed by the Grandmothers/Defenders.

The Grandmother’s Report is a collection of stories told by Wolastoqiyik Grandmother/Defenders against the Sisson Mine in New Brunswick and Mi’kmaq Grandmothers against the Alton Gas project in Nova Scotia at the event, Indigenous Grandmothers Sharing and Learning Circle: Generating Knowledge for Action, held at the Tatamagouche Centre in Nova Scotia, January 26 to 27, …

Evidence Brief: Impact Assessment And Responsible Business Conduct, Sara L. Seck, Penelope Simons, Adebayo Majekolagbe

Responsible Business Conduct and Impact Assessment Law

This Evidence Brief provides a concise overview of the April 2020 report, Sara Seck & Penelope Simons, "Impact Assessment and Responsible Business Guidance Tools in the Extractive Sector: Implications for Human Rights, Gender and Stakeholder Engagement" (Draft Final Report for the SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant: Informing Best Practices in Environmental and Impact Assessments, 13 April 2020).

Impact Assessment And Responsible Business Guidance Tools In The Extractive Sector: Implications For Human Rights, Gender And Stakeholder Engagement, Sara L. Seck, Penelope Simons

Responsible Business Conduct and Impact Assessment Law

This report aims to identify RBC tools referenced in the literature as relevant and/or promoted to Canadian extractive companies operating within and outside Canada. While not appraising or pronouncing on the quality of RBC tools, we consider the different actors that promote these diverse tools and whether there is a coherent framework for the efficient and effective application of current and future tools. We focus on RBC tools on human rights, stakeholder engagement, the rights of Indigenous peoples, and the rights of women and girls. Further, we review the position of scholars on the relationship between RBC and IA.

View Corridors, Access, And Belonging In The Contested City: Vancouver’S Protected View Cones, The Urban Commons, Protest, And Decisionmaking For Sustainable Urban Development And The Management Of A City’S Public Assets, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Majestic views of mountains, sky, and sea are essential components of the visual and experiential identity of Vancouver, Canada. The experience of these vistas supplements other urban realities, such as suffocating living expenses and inequality. This Article explores a recent example of urban contestation over Vancouver’s view corridors as a shared public resource and public asset. As this Article explores, exclusion from access to public assets that provide meaning to daily life — such as the mountain views in question — damage an urban citizen’s sense of identity and belonging in a city through a hierarchical experience of access and …

An Independent Review Of Forest Practices In Nova Scotia: Executive Summary Conclusions And Recommendations, William Lahey Prof.

Reports & Public Policy Documents

My mandate was to make recommendations on forest practices that would, if implemented, balance environmental, social, and economic objectives, which I have interpreted to include values. My conclusion is that environmental, social, and economic values should be balanced by using forest practices that give priority to protecting and enhancing ecosystems and biodiversity.

In other words, I have concluded that protecting ecosystems and biodiversity should not be balanced against other objectives and values as if they were of equal weight or importance to those other objectives or values. Instead, protecting and enhancing ecosystems should be the objective (the outcome) of how …

Understanding The Lagos State Properties Protection Law, 2016, Okanga Ogbu Okanga

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Land is a crucial component of development. This is more so in a place like Lagos State, Nigeria's economic capital, where there is a far greater demand for the asset than nature bestows. The State has for decades endured a damaging form of criminality widely known as land grabbing. This menace manifests itself in various ways, some of which are outlined in this article. The Lagos State Properties Development Law 2016 (“the Law’ or ‘PPL”) aims to curtail unwholesome and unscrupulous land transactions and practices in the State by prescribing strong criminal sanctions against violators. This paper examines the essence …

The Acquisition Of National Parkland: A Challenge For The Future, Rosemary E. Nation

Dalhousie Law Journal

Since the inception of a national park system in Canada, land acquisition for national parks has been sporadic and is now at a virtual standstill. In 1930, when legislation was introduced to designate national parks and govern their use, fourteen parks areas had been established.' Four parks were set up between 1930 and 1968, and seven parks and three national park reserves were established between 1968 and 1982. With the exception of the establishment of Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan in 1982, there has been no further expansion to date. Thus, there are currently twenty-six national parks and three national …

Renewing Our Renewable Forest Resource: The Legislative Framework, Peter A. Love

Dalhousie Law Journal

Since the first settlers arrived on Canada's shores, the forests have been looked to as a major source of economic activity and wealth. Year after year and decade after decade, Canadians have gone to the woods to fell trees in order to satisfy the ever-increasing demands of both the country and the world. In the nineteenth century, the magnificent pine and oak timber of eastern Canada, highly prized as lumber for construction and ship building, was the first to be depleted.' The beginning of the twentieth century saw the loggers moving north and west as the demand for paper and …

The Forest Hills New Community Planned Unit Development, Conrad James Enman

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article is about the Forest Hills new community development of the Nova Scotia Housing Commission. In examining this development, it is intended to explain its significance in the context of planning in general, community planning in particular, and planned unit development specifically. But first, some background seems appropriate. There exists a definition of "planning" as simply the thinking that precedes action.1 If this broad view is accepted, then virtually all human activity constitutes planning, right down to such insignificant decisions as which sock to put on first when dressing. So stated, planning is a process which has been going …

An Examination Of Some Of The Recent Amendments To The Ontario Landlord And Tenant Act, Morley Gorsky

Dalhousie Law Journal

Ontario's was the first Canadian legislature to attempt to overcome certain anomalies in the law applicable to residential tenancies.' The effect of many of the Act's provisions remained uncertain until authoritative court decisions were rendered. Would the courts view the Act as intending to overcome the traditional orientation of landlord and tenant law towards land law doctrine? Sufficient time has now passed for many of the most important provisions of the Act to have been adjudicated upon by the superior courts, and it would be safe to say that the Act usually has been given a liberal interpretation. Many of …

Compensation On Expropriation: The Effect Of Zoning And Other Land Use Restrictions On The Award, Daniel F. Potter

Dalhousie Law Journal

The purpose of this article is to ascertain the extent to which the existence of publicly-imposed land use restrictions affects the quantum of compensation payable on expropriation. As yet, this matter has not arisen in the case law of Nova Scotia. However, if the events which surrounded the plans for the now abandoned Sackville landfill site project, discussed below, are any precursor of things to come, the effect of use restrictions on compensation awards will not much longer be a moot issue. The problem has, of course, come before the courts and compensation tribunals in other Canadian jurisdictions where the …

Social Planning In Halifax-Dartmouth: Fact Or Fiction?, Timothy T. Daley

Dalhousie Law Journal

Social planning is a by-product of the recent trend toward comprehensive community development planning. It is still in its formative stages and is therefore experiencing the growing pains characteristic of most new planning processes, including poor coordination, distrust and misunderstanding. Added to these difficulties is a second deterrent to proper social planning, namely, an increasing demand to react quickly to problems and make decisions without waiting for input from planners.

Some Aspects Of Title By Registration In The Maritime Provinces Of Canada, Robert Stein

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Maritime Provinces of Canada are engaged in a complete restructuring of the present conveyancing system by the implementation of a comprehensive land management system with centralized availability of information on titles and land use. It is the hope of the proponents of the program' that it will result in a uniform and simple system to replace the present antiquated land registration procedure which, apart from the "conveyancing" problems caused by its lack of certainty, is seen by the proponents as a major barrier to effective management and control of land use.