First Nations and environmental groups are in court with the province arguing that a recently passed law is unconstitutional. The founder of one of the groups compared it as an insidious disease.
Michel Koostachin is a member of the Attawapiskat First Nation and founder of Friends of Attawapiskat River (FAR), an Indigenous group that voices concerns about the environment.
“It’s like they’re asking for environmental destruction with this Bill 5. So, when you disturb, destroy Mother Earth, the devastation is like cancer,” says Koostachin.
An effort to initiate legal action began 10 days after the bill was passed in July 2025. Koostachin joined as an intervener against Premier Doug Ford’s government, hoping to offer the court the perspective of FAR. An intervener is a third party that joins a case to provide special insight to help decide an appeal.
“We intervene because we want to say something to the government,” says Koostachin. “We’re concerned about our waterways, our animals, and our land, the environment.”
Ford’s Bill 5 is also called Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act. Under this bill, the government can speed up infrastructure development by bypassing existing laws and regulations, which includes Indigenous rights, environmental protection laws and amends several others.
Tony Morris is the conservation policy and campaigns director at Ontario Nature, an environmental conservation organization. According to Ontario Nature, there are 270 species at risk. A lack of protection for these species could throw not only the delicate web of biodiversity into chaos, but impact humans as well.
“The most significant thing of Bill 5 is that it repeals the Endangered Species Act, which was once considered the gold standard in Canada for species at risk legislation,” says Morris, “and replaces it with the far weaker Species Conservation Act.”
Morris says one animal that will be impacted is the Blanding’s turtle. Ontario Nature reports that these species of turtle are common in lakes and ponds, and often live up to 80 years old. The destruction of these bodies of water and nesting areas can lead to negative impacts on the threatened species.
“They move between wetlands and forest quite a bit. Under the new act, the only part of their habitat that would be protected would be where they nest. So they wouldn’t be able to move safely to get food or reproduce or other life functions that they need.”
Morris compares the two acts with a house. Before, any place that a species needed to complete its life process, whether it be reproduction, food, or nesting, was protected. The entire house was protected. Now, under the new Species Conservation Act, the only place protected is “essentially where they sleep.”
The bill also allows the government to make decisions around what species will be listed as protected species in Ontario according to the Environmental Registry of Ontario.
Under the new legislation, recovery strategies, which previously were mandatory for the Government to oversee, are now no longer an obligation. The Canadian Environmental Law Association reports that this means there are no safeguards for threatened species.
This authority stems from the ability to create economic zones within Ontario. According to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario website, this means a project in an economic zone will be exempt from other legal obligations and the lieutenant-governor has power to excuse specific projects from acts, regulations or by-laws.
In addition to the environmental concerns, the court case is expected to present infringements on Indigenous rights should Bill 5 proceed as is.
The Chiefs of Ontario reports that legal authority placed in the hands of a lieutenant-governor limits the involvement of First Nations communities.
This violates treaty rights and harms reconciliation.