On April 27, we stood in court as members of the Likhts’amisyu Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation to defend our claim that Canada can be held legally accountable for failing to meet its own climate commitments. Misdzi Yikh v. Canada is not just another environmental lawsuit. It is a test of whether climate pledges — repeated on the world stage — carry real obligations at home. 

The federal government, for its part, has now attempted three times to have our case dismissed before it can even be heard in full. If the federal government is confident in its climate record, why work so hard to avoid scrutiny? 

The facts underlying the case are not particularly controversial. 

In 2015, Canada joined nearly every country on Earth in adopting the Paris Agreement, committing to limit global warming to well below 2°C. Yet more than a decade later, the gap between ambition and action remains stark. Canada’s emissions stood at 694 megatonnes in 2023, far above the already inadequate 2030 target range of 419 to 457 megatonnes promised to the UN as its so-called Nationally Determined Contribution. Even the federal environment commissioner has acknowledged that current policies are........

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