The Supreme Court of Canada has announced its plan to review the federal government’s prohibition on single-use plastics, as disclosed by the highest judicial body on Thursday. Back in 2021, the Liberal administration designated all plastic-based products as harmful under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The Responsible Plastic Use Coalition, an industry association, contested the directive. Subsequently, in 2023, Federal Court Justice Angela Furlanetto invalidated the ban.
Justice Furlanetto’s ruling criticized the broad scope of Ottawa’s decision to classify plastic-manufactured items (PMI) like grocery bags, cutlery, styrofoam containers, stir sticks, and straws as toxic. The court’s verdict highlighted the failure of the federal government to prove that all plastics pose risks to humans and the environment, asserting that it encroached on provincial authority.
Earlier this year, the Federal Court of Appeal supported the government’s directive to label plastics as toxic, dealing a severe blow to Canada’s plastic industry. The three justices of the appeal court deemed the initial ruling flawed and emphasized that the ban did not violate provincial or territorial jurisdiction.
Justice Donald Rennie of the Federal Court of Appeal led the decision, which was endorsed by the other two judges on the panel. The judgment strongly refuted the 2023 Federal Court ruling, characterizing it as a meticulous search for errors.