Newfoundland Recycling Limited v. Newfoundland & Labrador (Attorney General), 2009 NLCA 28 (CanLII)

This application for leave to appeal was considered by the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador (Court of Appeal).

In 2004, Newfoundland Recycling Limited was convicted in Provincial Court under s. 36(3) of the federal Fisheries Act for having polluted a fish habitat with oil. The company had moored a fishing vessel that it intended to scrap. The vessel sank before the scrapping process was completed, and oil drums on board the vessel leaked 375 gallons of contaminant, mostly oil, into the water.

Newfoundland Recycling Limited appealed the conviction and sentence, and the case came to the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador. There, the Court affirmed that pollution is a strict liability offence—an offence that does not require proof of intention or wilful wrongdoing—and that Newfoundland Recycling Limited was liable for the pollution that resulted from the sinking of the vessel.

When Newfoundland Recycling Limited sought leave to appeal to the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal, leave to appeal was denied. Summary convictions under the Fisheries Act can only be appealed in courts of appeal if the legal issues at stake are questions of law alone, and if the grounds of appeal have either a “reasonable possibility of success” or significance to “the administration of justice.” Since Newfoundland Recycling Limited’s reasons for appeal did not meet those tests, the Court held that the company should not be given leave to appeal its case a second time.

To read about this case in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador (Trial Division), go to Newfoundland Recycling v. Her Majesty the Queen (Attorney General for Canada), 2008 NLTD 38 (CanLII).

View the Decision on CanLII: https://www.canlii.org/en/nl/nlca/doc/2009/2009nlca28/2009nlca28.html

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