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Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA)
Needed Legislative & Policy Reform /
Updating the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA)
The world has changed and we’ve learned a lot since CEPA, Canada’s most important environmental law, came into effect a generation ago. Right now, the Senate is considering Bill S-5, Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act. PCN and other health and environment groups are working to modernize it. Join our mailing list to learn about next steps!
Watch PCN’s Testimony
Environmental health was the focus of a two-hour Senate hearing on May 12th, 2022, with perspectives from environmental health scholars, legal experts and advocates.
Prevent Cancer Now Chair, Dr. Meg Sears begins at 10:02, and answers questions afterwards.
Read PCN’s Submissions
Amending the Canadian Environmental Protection Act for 2022 and Beyond
Radiofrequency Radiation White Paper: Protect Birds, Bees and Trees: Include Anthropogenic Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Radiation in Canadian Environmental Protection Act Amendments
Watch the May 17th Senate CEPA Hearings
The Senate Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources will hear from some of Canada’s leading environmental lawyers, advocates and scholars, squaring off against industry, on Tuesday, May 17.
Panel 1 (6:30 – 7:30 pm ET)
features the Canadian Environmental Law Association and international human and environmental rights legal scholar Dr. David Boyd — and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and Mining Association of Canada.
Panel 2 (7:30 – 830 pm ET)
features representatives of
Ecojustice Canada, Environmental Defence Canada, Humane Canada and Nature Canada speaking about human and environmental health, reducing animal testing, and hazards of escape of genetically modified animals.
Falling Short on the “Right to a Healthy Environment”
PCN supports four key steps to fix Bill S-5, to give Canadians a chance of a real and meaningful Right to a Healthy Environment.
• Apply a climate lens.
• Regulate non-ionizing radiation.
• Catch up with a generation of science and experience.
• Don’t go backwards.
Also published in:
The National Observer
by Meg Sears, PCN Chair
Moving Canada off a toxic treadmill of chemicals laws
For decades, researchers have demonstrated the benefits of pollution prevention — with potential savings to Canadians of billions in healthcare, disaster response, and lost opportunities.
Also published in:
The Hill Times
by Meg Sears
Canada needs due process in law to assess and regulate “wireless radiation”
Radiofrequency radiation from telecommunications is bioactive.
CEPA reform should include a new section of the Act requiring research on its effects and protecting environmental and human health.
Science meets the law
How could the Canadian Environmental Protection Act be improved? A webinar with PCN Chair Meg Sears, hosted by CELA.
Experts answer: is chemical assessment protecting us against low dose and delayed effects?
Related posts:
Implementing the Right to a Healthy Environment – Consultation April 2024 – old
Thank you for responding to the "Right to a Healthy Environment" implementation consultation. Learn more, and access PCN's submission.
Hazard-based regulation to curb environmental impacts on health
If CEPA was indeed protecting public health, we would expect declining diseases from environmental exposures. Canadian examples point to the opposite. Endocrine-related obesity and metabolic syndrome, disorders of early development and sexual differentiation, and cancers in hormone-sensitive tissues have not been prevented. Endocrine disruption does not follow classic dose-response, so these substances must be regulated based on their innate hazard. With many thousands of EDCs, classes of similar chemicals require group actions.
Data and analyses to detect harms from toxic exposures in Canadians
A regulatory conclusion that an environmental exposure poses an “acceptable risk” is initially based on little data. Ethically, regulators should follow up to detect harms at the earliest possible opportunity. Relying on epidemiology can result in harms to generations.