If you believe that the people of Nova Scotia deserve better, that the planet deserves better, please donate today. Big or small, your contribution will help us to push for better legal protections for public lands. Thank you!

A Message from Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association:

We want to fight for Owls Head Provincial Park and a new age in environmental law in Canada. Can you help us get to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal?

The government should not have the right to unilaterally—and secretly—do as it pleases with unceded public land. Yet that’s exactly what happened when the government of Nova Scotia secretly delisted and offered to sell Owls Head Provincial Park without scientific review, public notice, or public consultation. We need to ensure that it never happens again.

Without better legal protections, public lands will perpetually be at risk. Across the province, approximately 125 provincial parks, nature reserves, and wilderness areas are still awaiting designation. In many cases, citizens and communities have no idea that these “parks” aren’t legally protected and that they, too, could be secretly delisted and offered for sale.

Our elected officials should have a duty to us and our planet. When we launched our judicial review, we’d hoped that the Nova Scotia Supreme Court would seize the opportunity to be the first in Canada to recognize the public trust doctrine.

Even though Justice Christa Brothers characterized the government’s actions as “troubling,” she ruled that under the current law, we “were not owed a duty of procedural fairness.”

Isn’t it time for that to change?

We think the answer is yes… So with your support, we want to take this case to the Court of Appeal.

If you believe that the people of Nova Scotia deserve better, that the planet deserves better, please donate today. Big or small, your contribution will help us to push for better legal protections for public lands. Thank you!

What is the Public Trust Doctrine?

Faced with unprecedented environmental challenges, it’s time for our laws to evolve. The public trust doctrine is an important legal principle that has the potential to protect people as well as vital ecosystems. Holding some lands ‘in trust’ means that governments couldn’t make important decisions about ecologically valuable lands without letting the public know and seeking their input.


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