"The trial, which starts Monday, comes as Canada rolls back climate policies. A new government report warns the country could experience 5 degrees Celsius of warming under current emissions trajectories."
"In June 2013, torrential rain spurred one of the worst flooding events in Canada’s history. Sadie Vipond, who grew up in Calgary along the Bow River, was just a young child at the time when she and her family had to flee their home. “That was pretty scary with the evacuation,” she recalled.
Her family was among thousands forced to evacuate as the city declared a local emergency. The disaster was the costliest Calgary had ever experienced, with $1.7 billion in insurable damage, and many residents—including Vipond—still carry that trauma to this day.
Vipond is now a 20-year-old university student studying environmental science at the University of British Columbia. Next week, she will be sitting inside a courtroom in Vancouver telling her story of how extreme weather and climate change have affected her health and quality of life.
She will not be alone. More than a dozen other young Canadians will also be in court testifying in a historic climate change trial against their federal government. It will be the first time in Canada, and one of the first times anywhere in the world, that a national government faces a full evidentiary trial over the adequacy of its climate policies in a case brought by youth activists."
Dana Drugmand reports for Inside Climate News October 23, 2026.
