Villagers lose fight with Chevron

The Canadian subsidiary of U.S.based oil giant Chevron Corp. cannot be held liable for a US$9.5-billion award a court in Ecuador ordered against the parent company in favour of Ecuadorian villagers, Ontario’s top court ruled on Wednesday.

Even though the Court of Appeal expressed sympathy for the plight of the Indigenous villagers, it found that ordering Calgary-based Chevron Canada to pay them in what it called a “tragic case” would amount to twisting current laws out of all recognition.

“There can be no denying that, through no fault of their own, the appellants have suffered lasting damages to their lands, their health, and their way of life,” the Appeal Court said in its ruling. “Their frustration in obtaining justice is understandable.”

At the same time, the Appeal Court said, Canadian courts must decide cases based on the laws and jurisprudence in place in Canada. What the villagers argued, the panel said, found no support in either legislation or case law.

“What is really driving the appellants’ appearance in our courts is their inability to enforce their judgment in the United States,” Justice William Hourigan wrote for the court. “(But) the appellants are asking us to radically alter our law.”

The protracted legal struggle began in 1993 when 47 plaintiffs representing about 30,000 villagers sued Texaco, later bought by Chevron, for polluting 1,500 square kilometres of rain forest in northern Ecuador that fouled streams, drinking water and garden plots, and caused lasting and ongoing serious health effects — a consequence disputed by Chevron. The villagers ultimately won their US$9.5-billion judgment in Ecuador in 2013. But because Chevron no longer had assets in the South American country, the villagers turned to courts in other countries, including the U.S. and Canada.