Salmon River Next To Be Destroyed?

While researching this company I found a website run by Duke Energy (Spectra) employees. I thought this would be a website devoted to propagandizing the oil industry. Quite the opposite has happened here. What kind of good corporate citizen or community minded company would have a website by it's employees informing us of the horror stories going on within. If they aren't trusted by their own employees how can the public trust them to put a pipeline under a river that is constantly changing course?

"For too long the employers have had a monopoly on influencing employment legislation. Their lobbyist are constantly in the faces of politicians, pitching the employer’s wants. Is it any wonder that the laws always seem to favor the employer? Sometimes employers plot in concert for decades to take certain benefits from employees. Money made from your labor is often funneled to politicians to grease the way to take more benefits from you." From Duke Energy Employees website

Texas-based Spectra Energy Corp. Looking to Launch Salmon River Crossing (near Prince George) Project This Summer


By 250 News

Friday, May 22, 2009 03:53 AM

Prince George, B.C.- Spectra Energy Corp, hopes to start a pipeline crossing project at the Salmon River this summer. “We still have some discussions with the Ministry of Environment and Fisheries and Oceans” says Steve Henderson, Spectra’s Manager of Community and Aboriginal Relations.
The project would take about 6 months to complete and would involve going under the Salmon River.
The Salmon River poses a couple of major challenges says Henderson, “The river itself is migrating laterally and then there is the number of log jams that regularly occur on the Salmon River.”...{snip}

it should be noted here that the logjams are protected. So far I have only found one item on this and will search further to prove it out.

The plan would see a pilot hole drilled to a depth of more than 20 meters, and the pipeline would be pulled through that pilot hole. The target start date for that project is the third week in June..... [snip]

If someone is going to bore a hole under a river starting in June and it takes 6 months to complete do they know what the weather is going to be like in December?

And has this company already been in talks with the Ministry of Environment and Fisheries and Oceans? Because it is my understanding that these talks take quite a number of months if not years.

And if they have been in talks with these ministries when did those talks commence, how far along are they, and just who is involved?

These three questions set alarm bells off in my head so I looked up this company and found the following:
From Spectra Energy Watch

Property owners are key stakeholders in any mineral rights leasing transaction, whether for recovery, storage, transmission or generation of power. Property owners possess the fundamental asset – the land and property rights – without which, there is no energy project for recovery, storage, transmission or generation.

The power of eminent domain in the hands of government — which is usually transferred to a business — creates a sense of entitlement; and it creates an atmosphere ripe for abuse. It is not a level playing field legally, economically or ethically for private property owners.

Therefore, landowner property rights need to be protected under law. In a constructive effort to guide legislators and regulators, here are five principles.

Spectra Family Tree

Spectra Energy – Who’s Your Daddy?

Duke Energy: Legacy of Spectra Energy’s Past – What Kind of Corporate Culture Would Create This Level of Animosity Among Its Own Employees?

Family trees often reveal character traits – and that’s as true of companies as it is for individuals.

Spectra Energy’s family tree shows a significant link with Duke Energy. As the Spectra Energy website reveals, its U.S. roots began with Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company in 1929. See link:http://www.spectraenergy.com/who_we_are/history/

After a series of corporate “begats,” the company’s name was changed to PanEnergy in 1996. The following year, Duke Power and PanEnergy merged to form Duke Energy. Ten years later, in 2007, Spectra Energy was spun off from Duke Energy.

This family tree offers insight into the behavior and corporate culture we are dealing with at Spectra Energy – especially when one considers that at least 7 former Duke Energy executives are running the show at Spectra Energy.

At least four members of the current executive leadership team at Spectra Energy came from Duke Energy, including Gregory Ebel, Spectra Energy’s current CEO. See link: http://www.spectraenergy.com/who_we_are/leadership/

At least three members of Spectra Energy’s Board of Directors came from Duke Energy, including Fred Fowler “who led the successful spin-off of Spectra Energy from Duke Energy in 2007,” according to the Spectra Energy website. Mr. Fowler was Spectra Energy’s first CEO. See link:http://www.spectraenergy.com/who_we_are/board/

The point? Check out a very unusual website called the Duke Energy Employee Advocate at: http://www.dukeemployees.com/

This independent-from-the-company website accuses the Duke Energy management team of lying to employees. There are references in the website to current executives at Spectra Energy – from their Duke Energy days. And they are not flattering references.

