Mathur v Ontario Youth Climate Case Panel Discussion

Chris Tollefson

Chris Tollefson is a teacher, author and litigator. Appointed as full professor at the UVic Faculty of Law in 2007, he has been counsel on many leading environmental cases including the Northern Gateway pipeline review; the Trans Mountain pipeline review; and the Pacific North West LNG environmental assessment. He co-authors a national environmental law textbook published by Thomson-Reuters (now in its 4th edition 2023). He played a founding role in the establishment of several environmental law organizations including Ecojustice and the Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation. Prof Tollefson is Principal at Tollefson Law a firm that advises on environmental, resource governance and climate law for Indigenous governments and businesses, co-management bodies and regulators, and a public interest clientele. Tollefson Law is co-counsel with Arvay Finlay LLP, on La Rose v HMTQ, a climate lawsuit case filed by 15 young Canadians against the federal government.

Nathalie Chalifour

Nathalie Chalifour is an Full Professor with the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa.  She is cross-appointed to the Institute of the Environment where she teaches and supervises students in the interdisciplinary Masters of Environmental Sustainability. Professor Chalifour holds a Doctorate in law from Stanford University (2005) and a Master’s in Juridical Sciences (1999), which she obtained as a Fellow of the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies, and Fulbright scholar. Professor Chalifour was elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in 2018.  

Professor Chalifour’s research lies at the intersection of environment law, economics and social justice, with a focus on climate change.  Her publications address a variety of topics, including climate change, carbon pricing, environmental justice, constitutional law, environmental human rights, the green economy and sustainable food and agriculture. Her most recent articles focus on the constitutionality of carbon pricing policies and Charter rights in the context of climate change. Professor Chalifour is actively engaged in the development of Canadian law and policy. She is frequently invited to speak at conferences and public events, and as a commentator in the media. She recently served as pro-bono co-counsel to Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, and the United Chiefs and Council of the Mnidoo Mnising at the Ontario Court of Appeal (with Westaway Law), in the constitutional challenges to the federal carbon price.  She served as pro-bono co-counsel to the National Association of Women and the Law and Friends of the Earth Canada in the appeals of these decisions to the Supreme Court of Canada. She is also counsel to the intervenor Friends of the Earth Canada in the Mathur case.

Stepan Wood

Stepan Wood is a settler living and working as an uninvited guest on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skxwú7mesh and səlil̓wətaʔɬ Peoples. He is Professor, Canada Research Chair in Law, Society & Sustainability, and Director of the Centre for Law & the Environment at UBC’s Allard School of Law. He studies environmental law, environmental rights, sustainability, Indigenous-settler legal relations, corporate social responsibility and social justice. He coordinates the Respect for All Relations action-research program, a community-driven collaboration with BC First Nations and environmental organizations that investigates whether and how Indigenous laws can be revitalized and settler laws reformed to achieve respect for Indigenous legal orders and for all beings with whom humans have reciprocal relationships. He also leads the Green Rights and Warrior Lawyers program, a public education initiative that brings issues of environmental rights and justice to life and inspires action through the power of stories of “warrior lawyers” and Indigenous legal knowledge holders around the world working to advance “green rights” through (or despite) law. His current research interests include youth-led climate litigation, rights of nature, legal recognition of environmental rights, and judicial responses to homeless encampments. He holds an LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School and an SJD from Harvard Law School. He was a law clerk to the late Justice John Sopinka of the Supreme Court of Canada and practised law with White & Case in New York. Before joining the Allard School of Law in 2017, he was Professor and York Research Chair in Environmental Law and Justice at Osgoode Hall Law School, where he was also Editor-in-Chief of the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Coordinator of the JD/Master in Environmental Studies joint degree program, acting director of the interdisciplinary Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability and founding co-director of Osgoode’s Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic.