The federal government will appeal a recent Federal Court ruling that struck down a cabinet order underlying Ottawa's ban of some single-use plastics, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Monday.
The said Ottawa had overstepped by labelling all "plastic manufactured items" as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
Evidence shows "thousands" of different items in that category have different uses and chemical makeups, and there is no evidence all of them can harm human health or the environment, Justice Angela Furlanetto found.
The ruling itself did not undo the government's ban on the manufacture and import of six single-use plastics -- stir sticks, straws, grocery bags, cutlery, takeout containers and six-pack beverage rings.
The designation of toxicity is necessary for the government to regulate substances, however, so without it the federal regulations would have to be rolled back.
Guilbeault said he's determined to make sure that doesn't happen.
"The body of scientific evidence showing the impacts on human health, on the environment, of plastic pollution is undebatable," he said.
The government has been taking steps to eliminate plastic waste by 2030, aiming to take items that are difficult to recycle out of existence entirely, while making sure the rest are recyclable or reusable.
The existing ban on manufacturing most impacted items went into effect in December 2022, with plans to prohibit their sale next month. The manufacture of six-pack rings was banned in June, with their sale to be banned in June 2024.
The court challenge was brought by the Responsible Plastic Use Coalition, which represents plastics companies that do business in Canada, and three chemical companies that produce the materials.
The coalition has said it is "supportive" of the judge's decision.
"In the interest of Canadians who rely on plastic products that are essential to everyday life, we believe that the federal government and industry can work collaboratively to reduce plastic waste," it said in a statement.
Some municipalities and provinces have implemented their own bans on plastics, including P.E.I. and B.C. Provincial policies are not impacted by the ruling.
Furlanetto's decision left room for the government to ban just the items it wants by designating individual items as toxic, rather than manufactured plastic items as a whole.
The government chose those six items to ban, said Guilbeault, because they have alternatives on the market already and are among the most prevalent. They generally represent just three per cent of plastic waste.
In 2019 a Canadian report on plastics said over three million tonnes of plastic is thrown away each year and less than one-tenth of it is actually recycled.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2023.
It's been a long and emotional journey for Manitoba residential school survivor Susan Caribou. Her niece, Tanya Nepinak, has been missing since September 2011 and has never been found.
Chinese hackers targeted cellphones used by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, his running mate, JD Vance, and people associated with the Democratic campaign of Kamala Harris, people familiar with the matter said Friday.
Ontario will not allow international students in medical schools beginning in the fall of 2026, and will also cover tuition for more than 1,000 students who commit to becoming a family doctor in Ontario, Premier Doug Ford said Friday.
A B.C. nurse has been suspended for one week for diverting narcotics from their workplace and using them personally, according to the regulatory body for the profession.
A former Alberta teacher has been sentenced to four years for sexually abusing a student.
Polish authorities have arrested four individuals they allege planned to send parcels containing camouflaged explosives and dangerous materials to Canada and the United States, according to Poland鈥檚 government website.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of major government contractor SpaceX and a key ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the last two years, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Investigators have determined that a skull discovered in the wall of an Illinois home in 1978 was that of an Indiana teenager who died more than 150 years ago, authorities announced Thursday.
Winnipeg police are looking for a suspect after a woman's dorm room was broken into at the U of M and she was assaulted.
It's been a long and emotional journey for Manitoba residential school survivor Susan Caribou. Her niece, Tanya Nepinak, has been missing since September 2011 and has never been found.
A former Alberta teacher has been sentenced to four years for sexually abusing a student.
A B.C. nurse has been suspended for one week for diverting narcotics from their workplace and using them personally, according to the regulatory body for the profession.
A Montreal man is charged with first-degree murder in connection to the stabbing death of a woman at a park in Ottawa鈥檚 south end on Thursday.
A 77-year-old Kansas man who died in a western Newfoundland hotel fire was fulfilling a dream of hunting a moose 鈥 and his daughter says he got one.
