6ix Reasons to Sue - Climate Action Litigation - a Toronto campaign
At the end of March, Greenpeace launched a new campaign in Toronto, urging City Council to explore joining the growing global wave of climate litigation. Impressive work has been accomplished in B.C. By West Coast Environmental Law.
Please check out and share this awesome explainer video about the campaign on Facebook or Twitter.
Or check out stories in the Globe and Mail or Climate Liability News.
The campaign, called 6ix Reasons to Sue, (6ix being the nickname Drake gave his hometown) calls on Toronto’s City Council to investigate what climate change will cost the city and to explore all legal options for holding oil companies accountable for their fair share of those costs. Greenpeace supported a city councillor (Mike Layton) to bring forward a motion asking the city to do just this.
Why is this a winning strategy?
Oil companies like Exxon misled the public about climate change for decades, creating a crisis that could have been prevented. Now, cities like New York, San Francisco and Baltimore are holding them accountable using the same legal strategy that won against tobacco companies that hid the health dangers of cigarettes. Tobacco companies were made to pay more than CAD$270 billion in damages.
What’s next?
The motion will come to Council on March 27 and then be sent to the April 25 meeting of the Infrastructure and Environment Committee for a vote (Contact Keith Stewart at Greenpeace if you want info on how you can make a submission or deputation to the committee).
What can you share?
We have a number of materials you can share. This is a great opportunity to show how people-powered solutions to end the oil age are spreading and that big polluters face a number of cross-border climate liability risks.
Tweet: https://twitter.com/GreenpeaceCA/status/1109087562600194048
Briefing Note: https://storage.googleapis.com/planet4-canada-stateless/2019/03/648826b4-6rts-briefing-note-final-1.pdf