Hmmm. Could there be a family resemblance?

The site is a bulletin board of issues, commentary, reproductions of news articles, letters to politicians and so on. It is exceedingly negative about its employer, Duke Energy, its leadership team and the company’s ethics.

The stated purpose of the site is centered around “improving benefits and equitable treatment,” including (and perhaps especially): “The restoration of retirement-pension benefits lost to the cash balance conversion.”

Judging from dates used on the website, the Employee Advocate might have started in the year 2000. If that is correct, we have an employee-controlled website that for approximately 9 years has slammed Duke Energy for its lack of integrity.

What kind of corporate culture would drive this level of animosity among its own employees? If a company cannot persuade its own employees that it is ethical and acting in their best interests – how can it possibly be credible with external stakeholders and audiences (including property owners)?

For example, following is an excerpt from commentary on Fred Fowler, Spectra Energy’s first CEO and former Duke Energy exec. The setting appears to have been a talk to employees about safety. This excerpt begins with the headline:

Fast Freddie Fowler Flounders

Employee Advocate – www.DukeEmployees.com – September 27, 2004

http://www.dukeemployees.com/duke2.shtml#flounders

“Fred Fowler came on like a storm trooper, declaring all the great things that he was going to push through. He formed a committee. Management was going to be held accountable for safety. There were going to be zero accidents on the job. There were going to be zero deaths on the job. In fact, no one was even going to get sick on the job!

….

“Mr. Fowler is not much on admitting mistakes. This may be a holdover from serving in the old management regime for so long.

.…

“He will probable [sic] never be referred to as an inspirational executive.”

I contacted the Duke Energy Employee Advocate website to see if someone would be willing to share more insight into the gene pool that begat these two corporate cultures. No response has been received yet, perhaps because they want to maintain anonymity.

In the meantime, landowners who wonder whether they can trust energy companies might want to visit this employee-controlled website and learn what employees think.

A Citizen's Reflection on Eminent Domain & the Domestic Energy Cartel

Eminent domain is only abstract until it lands on your doorstep. Essentially, it means that someone wants your property, and the government helps them take it. It means your property will be used to make money for a corporation -- not for you.

There are different forms of "taking," but even if you manage to "keep" title to your property (as in our case), your use of it will be severely restricted. And you will continue to pay taxes on property you can no longer use.

It amounts to legal plunder under the badge of government. Ultimately, power corrupts; and the power of eminent domain in the hands of government -- which is transferred to a business -- creates a sense of entitlement; and it creates an atmosphere ripe for abuse.

Because it held the power of eminent domain, Spectra Energy's alleged negotiations with property owners were never on a level playing field. The company claims publicly that it is "desperate" to negotiate with landowners. The only matter the company was desperate about was to seize property rights - and quickly.

Once it had "tentative" approval from FERC for the "proposed" gas storage field, it quickly sold the storage space to customers and bragged about it in a June 2007 press release.
http://www.spectraenergy.com/news/releases/2007/Jun/20070628_01.asp

The company publicly promised to have the storage field up and running by April 2009. So eminent domain and its sense of entitlement led Spectra Energy to a series of actions that now threaten the timetable of a proposed project. The threat to that timetable and the grassroots resistance of property owners, will likely cost them money and reputation.

Thus the energy project that is really an entitlement project is now leaving a vapor trail of bad decisions and inappropriate actions. All of this has put landowners in a face-off with the equivalent of a domestic energy cartel between Spectra Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, because the power of eminent domain allows them to control pricing and competition. By definition, that is a cartel.

It must be remembered here that this is an American company. But this American Company is attempting (I allege) to do some very very questionable work on our soil. And this type of work is not just drill a hole and feed a pipeline. And we have enough problems with our fish right now.

Happy Birthday Mack E

One year ago today (at 8:52 pm) Mack E entered this world. She has been a bundle of joy.

At one year she has a vocabulary of about 15 words. Although she isn't walking yet she can stand up and stand on her own.

One day after I've finished my fight here you could see her carrying on. Let's hope.

BC is the Last Place You Should Have Salmon Farms

Even Norwegian scientists say that we should not farm salmon in BC. The writing is already on the wall and we are facing the extinction of Wild Pacific Salmon.