The GoFundMe page for the family of an employee found dead at a Halifax Walmart last weekend has paused donations after almost $200,000 was raised in roughly 24 hours.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday formally apologized to native Americans for the 'sin' of a government-run boarding school system that for decades forcibly separated children from their parents, calling it a 'blot on American history' in his first presidential visit to Indian Country.
Chinese hackers targeted cellphones used by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, his running mate, JD Vance, and people associated with the Democratic campaign of Kamala Harris, people familiar with the matter said Friday.
Israeli strikes on residential areas in southern Gaza killed 38 people on Friday, Palestinian health officials said, including 13 children from the same extended family.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of major government contractor SpaceX and a key ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the last two years, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Investigators have determined that a skull discovered in the wall of an Illinois home in 1978 was that of an Indiana teenager who died more than 150 years ago, authorities announced Thursday.
Two adults and two children were found dead in the charred rubble of a house fire after a mother and another child jumped from a third-floor window to escape flames in a southwest Las Vegas neighborhood, authorities said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada strongly condemns a new surge in gang violence in Haiti.
Canada's long-held consensus on immigration is under threat but has not disappeared, the immigration minister said in an interview after announcing a major cut to the number of newcomers to Canada.
A Quebec mother of six, once detained in northeast Syria, has died while waiting for repatriation. The Canadian woman was known only by her initials F.J.
Children who have coughs that go on for weeks may have a type of walking pneumonia that鈥檚 been surging in the U.S. this year, and they may need a different antibiotic regimen to treat it, infectious disease experts say.
The number of people infected by the E. coli outbreak tied to McDonald's Quarter Pounder hamburgers increased to 75 from 49, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.
Understanding the common symptoms of a cold or flu can help you make an informed choice about treatment. Here鈥檚 what to know about each illnesses鈥 symptoms and when it鈥檚 time for a doctor visit.
The search for a popular tortoise that went missing from his home in Piedmont is over after his owner said he came home.
Most people have accumulated a pile of data -- selfies, emails, videos and more -- on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
A Florida mother has sued artificial intelligence chatbot startup Character.AI, accusing it of causing her 14-year-old son's suicide in February and saying he became addicted to the company's service and deeply attached to a chatbot it created.
Phil Lesh, a classically trained violinist and jazz trumpeter who found his true calling reinventing the role of rock bass guitar as a founding member of the Grateful Dead, died Friday at age 84.
A New Mexico judge has upheld her decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
Tom Holland is getting ready to don his Spidey suit again. The fourth installment of the blockbuster series has been set for a July 2026 release, Sony Pictures said Friday.
Natural gas producers in Western Canada have white-knuckled it through months of depressed prices, with the expectation that their fortunes will improve when LNG Canada comes online in the middle of next year.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says the world has become more prone to supply shocks which create more risks to inflation, but the central bank is in a better place to deal with them now that inflation is under control.
The former longtime CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch pleaded not guilty Friday to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges.
Archeologists have uncovered a tiny house in Pompeii that is filled with elaborate 鈥 and sometimes erotic 鈥 frescoes, further revealing the ornate way in which Romans decorated their homes.
In early 2018, Amanda and Sunil started chatting, messaging back and forth on Instagram, introducing themselves and talking a little about their lives. Fast forward to August 2018, the couple got engaged on vacation in Thailand and a year later, after Amanda moved to India, got married.
A Toronto man who only recently checked a Lotto 6/49 lottery ticket he bought back in June is now $2.5 million richer.
A Sherpa teenager who's won mountaineering celebrity as the youngest person ever to summit the world's 14 highest peaks called for Sherpas to be recognized as athletes and expedition leaders as well as porters and guides.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored the winning goal 1:26 into overtime, and the Winnipeg Jets remained unbeaten this season with a 4-3 win over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.
Broadway vs. Hollywood has produced the starriest Series in decades, if not ever.
A town in southern Alberta will be one of the first to let golf carts be driven on select roads as part of a provincial pilot program.
An increased risk of fire has prompted the recall of thousands of Honda hybrid vehicles in Canada.
A senior executive for Volkswagen in China has been deported for allegedly using cocaine and marijuana while on vacation in Thailand, according to Chinese authorities and German media reports.
