Due Process and the Nova Scotia Herbicide Trial (From Corporate Crime: Contemporary Debates, P 352-365, 1995, Frank Pearce and Laureen Snider, eds. - See NCJ-160666)

• NCJ Number: 160681
• Author(s): C Goff
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: University of Toronto Press
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: Canada

Annotation

This paper analyzes an attempt by 15 citizens in Nova Scotia, Canada, to challenge two major multinational corporations regarding their use of allegedly harmful pesticides.

Abstract

In 1982-83, local residents obtained a temporary injunction against Dow Chemical and a Swedish company operating pulp and paper mills against spraying the spruce budworm. The residents lost their case when unable to prove in court that the substances being sprayed were harmful to people. The analysis of the trial suggests that the ideology of scientism reinforced the perception that witnesses called by the multinational corporations were objective, whereas those called by the plaintiffs were well- meaning victims of misguided zeal. In fact, later documents revealed that the apparently objective data were based on fraudulent data and were reversed by later studies. In addition, the judge's decision to accept the idea that citizens had a right to intervene in the process, even though they were not directly involved in the outcome, advanced environmental causes. The case also indicates the importance of regional disparities in wealth and power within developed countries in environmental politics. Note