Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault broke the law when he waited eight months to recommend an emergency order protecting British Columbia’s endangered spotted owls, a federal court judge has ruled.

Environmental group Wilderness Committee argued the delay was unreasonable and unlawful. Justice Yvan Roy agreed, saying Guilbeault had formed an opinion that the species faced imminent threats to its survival and recovery months before he made a formal recommendation.

Roy found Guilbeault had violated the Species at Risk Act.

“Once [there is] the opinion that the threats are about to happen, the Act says that the recommendation must be made. There is [an] emergency,” Roy wrote in a June 7 decision.

“I find it difficult to fathom how a period of more than eight months could be reasonable once the opinion has been formed.”