CELA Values Statement

Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) is a public interest law clinic dedicated to environmental equity, justice, and health. Founded in 1970, CELA is one of the oldest advocates for environmental protection in the country.

As a specialty clinic funded by Legal Aid Ontario, CELA provides free legal services relating to environmental justice in Ontario, including representing qualifying under-resourced individuals and communities in the courts and before tribunals. CELA also provides free summary advice to the public and engages in environmental legal education and law reform initiatives. CELA actively examines existing concerns related to social justice and seeks ways to improve our services to best support our clients and the public. Our focus is to give power to under-resourced and under-represented communities to ensure that under-resourced communities are not burdened with disproportionately high levels of environmental pollution and to ensure that under-served communities have access to environmental benefits programs. CELA advocates for environmental justice, which requires the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

CELA is committed to promoting reconciliation with Indigenous communities across Canada. We acknowledge that the lands and waters on which we live, and work are the traditional territories, since time immemorial, of Indigenous Peoples, including First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities. We recognize that we have a great deal to learn and reflect upon, and a significant amount of work to do to help respond to historical and ongoing environmental injustices and environmental harms imposed on Indigenous Peoples. CELA is committed to learning about Indigenous legal and governance systems, which are inherent, longstanding, and independent from the common law, civil law, and governance systems that prevail in Canada. CELA intends for our commitments to reconciliation to be dynamic, on-going and integral to all our work. For CELA’s full Commitment to Truth and Reconciliation see: https://cela.ca/commitment-to-truth-and-reconciliation/