OTTAWA — Canada broke international rules when it dumped more than 100 shipping containers of garbage disguised as plastics for recycling into the Philippines six years ago, a Victoria-based environmental law firm says.
Anthony Ho, a lawyer for the Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation, said the shipments violate multiple parts of the Basel Convention, a 30-year-old treaty that prevents countries from shipping hazardous waste to the developing world without consent.
He said the fact the Canadian company that shipped the containers inaccurately described their contents "in itself makes those shipments illegal traffic under the Basel Convention."
The shipping containers arrived in Manila in 2013 and 2014.
A spot check of the contents by customs officials in the Philippines found they were not filled with recycling materials, but rather household garbage that included kitchen waste and used adult diapers.
The containers should have been shipped back to Canada within 30 days of the Canadian government being made aware of them under the convention, Ho said.
Canada's failure to take responsibility for the waste is another violation of the convention, Ho said, noting the law forbids the country of origin from transferring the obligation to properly manage the hazardous waste to the country importing it.
Canadian authorities argue the convention didn't apply at the time of the shipments because this country didn't consider the waste to be hazardous, and have been trying to get the Philippines to dispose of the contents there for the last five years.
Canada amended the regulations in 2016 so that now it applies the convention as long as the country receiving the goods believes they are hazardous, even if Canada does not.
A number of environment and advocacy groups including rightoncanada.ca, the Canadian Environmental Law Association, and the EcoWaste Coalition in the Philippines, sent the legal opinion to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week and urged him to finally order his officials to bring the containers back to Canada for disposal.
Kathleen Ruff, founder of rightoncanada.ca, sought the legal opinion, which she said will be cited by advocates attending the biennial meeting about the Basel Convention in Switzerland later this month.
"I think Canada will be seen as a hypocrite," Ruff said.
Although the garbage arrived in Manila before Trudeau's 2015 election victory, he was confronted with the issue within days of being sworn in during a trip for a political summit in November 2015. He promised during to look at the matter, and repeated the pledge when he visited the Philippines in 2017.
In between those visits, a Filipino court ordered Canada to take the trash back in 2016.
Last fall, a working group of Canadian and Filipino officials was created to try and solve the issue.
Caroline Theriault, director of communications for Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, said Wednesday that Canada is aware of the 2016 court decision and "is strongly committed to collaborating with the Philippines government to resolve this issue."