SUMMARY
In 2005, commenting on a government review of the main federal toxic substances control legislation, Jason Unger aptly described the general public’s usual role in Canadian environmental law: “[They are] left to wander a maze of legislative and non-legislative instruments, each with varying amounts of transparency, to determine whether standards for a particular substance exists, what the standards are, whether they are being met and whether they can take legal action to enforce them.” Explaining our system of pollution control and resource management law to the general public — where it came from, why it was chosen, in what way it (even remotely) seems rational, how it works, what flaws it has, how to use it, and how one might improve it — is a daunting task indeed. Nevertheless, authors Paul Muldoon, Alastair Lucas, Robert Gibson, and Peter Pickfield set out in An Introduction to Environmental Law and Policy in Canada to provide a primer on these issues for interested students and members of the public.