'When someone changes the rules mid-game, it's usually because they're losing': Ford rewrites climate laws a week before youth Charter case goes to trial

“When someone has to change the rules mid-game, it's usually because they're losing.” 

That’s the frank assessment of Ecojustice lawyer Fraser Thomson, who is leading the litigation in the already groundbreaking case against the Ontario government.

The long-anticipated Mathur hearing was set for December 1 and 2 at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, where the Doug Ford government would have had to finally answer for its climate record to the seven youth plaintiffs who are demanding a healthy future through stronger climate action in Ontario, with climate targets that are accountable to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The seven plaintiffs with their lawyer. The Mathur case will now be delayed due to a last minute legislative move by Doug Ford’s PC government.

(Ecojustice)

Due to an “unexpected development”, the court adjourned the December 1 hearing to allow all parties and the Court to assess the implications of the Progressive Conservative government’s last-minute legislative move.

On November 25, just days before arguments were set to begin, the government passed Bill 68, the Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures) with little to no debate, repealing sections 3 to 5 of the Cap and Trade Cancellation Act, 2018, the province’s only legal requirements to set greenhouse-gas-reduction targets and to create and publicly report on a provincial climate plan.

“It's difficult to see what the Ford government has done here as anything other than a clear attempt by them to skirt accountability on their climate record,” Thomson told The Pointer.

Despite Queen’s Park increasing funding for the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks to just over $1 billion for 2025-26, up from $862 million the previous year, the province’s decision to drop the sustainability act has left environmental advocates and experts bewildered who argue while the one-time budget increase may reflect the resources needed to unwind some of the ministry’s most critical initiatives, without a clear climate plan, the boost is largely symbolic, especially in light of the rapid erosion of environmental legislation over Doug Ford’s 6.5 years in office. Ontario’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, on the other hand, has been allocated over $8 billion, along with legislation like Bill 5 pushed forward to make opening new mining operations easier as part of the Fall Economic Statement.

(Government of Ontario)

As both Queen’s Park and Ottawa propel economic progress at the cost of backtracking on environmental policies, 18-year-old climate activist and lead plaintiff Sophia Mathur reminded governments what’s at stake.

“When you’re seven, climate action isn’t just policy, it’s a promise. A promise that the world I grow up in will be safe and beautiful and alive,” Mathur said at the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee on October 30.

“While the devastation of climate change is real and frightening — fires, floods, smoke-filled summers — I don’t want my generation’s story [to] be one of despair, I want it to be one of accountability and courage. Efficiency, costs, and timelines aren’t just numbers; they represent people’s lives…that complexity can’t be an excuse of inaction.”

She asked how long climate policy will be “too hard to advertise in political campaigns” and how long the “global crisis” will be rewritten as “partisan”?

In November 2019, seven young activists, led by Sophia Mathur and Madison Van Dyck, challenged Ontario's reduced climate targets, claiming they violated their Charter rights to life, liberty, and security. In 2020, the Ontario government tried to have the case dismissed, but the court ruled that climate change could violate Charter rights, allowing the case to proceed. The hearing in September 2022 saw Justice Marie-Andrée Vermette side with the government, though she criticized Ontario's emissions plan. In October 2024, the Ontario Court of Appeal reversed the decision, ruling that Ontario’s climate targets must comply with the Charter, sending the case back to the Superior Court. In December 2024, Ontario Premier Doug Ford appealed to the Supreme Court, but on May 1, 2025, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, upholding the Appeal Court's decision. On November 25, the Ford government abandoned its requirements to have emissions targets, a climate plan and report progress to the public; the following day, Ecojustice announced the Mathurs case had been adjourned.

(The Pointer/Canva)

The seven young applicants have dedicated six years of their lives to this precedent-setting case, years in which they have graduated high school, completed university, started careers, and even begun thinking about starting families.

“In many ways, the seven of us have grown up together as this case has made its way through the courts,” one of the applicants, Madison Van Dyck, said during a press conference on November 26.

Van Dyck, who joined the case because of her love for Lake Superior, the place that has shaped her life and her community, expressed that while their lives have changed, so too have the impacts of climate change, “and not for the better in northern Ontario.”

The 29-year-old, who lives in an off-grid cabin and is closely attuned to the rhythms of the land, water, and seasons.

“I witnessed how the spring melt is reshaping our life, how the changing climate is disrupting fish spawns and impacting the habitats that our community and cultures depend on,” she said.

“I've watched erratic and unpredictable weather become the new normal, from sudden heat waves to torrential rain across the region.”

Like a true Canadian, she says she has always loved ice skating and playing hockey, but in recent years, warmer winters have made outdoor rinks unreliable

“There are a few winters where we just actually couldn't play outside, and that was really devastating to me,” Van Dyck said. 

“Playing outdoor [on a] rink on a lake is something that I maybe took for granted and when I think that that's not something that is maybe going to be in our future, really is frightening for me.”

Living among moose, bears, and wolves, she has also observed shifts in wildlife patterns: The bears are staying up longer, still “looking for food” when they should be asleep.

