Here's news about the two court challenges brought by VTAAC. The case about the Texada approval is next week, and VTAAC is alone on that one, except for the support of many citizens.
Here's an update on the funding for the Texada case, and then a report on the FSD case, which will reach the court some time next year:
A huge thanks to everyone who chipped in for the legal costs of preparing and presenting our case against the Texada coal port approval, which starts on Monday. Thanks also to our lawyer Tim Howard who has spend countless hours preparing this case, at bargain-basement rates.
Our portion of the legal bill for all the hearing preparation and the 3 days of hearing will be $5000. Thanks to the support of so many of you, from Lasqueti, Texada, Denman, the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver, and New Westminster, we have $3500 in hand and a couple of commitments for a bit more to come. So we will be close to what we need...whew!
Tim offered to give us extra time to pay our legal bill, if we needed to fundraise, so it is a relief to have the bulk of the money already "in hand". If you have been meaning to chip in, a Lasquetian wanted me to remind people that there is still the easy option of donating on-line at the VTACC website under the "donate" button.
http://www.vtacc.org/vtacc_template.php?content=home
HI Folks,
Huge news as BC second largest city applies to "intervene" (legalese for "join") in our court case against the approval of Surrey-Fraser Docks coal facility. Welcome aboard, City of Surrey!
Pretty amazing what we have all started, and that we now have both the City of New West and City of Surrey to join our suit. This is a giant step forward against the approval of this whole project.
An update on the upcoming Texada legal challenge will follow by separate email.
Thanks everyone... and thanks Surrey for joining us!
Donald Gordon
For Immediate Release
Wednesday October 22nd 2014
VTACC, Communities and Coal welcome Surrey's plan to intervene in court challenge of Fraser Surrey Docks coal port approval
Vancouver -- Monday the City of Surrey adopted a staff recommendation to apply to intervene in the Federal Court challenge against the proposed Fraser Surrey Docks Coal Transfer Facility. This follows New Westminster's decision to intervene in the court case in late September.
The Fraser Surrey Docks project would see US thermal coal travel on open rail cars through White Rock and Surrey to be loaded onto open barges in Surrey. The coal would then be shipped down the Fraser River and across the Strait of Georgia to Texada Island, where it would be transferred to ocean going vessels to be burned in Asian power plants.
On September 19th Ecojustice filed an application for judicial review of the permit approval on behalf of Voters Taking Action on Climate Change (VTACC), Communities & Coal, and two individual citizens. The application for judicial review alleges that the Port Authority was biased in its decision making and that it failed to consider the climate impacts that would be generated by the export and burning of this US coal.
"Front line communities like Surrey, New West and White Rock will bear the brunt of local impacts from this project. Surrey's decision to intervene is significant and reiterates that the public process for this project has failed, and that a redress with the courts is necessary," said Paula Williams, director with Communities and Coal. "We are grateful for the support of the City of Surrey in this challenge to the Port Metro Vancouver permit."
"Surrey's involvement in our joint case reinforces our core argument: the Port Authority failed to take the public interest into account when making a decision on this coal port proposal,” said Kevin Washbrook, director with VTACC. "We look forward to working with Surrey and New West to overturn the Fraser Surrey Docks decision and to ensure that in future the Port listens carefully to public and local government concerns."
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