The Blue Dot Movement

As more and more of the Earth’s natural environment is being endangered during our ongoing environmental crisis, many in Canada have begun to fight for environmental rights—especially in light of the fact that Canada does not recognize the right to a healthy environment. Environmental health as a fundamental right is in fact not a new concept, as environmentalist Rachel Carson first suggested it while testifying before President John F. Kennedy’s Scientific Advisory Committee in the early 1960s. Carson’s suggestion was formally articulated in the United Nations’ 1972 Stockholm Declaration, which put forth twenty-six principles linking human rights, economic development, and the environment.11 See David R. Boyd, The Right to a Healthy Environment: Revitalizing Canada’s Constitution (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012). In its legal articulation, a healthy environment includes the right to a clean water source, clean air, and safe food. These three principles are pillars for a growing movement that has built on past successes to enshrine the right to a healthy environment in national laws around the world.

Whereas support for the conservation and preservation of natural areas is widely agreed-upon by Canadian governments at all levels, the federal government has no specific reference in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that individuals can call upon to protect their right to a healthy environment. The Blue Dot Movement is a national campaign striving to amend the Charter to include the right to a clean environment in Canadian law. This campaign would benefit all Canadian citizens, but Blue Dot Movement proponents note its distinct urgency for Indigenous nations who are regularly denied the right to clean water.

The Blue Dot Movement has partnered with numerous organizations to advance their cause. One such partner, Ecojustice, is no stranger to the environmental loopholes of the current laws, as they have fought for environmental rights and responsibilities in the Canadian legal system for the last twenty-five years. Partnering with Ecojustice has empowered Blue Dot to gain professional legal advice that sets them on a proven path to amending the Charter. In suggesting what to ask for, how to speak to MPs or partners, and how to proceed from a legal standpoint, Ecojustice serves as an essential partner to the movement. This legal footing allows for any signatories to the petition to feel comfortable signing and volunteering for the cause, as they know their legal rights to a healthy environment are a top priority. Any individual who signs the petition at events, online, or at Blue Dot community discussions is asked to share their knowledge of the movement with others, thereby gaining more citizen support to advance this legal battle.

With the increasing pace of climate change being manifest in droughts, heatwaves, floods, and forest fires, Blue Dot’s push comes at a key moment of national necessity. The urgency of the crisis is deepened by the fact that Canadian citizens continue to maintain the seventh-largest per-capita ecological footprint in the world.22Ibid. Blue Dot’s work in Canada draws its legal framework from Norway and Costa Rica, two nations that have already successfully amended their constitutions. At the provincial level across the country, Canada currently does uphold procedural environmental rights: the right to information about decisions impacting the environment, the right to participate in decision-making, and judicial rights in cases where rights have been violated. However, the federal government still excludes substantive rights to clean air, clean water, and safe food. With a strong pairing of procedural and substantive rights, the Blue Dot Movement believes a state-led legal entrenchment of human and environmental health, alongside a population who can monitor and engage with decision-making processes, will ultimately ensure government accountability.

Across Canada, Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by the lack of federal recognition of environmental rights. Thousands of Indigenous people on reserves nationwide either lack access to clean water, or face continuous boil-water advisories due to contaminants in their water supply.33While the current government has prioritized removing boil-water advisories, recent data show that few have been eliminated. Indigenous Services Canada reports that seventy-eight advisories have been rescinded since November 2015, but there remain more than thirty new advisories from the past few years, and over sixty-two long-term advisories that remain outstanding. See Matthew McClearn, “Liberal Cut Reserves’ Boil Advisories, but Water-system Problems Linger,” The Globe and Mail, 28 January 2019, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ottawa-says-its-on-track-to-end-drinking-water-advisories-on-reserves. Six Nations of the Grand River, just one hour from Mississauga and close to Canada’s most densely populated areas, is a local example among the many Indigenous communities that deal with this issue every day. The right to water and sanitation is both just and enforceable, yet about four out of five homes on Six Nations reserve territory do not have access to clean water, meaning they must buy it from off-reserve providers.44See Maude Barlow, Boiling Point: Government Neglect, Corporate Abuse, and Canada’s Water Crisis (Toronto: ECW Press, 2016). Blue Dot’s legal struggle aims to change the conditions of water and food insecurity in Canada, which will support Indigenous communities’ ability to call for accountability from the federal government. If the movement proves successful, Canada would be legally bound to ensure the right to safe drinking water, and third parties who endanger water supplies could be held accountable. Blue Dot’s proposed amendment to the Charter would empower Indigenous communities to protect their waters and lands through Canadian law.

By amending the Charter to include the right to a healthy environment, Canada would join over 140 nations, such as Egypt, Iceland, Libya, Norway, and Sweden that enjoy the constitutional liberties to clean air, safe water, fertile soil, and healthy ecosystems.55Boyd, The Right to a Healthy Environment. The Blue Dot Movement is actively informing citizens of their lack of rights and leading them to advocate for a better environment. With over 100,000 petition signatories (including more than 100 MPs and 174 municipalities), the Blue Dot has already garnered major support. Constitutional change is becoming closer to reality with the advancement of party platform commitments to federal environmental rights, and the Liberal party’s resolution to support the federal Environmental Bill of Rights.66Personal correspondence with Elizabeth Sarjeant, Ontario Organizer for the Blue Dot Movement, Environmental Rights, 27 May 2019.

In their most recent bid, Blue Dot led a campaign to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, with the right to a healthy environment as one of their 87 recommended Act revisions. The federal government ultimately denied all recommendations and decided not to amend the Act. Blue Dot’s campaign was still a major success, however, as Environment and Climate Change Canada first officially acknowledged that the right to a healthy environment will likely be recognized in its future plans and in the upcoming election.77Ibid. With this recent success, Blue Dot’s campaign demonstrates growing momentum for advancing environmental protections and human rights in Canada.