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Kegan Pepper-Smith
Ecojustice
Kegan Pepper-Smith is a lawyer at Ecojustice, Canada's largest environmental law organization. He filed the April 20, 2026 Federal Court application seeking to compel the federal Environment Minister to issue a Species at Risk Act emergency order protecting Piping Plover critical habitat at Wasaga Beach from mechanical raking and commercial development. He publicly warned: "A failure to act is very likely to result in the extirpation of the species from Ontario."
Connected Scandals
Doug Ford's government sold off 60% of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park — overriding 98% public opposition via an omnibus budget bill — while Bill 5 stripped the last provincial protections from Ontario's most important Piping Plover breeding site. When the Town began mechanically raking critical nesting habitat in April 2026 just days before the endangered birds return, Ecojustice filed a Federal Court lawsuit warning that failure to act will result in the species' extirpation from Ontario.
As the Ecojustice lawyer who filed the Federal Court lawsuit on behalf of Environmental Defence and Ontario Nature, Pepper-Smith is the lead legal voice documenting the imminent extinction risk to Ontario's Piping Plover population — with Wasaga Beach producing 70% of all Ontario-fledged plovers since the species returned in 2007.