Her love for nature and desire to make a difference led her to pursue a degree in forestry, which has taken her across Canada and, last summer, even into the Yukon, where she flew over stretches of beetle-killed forests and endless wildfire scars that “go on forever.” 

“Those are things that keep me up at night, honestly,” Van Dyck said with a heavy heart.

Forest fires are threatening and destroying huge swaths of the boreal forest where she lives and works. 

The Government of Canada has acknowledged that “2025 has been the second-worst wildfire season in Canadian history, with more than 6,000 wildfires in nearly every province and territory, impacting communities across the country and burning over 8.3 million hectares.”

How does that look for Canadians? Van Dyck knows a thing or two about that. She experienced the reality of the climate emergency firsthand, breathing heavy wildfire smoke, preparing emergency evacuation plans while living with the “constant awareness” that the environment that once “nurtured” her as a child is “no longer stable”. 

“And that's why I turned to the courts,” she said.

Experts point out that amendments to the Cap and Trade Cancellation Act were “deeply buried” in Bill 68 and never listed on Ontario’s Environmental Registry, cutting Ontarians out of the feedback process entirely.

“We are speeding down a highway with no map and no exit strategy,” Greenpeace Canada’s legal counsel Priyanka Vittal said.

“How is the government expecting results to magically happen…without a strategy, accountability or a plan?”

In September, Ontario’s Auditor General warned in a scathing report the province is not on track to meet its 2030 climate target and may be even further behind than the government estimates. 

Ontario’s goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, which means dropping from 202.4 megatonnes in 2005 to 141.7 megatonnes by the end of the decade. To get there, the province still needs to reduce another 17 megatonnes from where emissions stood in 2023, equivalent to taking 3.7 million fossil-fuelled cars and nearly half of all passenger vehicles in Ontario off the road. 

How is the province planning to do that when it is encouraging induced demand by pushing environmentally destructive, costly highway projects like Highway 413, 401 tunnel and the Bradford Bypass? 

Well, it doesn’t. A January 2025 projection from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks shows the province will fall short by over 3.5 megatonnes.

A recent Ontario Auditor General report highlights the province is set to miss its 2030 climate target, contrary to the government’s claims. The report noted that because the government’s emissions forecast relies on assumptions and policies that are highly uncertain, outdated, or unlikely to be fully implemented, there is a strong likelihood the province’s actual emissions will be even higher than projected, widening the gap well beyond 3.5 megatonnes.

(Auditor General of Ontario)

In April 2023, when Ontario Superior Court Justice Marie-Andrée Vermette agreed with the youth applicants on many fronts but ultimately sided with the province's argument that the case was based on provincial obligations not yet recognized under the Charter, she harshly criticized the province’s emissions plan, calling the gap between Ontario’s targets and global reduction needs “large, unexplained and without any apparent scientific basis.”

The Auditor General recommended that the province report annually to the public on progress made to reduce GHG emissions in Ontario, including updates on the implementation of initiatives taken to reduce GHG emissions and the status of Ontario’s GHG emissions.

Two months later, the Ford government ripped the legislation apart.

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) President Dr. Samantha Green shared that as a physician, she has been witnessing firsthand how the climate crisis is harming health, particularly among vulnerable populations, noting extreme heat is a “medical emergency” for her patients, young children, older adults, pregnant individuals, and those with chronic illnesses.

A 2021 Canadian Climate Institute report noted climate change could cost Canada billions in health-related impacts, projecting that heat-related deaths and illnesses may cost between $3.0 billion and $3.9 billion annually by mid-century with additional expenses including potential healthcare costs from ground-level ozone at around $1 billion per year, and premature deaths linked to ozone exposure exceeding $300 billion annually by 2080 under a high-emissions scenario. “I think it's evident that climate policy has costs, but so does climate change, and just because I cannot give you the exact amount of money that climate change will cost, that doesn't mean it will not get worse,” Sophia Mathur said at the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee on October 30.

(Canadian Climate Institute)

“Climate change is a threat multiplier, deepening existing inequities and exposing those with the fewest resources to the greatest risks. And this crisis is not only about my patients today, it is also about intergenerational health,” Green warned.

“When governments reduce emissions, invest in clean energy, protect natural spaces and design communities that support active transportation, they are not just fighting climate change, they are preventing illness, reducing health care costs and saving lives.”

Summer and extreme heat aren’t the only challenges Canadians face, winter is set to bring its own set of problems this year.

A rare early stratospheric warming (SSW) high above the Arctic is threatening to disrupt the polar vortex, the large circulation of cold air that normally stays locked near the North Pole. Experts warn the sudden warming can weaken and displace the vortex, pushing Arctic air southward across North America, Europe, and Asia. 

The Weather Network Meteorologist Tyler Hamilton warns as the disruption descends from the upper stratosphere to the lower stratosphere and couples with the troposphere, where daily weather forms, Canadians can expect a higher likelihood of Arctic air intrusions, blocking highs, and a wavier jet stream, creating a winter that is more extreme, unpredictable, and potentially colder than usual into early 2026.

