Crimes against the environment : the state's responses to pesticide use in British Columbia

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Crimes against the environment are a crucial problem facing our society.Despite a growing awareness of and concern over environmental abuses, such acts remain widespread.This thesis represents an attempt to study environmental crimes, and the state's response to them, by focusing on pesticide abuse as a "crime" against the environment.The thesis provides insights into corporate crimes against employees and consumers, since pesticide misuse can also constitute a "crime" against these groups of people.This thesis is an historical, macro-sociological analysis of the British Columbia pesticide legislation (Pesticide Control Act).The analysis focuses on the political and social factors associated with the creation of the Pesticide Control Act in 1977 and amendments to the Act, at specific junctures.The evolution of the Act is examined using a modified, structural Marxist theory.This theory places the actions of the state within an economic framework, while allowing the state a degree of autonomy from the needs of capital and the influences of capitalist factions.The evolution of the Pesticide Control Act is traced through an analysis of: (i) government reports and documents (e.g., the Ministry of Environment's annual reports), (ii) non-government documents (e.g., documents of the Council of Forest Industries of B.C.), and (iii) newspapers (e.g., The Vancouver Sun).The period of analysis is between the early 1970s and early 1990s.6 Law Reform Commission of Canada (1 985 : 1 1); B.C. Ministry of Environment (1 989/9O: 1 1); and Neuman (1990: 3-4).7 The Vancouver Sun (2 Oct., 1989: Al), cited in Rate1 (1992: 2)."Polls are considered accurate within 2.5 percentage points (i.e., 19 out of 20 times)" (Ratel, 1992: fn 3).8 Rate1 (1992: 3). 9 B.C. Ombudsman (

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