Montreal, October 29, 2021 – The Centre québécois du droit de l’environnement (CQDE) and SNAP Québec are relieved that the Superior Court of Quebec, presided by the Honourable Justice Guylène Beaugé, granted their request for an interim injunction, ordering suspension of work on the Béliveau Boulevard extension and all other related construction of underground infrastructure until November 8, 2021. 

“As our lawyers have argued, the decision recognizes that urgent action is required and acknowledges the risk of irreparable harm to the chorus frog’s critical habitat of continuing with the extension,” emphasizes Geneviève Paul, executive director of the CQDE. “Despite the advanced state of the work, this decision gives the frogs a reprieve from inaction by the different levels of government. We are now waiting for the federal government to finally pull up its socks and step in without further delay to end a situation that should never have occurred in the first place,” she adds.

“With this ruling, the huge story of our tiny chorus frogs moves forward with another important victory for their survival, a win that could augur well for the survival of all species at risk in Quebec,” states Alain Branchaud, executive director of SNAP Québec. “The ball is now in the court of Canada’s Minister of Environment who must without fail initiate the procedure leading to a protection order of the critical habitat of the species in Longueuil. The safety net provision of the Species at Risk Act requires the Minister, without discretion, to make a recommendation to this effect,” he concludes.

It should be recalled that alongside this request for an injunction, the CQDE and SNAP Québec also filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada. Both organizations are maintaining their legal actions until such time as the chorus frog’s critical habitat in this sector is truly protected and the work necessary to ensure the species’ reproduction during spring is completed.