A new resident at a Manitoba animal rescue has waddled her way into people's hearts.
Hundreds of people ran to the music of German composer and pianist Beethoven Wednesday night in a unique race in Halifax.
He is a familiar face to residents of a neighbourhood just west of Roncesvalles Avenue.
A meteor lit up our region's sky last night 鈥 with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.
Residents of Ottawa's Rideauview neighbourhood say an aggressive wild turkey has become a problem.
A man who lost his life while trying to rescue people from floodwaters, and a 13-year-old boy who saved his family from a dog attack, are among the Nova Scotians who received a medal for bravery Tuesday.
A newly minted Winnipegger is hoping a world record attempt will help bring awareness for the need for more pump track facilities in the city.
A Springfield, Ont. man is being hailed a 'hero' after running into his burning home to save his two infant children.
Hortense Anglin was the oldest graduate to make her way across the platform at York University's Fall Convocation ceremony this week. At the age of 87, she graduated with an Honours degree in Religious Studies.
Video has surfaced on social media of a fight on a Burnaby golf course earlier this month, wherein a man appears to strike a fellow golfer with his club.
Employers and the union representing foremen at British Columbia's ports will return to the negotiating table next week with a mediator in the latest push for a resolution in the labour dispute.
Mounties in Nanaimo are asking the public for help as they investigate a fatal hit-and-run collision that killed a man southeast of the city Thursday evening.
Police say they are searching for a second suspect wanted in connection with the murder of a 37-year-old Brampton man who was shot to death in Toronto last month.
An infant has died and a woman is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after they were pulled from a burning home in the city's west end overnight.
Five years after a 16-year-old boy was intentionally struck by a vehicle in East York and left for dead, police say they are still searching for the driver and pleading for the passenger to speak to investigators.
The Alberta legislature is set to reconvene on Monday and the Danielle Smith government will be providing more details about its plans for the session.
An investigation into the death of a man in Calgary police custody earlier this month has concluded that officers did not contribute to his death and that he was cared for properly.
In the face of danger some people might panic or freeze up, but that wasn鈥檛 the case for 10 young Calgarians who were recognized Friday for their incredible efforts to call 911 during emergency incidents.
A Montreal man is charged with first-degree murder in connection to the stabbing death of a woman at a park in Ottawa鈥檚 south end on Thursday.
An unusual item was found parked at the bottom of the historic Rideau Canal as Parks Canada drained the water this week 鈥 electric scooters.
One person is dead after a crash involving an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) in eastern Ontario. Frontenac County OPP responded to a crash involving an ATV on a trail in Ardoch, Ont., 30 km north of Sharbot Lake.
Quebec's social services minister says he's outraged by reports that educators at a detention centre for youth in Montreal had sexual relations with minor detainees 鈥 and that one of the employees allegedly had a baby with a teenage resident.
A man and a woman are dead after a house fire west of the Island of Montreal in the municipality of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.
Infectious disease specialists are concerned about a rise in the number of 'walking pneumonia' cases and that the disease is appearing in younger children.
A former Alberta teacher has been sentenced to four years for sexually abusing a student.
Edmonton Oilers alumni Randy Gregg and Craig MacTavish were celebrated Friday morning ahead of their induction into the team's hall of fame in the evening.
Although Edmonton City Hall is a stone鈥檚 throw from the Alberta Legislature, Oil City feels the need to hire a third party to get its voice heard by the UCP government.
The GoFundMe page for the family of an employee found dead at a Halifax Walmart last weekend has paused donations after almost $200,000 was raised in roughly 24 hours.
Gas prices dropped slightly in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick overnight, while there was no change on Prince Edward Island for the second week in a row.
The Halifax Regional Municipality will soon be home to three new schools that will replace aging infrastructure and meet the new demands of the communities.
Winnipeg police are looking for a suspect after a woman's dorm room was broken into at the U of M and she was assaulted.
The U.S. presidential election between Vice-President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump is attracting interest north of the border.
Winnipeg police are concerned about the well-being of a teenage girl who has been missing for two weeks.
