
“The climate crisis is a human rights crisis.”
So says Fraser Thomson, a lawyer with Ecojustice. And Thomson is in a position to do something about it. As the lead lawyer in the Mathur case – one involving seven Ontario youth who are using the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to fight the Ontario government’s emission reduction targets – he is hopeful of success. They argue that the Ford government’s policies meant to address air and water pollution are inadequate and therefore violate their rights under two sections of the Charter. This constitutional challenge to government climate policy is set to be heard at the Supreme Court in Ottawa by the end of the year and, as Thomson says, “will answer the question ‘can governments be held accountable for their environmental acts and conduct?’”
The born-and-raised Leasider shares how his formative years on the ice at Trace Manes Park and in the environmental club at Leaside High contributed to his fight for justice for the planet.
With both parents being teachers, Fraser grew up spending summers canoeing and camping, often off-grid, in Northern Ontario where he developed an appreciation for its rugged beauty. And at high school it was his older sister Alex who encouraged him to join the Leaside Environmental Student Society, which she started. He became an active member of the TDSB-wide student environmental network and has memories of working on a climate task force with NDP leader Jack Layton at City Hall.
But what really brought the devastating impact of climate change home to him happened on the outdoor skating rink at Trace Manes. Fraser explains that his love of skating and ice hockey grew “just down the street at Rumsey and Millwood.” He noticed, however, that from one winter to the next the rink was operational for fewer and fewer weeks mostly because of rising temperatures. He explains the phenomenon with data: Canada’s winters are already on average 3.4 degrees warmer than they were 75 years ago. Here in Toronto, warming has greatly reduced backyard and natural community rinks.
And so, it made good sense that at the University of Guelph Fraser studied environmental science. He was a leader in the school’s Students for Environmental Change and a founding member of a retrofit program, which was successful in causing a major renovation of the crop sciences building, making it more energy efficient. It’s clear he could have been an environmental scientist but instead opted for a career in law. He realized that scientific knowledge and evidence of climate change were up-to-date, but governmental policy lagged behind. He felt he could best help shrink the gap by becoming a lawyer.
To Fraser, healing the planet is not just his job; it is something he lives and breathes. Combating climate change often seems daunting to the point of our feeling helpless. But Fraser explains that in the past 40 years acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer have largely been fixed thanks to government action creating policy that heeded scientific warnings. But he says, it is not helpful that today some industries and policy makers play down and even deny the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment. “We all care about our community and family; fixing the climate crisis is the way to ensure we can keep on enjoying life as we know it.” Effective policies are needed before the damage “gets worse.”
Fraser has been with Ecojustice for the past 12 years. It is Canada’s largest law charity and it is entirely donor-funded. Their objectives are to go to court, push for better laws and engage the public. Other than taking the lead in the Mathur case, the first case of its kind, Fraser has worked hard at opposing the mining, transportation and export of coal, especially in Alberta, and has been successful in stopping a thermal coal export facility in Surrey, BC.
Find out more at ecojustice.ca to see how you can also be part of the solution.