Environmental Injunctions Need Not Pass The Flagrant Breach Threshold

(i) Introduction

In Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority v. Eng,¹ the applicant Conservation Authority obtained an interim injunction against the owner of a property in an area of provincially designated wetland in Uxbridge, Ontario.

In granting the interim injunction, Mr. Justice Boswell of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice held that it was not necessary for the applicant to establish that the respondent's breach was flagrant. That said, on the facts, it clearly was. The respondent knew that he required a permit to conduct the operations he was engaged in. He knew that he did not have such a permit. Despite this, he openly carried on a large-scale commercial activity in breach of the applicable regulation and contrary to the strong public interest in the preservation of valuable wetlands. That was a flagrant breach in Justice Boswell's book.