Saturday will mark the end of the CFL regular season, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders will have their eyes on Winnipeg鈥檚 matchup versus Montreal to know if they have a chance of clinching the West Division.
The police watchdog group Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) has been deployed to Fort Qu'Appelle after a person went into medical distress while in custody on Friday.
As the final day of voting for the Saskatchewan election inches closer, voters may be wondering when official winners will be declared.
Geovanny Villalba-Aleman, the man who stabbed three people in a gender studies class at the University of Waterloo, says he 鈥榓cted dumb鈥.
People in the Weber Street East and Madison Avenue North area of Kitchener may need to find an alternate route this morning as police investigate a stabbing.
Fire crews responded to a house fire in St. Clements Thursday night.
Police have still not confirmed the identity of a body discovered in Prince Albert last week.
A 31-year-old man has been charged with arson following multiple fires that were deliberately set in the Mayfair neighbourhood on Thursday morning.
As the final day of voting for the Saskatchewan election inches closer, voters may be wondering when official winners will be declared.
Two people 鈥 one from Timmins, the other from Kapuskasing -- have been fined more than $7,000 for camping violations, including empty septic tanks directly onto the ground.
The roadway is now open after a school bus was involved in a collision Friday at the intersection of MR80 and Valleyview Road in the Valley East area of Greater Sudbury.
A former Alberta teacher has been sentenced to four years for sexually abusing a student.
Just after 2:00 p.m. on Friday, October 25, London police took 28 year old Cody M Leblanc Ashe into custody, after he was located in the area of Grosvenor and Harley streets.
A new staff report calls for homeless encampments to be allowed even closer to residential neighbourhoods, reducing the buffer zone from 100 metres to 25 metres.
On Wednesday afternoon just before 4:30 p.m., a man and woman entered a business in the area of Oxford Street East and Highbury Avenue North.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford blasted a recent vote by County of Simcoe council to instill pay increases for councillors during an unrelated news conference Friday morning.
As Barrie faces a housing shortfall, builders are looking to the skies, developing condo towers, including one that stands out unlike anything the city has ever seen.
A 15-year veteran officer with the South Simcoe Police Service has been charged with discreditable conduct following an allegation of sexual assault.
The Windsor Police Service is investigating a suspicious death in south-central Windsor.
A Harrow school is memorializing two students and their mother, who were tragically killed in June.
With Halloween just around the corner, there are plenty of spooktacular events in Windsor-Essex this weekend.
Environment Canada has issued wind warnings for Metro Vancouver and much of Vancouver Island as a storm system is expected to ravage British Columbia's south coast.
Search and rescue crews are working against the clock Friday, trying to locate the body of a man who went missing near the Coquitlam River.
A B.C. nurse has been suspended for one week for diverting narcotics from their workplace and using them personally, according to the regulatory body for the profession.
Dave Lindsey began growing giant pumpkins to bring a bit of magic to his grandkids' Halloween.
A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada.
Nearly two years after a man was stabbed to death in downtown Kelowna, RCMP have made an arrest in the case.
The City of Lethbridge is bringing forward a water conservation policy, the first of its kind for the city.
The Royal Canadian Legion General Stewart Branch is getting ready to launch its annual poppy campaign this weekend.
An investigation is underway after a motorcycle collision Thursday night that left one man dead.
The Anishinabek Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police are investigating the circumstances around a death in Fort William First Nation.
A 44-year-old suspect has been charged after police in Sault Ste. Marie spotted a vehicle running in a parking lot Thursday night.
Two Americans who veered into the Canadian side of Lake Huron and caught fish during the National Walleye Tour last year have been fined by an Ontario court.
Investigators found the remains of a 77-year-old American man on Wednesday at the scene of a fire that destroyed a hotel in western Newfoundland earlier on the weekend.
Police in western Newfoundland say a 77-year-old man visiting the province from Kansas is missing after a fire at a hotel in Deer Lake, N.L.
At 2 p.m. on Thursday, the scene at the Lions Club in Clarenville, N.L., rivalled any rowdy St. John's bar that thumps with music late on a weekend night.
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