Environmental justice in Canada: An application to a First Nations' struggle to protect caribou from coal mining in northeast British Columbia.

In the United States of America, the field of environmental justice has become an important consideration in land use planning and natural resource management decisions regarding the protection of minorities. Within Canada, however, the field of environmental justice is not part of the legislative or policy regime used in environmental decision making. The focus of this study was to incorporate environmental justice into a situation in Canada involving a First Nation and a land and natural resource conflict. A phenomenology study design and a content analysis of the existing data were used to develop and apply the equality framework to a recent land use conflict between West Moberly First Nations and the Provincial Government of British Columbia. The results demonstrated that environmental justice can be incorporated into a Canadian context. When applied to the land use conflict, the equality framework demonstrated that the decisions made by the government to permit a coal mining company to destroy the critical habitat of a threatened herd of caribou were tantamount to an environmental injustice for the First Nation. The study concludes by discussing the differences of environmental justice as developed America in comparison to Canada, the challenges that associated with incorporation, and potential future applications and frameworks. --P. 2.