Known for its tough stance against environmental indiscretion, the non-profit environmental law organization Ecojustice has expanded into the province of Alberta to help combat big polluters. Lawyer Barry Robinson will head its new Calgary office, located at 715 Fifth Ave. S.W.

Devon Page, the executive director of Ecojustice, says that Alberta has been a priority for the company for about five years. “We did a strategic planning workshop, part of which was focused on identifying environmental priorities down the road for Ecojustice, and Alberta kept popping to the top of the list,” says Page. He says that one of the group’s main concerns is the unregulated expansion of the tar sands.

“We put in place a planning process and undertook an assessment of environmental needs in the province, and it reconfirmed that as far as expanding our presence in Canada goes, Alberta should be at the top of the list,” he says.

Ecojustice, formerly known as Sierra Legal Defence Fund, was founded in 1990 and is based in Vancouver. Earlier this year, victories for the green-minded organization included two substantial court wins against Imperial Oil’s massive Kearl oilsands project in Northern Alberta. Kearl, a proposed open-pit mine, would have stripped 200 square hectares of Boreal Forest and wetlands. The first victory took place when Ecojustice challenged a joint federal-provincial panel’s assessment, which claimed the project’s environmental impact would be insignificant. The judge ruled in favour of stalling the project until a proper review was conducted. This was the first time a joint federal-provincial panel appeal case was successful. The project was halted, and when Imperial Oil went back to court to challenge the decision, they were, again, unsuccessful.

A kickoff event will take place at 6 p.m. on October 30 in the University of Calgary’s dining centre, to celebrate the opening of Ecojustice’s new offices. “It is for supporters in Alberta that have helped us get to where we are, to let them know what the plans are and introduce them to the new lawyers,” says Page. (RT)