Fisheries Act Private Prosecution Goes Ahead

As we wrote earlier, in December 2014 Marilyn Burgoon received approval to bring a private prosecution against Executive Flight Centre Fuel Services and the Province of British Columbia for violations of the Fisheries Act  related to a large fuel spill into a sensitive creek. The province took no enforcement action relating to the spill, likely because of its own role in causing it.

One or the other senior levels of  government usually take over private environmental prosecutions, but, as of May 19, 2015, the federal government was still dithering on this one. The entire burden of prosecuting this case may therefore fall on the public-spirited Ms. Burgoon, without help from any level of government.