Ben A. Jetten, Toronto | Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

About Ben

Ben has a diverse and complex litigation, administrative regulatory advocacy and dispute resolution practice before the federal and Ontario courts and specialized administrative tribunals.

Ben's advocacy experience extends from corporate, real property, tax and professional negligence litigation to public law litigation including, in particular, a focus in the areas of Indigenous and environmental, where he has had extensive experience.

Ben has advised or represented clients ranging from corporations or other organizations in the private sector to First Nations and Inuit governments, as well as municipalities.

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Examples of some of Ben's cases in the environmental and Indigenous fields include acting for:

Environmental

The City of Ottawa, responding successfully in the Divisional Court and the Court of Appeal to injunction and judicial review proceedings challenging the validity of an environmental assessment for a public highway project
The City of Owen Sound as plaintiff in an action for damages arising from an environmental remediation of a contaminated harbour area site and an associated record of site condition
Corporate clients in the defence of charges in provincial court under the Environmental Protection Act and in challenges to directors' orders before the Environmental Review Tribunal
Two third parties in the resolution of the Walkerton water supply contamination class action
The Town of Goderich and the Goderich Port Management Corporation, responding to an application challenging the validity of a mandatory requirement to connect old industrial facilities to the Town's sewage works and to pay various cost assessments

Indigenous

Six Nations of the Grand River, in an ongoing large and complex action against the federal and Ontario governments, pursuing an accounting and equitable compensation for Six Nations property set aside under The Haldimand Treaty in 1784 (consisting originally of one million acres of land set aside for Six Nations in southwestern Ontario and subsequent proceeds from land sales)
Six Nations Council, in connection with negotiations between the Haudenosaunee/Six Nations of the Grand River and the federal and Ontario governments, arising from the Caledonia land claim dispute
A consortium, consisting of a major Canadian institutional investor and BluEarth Renewables Inc., in due diligence involving First Nations issues in the purchase of all of the interests in ACH Limited Partnership, the owner of eight Ontario hydroelectric generation facilities
Grand River Enterprises and two First Nations in connection with a constitutional challenge to a tobacco quota scheme applied on Indian reserves pursuant to the Ontario Tobacco Tax Act
Grand River Enterprises in connection with various judicial review and other applications concerning government actions relating to permits and various provisions of the Ontario Tobacco Tax Act