The concept of environmental justice has evolved over the past two decades to offer a new direction for social movements, public policy, and public planning. Researchers worldwide now position social equity as a building block for sustainability. Yet the relationship between social equity and the environmental aspects of sustainability has been little studied in Canada.

Speaking for Ourselves draws together scholars and activists — Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, established and new — who bring equity issues to the forefront by considering environmental justice in specifically Canadian cases and contexts and from a variety of perspectives and concerns, including those of women and First Nations.