Historically, only three November SSW events have been recorded in the past 70 years, and in those cases, December often trended frigid in parts of Canada, Hamilton confirmed. 

“I hear from the elders about how things used to be and grieve what we've already lost, but that grief fuels my determination to take action for the generations on their way,” another applicant, North Bay resident Shaelyn Wabegijig, who is 28 years old now, said.

Wabegijig is watching the “devastation” in real time as the rapid spread of black ash borer insects, moving farther north as the climate warms, are stripping away the black ash trees her community relies on to make baskets. 

“I just had the opportunity to take part in harvesting the tree and building the baskets. And we are facing that real threat that we might not have these trees to create our baskets from anymore,” she said.

For her and her community, the glaring reality is clear: when the land’s hands dry out, when the species Indigenous communities depend on disappear, it reshapes everything, from their ability to live on the land as they always have, to harvest, to create, to practise their rights and culture.

Citing sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the activists argue that children are disproportionately impacted by climate change, facing poor air quality, mental health challenges, and the prospect of enduring the harshest consequences of environmental degradation throughout their lives unless strong action is taken.

“When government actions that drive climate change and threaten our lives and health violate our charter-protected rights, the courts have a duty to step in,” Thomson said.

“For Ontarians, Canadians and people around the world, this case and cases like it have been a beacon of hope in a world plagued with government indifference to the growing climate catastrophe.”

On May 1, the young activists scored a major win when the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear Premier Doug Ford’s appeal, effectively upholding the Ontario Court of Appeal’s October 17, 2024, judgment, which overturned a previous decision that had dismissed the case, siding with the youth applicants. 

The court ruled that climate targets must align with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, sending the case, originally filed in 2019, back to Ontario’s Superior Court.

“The established law and factual findings have boxed the government into a corner and with the law and all the momentum behind them, the youth at the helm of this case were optimistic that the government would finally be held to account,” Thomson highlighted.

“Disappointingly, although perhaps not surprisingly, the Ford government has yet again chosen to pull out all the stops to avoid accountability. Rather than tackling the real threat, the climate crisis, they're focused on saving face.”

On December 2, the Ontario Auditor General is expected to release a new report on the provincial government’s handling of the Environmental Bill of Rights 1993.

Thomson’s legal team is looking forward to the upcoming report, as they have “relied on the Auditor General's reports in the past in building the case and showing that this government is failing to act on the climate crisis.”

Nader Hasan, partner at Stockwoods LLP and lead counsel to the applicants, says the Ford government might have moved the “goalpost” forward but it is important to note that Charter rights “don't disappear when a government repeals legislation.” 

“The rights guaranteed under the charter exist independently of any legislation,” Hasan said confidently.  “And rest assured, the charter isn't going anywhere, and neither are our clients.”

On December 16, the Ontario government filed for leave at the Supreme Court of Canada to appeal the Court of Appeal’s ruling that climate targets are subject to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Ecojustice lawyer Richard Thompson had previously explained in an interview with The Pointer that this process requires a party to convince the Supreme Court that their case is of national importance, something only a small fraction of applicants achieve. The Supreme Court of Canada had ruled in favour of the seven applicants.

(Ecojustice)

Despite numerous attempts over the last six years by the Ford government to have the case dismissed, this case has made “legal history at every turn”. 

“It was the first case to rule that charter climate litigation is justiciable before the courts, and it was the first charter climate case to ever be heard on its merits,” he said.

It also marked the first case to affirm what the science has been calling attention to for years: the climate crisis threatens the lives and well-being of countless Ontarians, and this risk is exacerbated by the province’s failure to reduce its emissions.

“I'm certain that the Ontario government is aware of the devastating realities of the climate crisis. They have a responsibility to us, the people they serve. They must listen to the land, the science, indigenous peoples and young people and the courts, all of these voices are speaking the same truth,” Wabegijig said.

“I have a responsibility to protect the sacred land and waters that nourish us and should nourish our children and grandchildren. This responsibility is older than any government. It comes from the land.”

She says it is disappointing to watch the Ford government trying to run away from its “responsibility entirely by removing the law” that required them to set targets at a time when they should be “fixing” it.

“This government needs to do more. We believe they should not be allowed to get away with doing less,” Wabegijig noted.

The lawyers will be appearing in court on December 1 to schedule the next phase of the hearing.

Van Dyck believes it's “only a matter of time” before the Ontario government will have to “finally face the music for its shameful record.” 

Email: [email protected]

At a time when vital public information is needed by everyone, The Pointer has taken down our paywall on all stories to ensure every resident of Brampton, Mississauga and Niagara has access to the facts. For those who are able, we encourage you to consider a subscription. This will help us report on important public interest issues the community needs to know about now more than ever. You can register for a 30-day free trial HERE. Thereafter, The Pointer will charge $10 a month and you can cancel any time right on the website. Thank you