Message from Alexandra Morton in Norway, disease and sea lice are not under control in Norwegian salmon farms and BC stands to lose all

I have been in Norway for 10 days because 92% of fish farming in British Columbia is Norwegian owned. I have met with many Norwegian scientists, members of the Mainstream and Marine Harvest boards, been to their AGMs, toured the area with fishermen, examined a closed-containment facility, met the Norwegians fighting for their fish and joined a scientific cruise.

I thought Norway had this industry handled and I expected to learn how marine salmon farming could work, but this has not been the case. My eyes have really been opened. This industry still has major issues that are growing and has no business expanding throughout the temperate coastlines of the world. The way they have been treating sea lice in Norway has caused high drug resistance. The only solution in sight is increasingly toxic chemicals. In the past two years (2007, 8) sea lice levels have actually increased on both the farm and wild fish. The scientists I met with are holding their breath to see if drug-resistant sea lice populations will explode and attack the last wild salmon and sea trout. The same treatment methods have been used in BC and we can expect this to occur as well.

I am not hearing how the industry can possibly safeguard British Columbia from contamination with their ISA virus. Infectious Salmon Anemia is a salmon virus that is spreading worldwide, wherever there are salmon farms. In Chile, the Norwegian strain of ISA has destroyed 60% of the industry, 17,000 jobs and unmeasured environmental damage. The industry is pushing into new territory. If this gets to BC no one can predict what it will do to the Pacific salmon and steelhead, it will be unleashed into new habitat and we know this is a very serious threat to life.

Professor Are Nylund head of the Fish Diseases Group at the University of Bergen, Norway, reports that, “based on 20 years of experience, I can guarantee that if British Columbia continues to import salmon eggs from the eastern Atlantic infectious salmon diseases, such as ISA, will arrive in Western Canada. Here in Hardangerfjord we have sacrificed our wild salmon stocks in exchange for farm salmon. With all your 5 species of wild salmon, BC is the last place you should have salmon farms.”

New diseases and parasites are being identified. The most serious is a sea lice parasite that attacks the salmon immune system. There is concern that this new parasite is responsible for accelerating wild salmon declines. The Norwegian scientists agree with many of us in BC. If you want wild salmon you must reduce the number of farm salmon. There are three options.

The future for salmon farming will have to include:
permanently reduction of not just the number of sea lice, but also the number of farm salmon per fjord,
removing farm salmon for periods of time to delouse the fjords and not restocking until after the out-migration of the wild salmon and sea trout.
But where wild salmon are considered essential they say the only certain measure is to remove the farms completely.

There are many people here like me. I met a man who has devoted his life to the science of restoring the Voss River, where the largest Atlantic salmon in the world, a national treasure, have vanished due to sea lice from salmon farms. Interestingly he is using the method I was not allowed to use last spring... Towing the fish past the farms out to sea. Another man is working with scientists and communities to keep the sea trout of the Hardangerfjord alive. There are so many tragic stories familiar to British Columbia.

The corporate fish farmers are unrelenting in their push to expand. With Chile so highly contaminated with the Norwegian strain of ISA all fish farmed coasts including Norway are threatened with expansion. I made the best case I could to Mainstream and Marine Harvest for removing the salmon feedlots from our wild salmon migration routes, but they will not accept that they are harming wild salmon.

They say they want to improve, but they don’t say how. Norway has different social policies which include encouraging people to populate the remote areas and so fish farming seemed a good opportunity to these people. BC has the opposite policy, but the line that fish farms are good for small coastal communities has been used in BC anyway. I have not seen any evidence that it has even replaced the jobs it has impacted in wild fisheries and tourism.

It is becoming increasingly clear to protect wild Pacific salmon from the virus ISA the BC border absolutely has to be closed to importation of salmon eggs immediately and salmon farms MUST be removed from the Fraser River migration routes and any other narrow waterways where wild salmon are considered valuable.

Our letter asking government that the Fisheries Act, which is the law in Canada be applied to protect our salmon from fish farms has been signed by 14,000 people to date at www.adopt-a-fry.org has still not been answered.

Please forward this letter and encourage more people to sign our letter to government as it is building a community of concerned people word wide and we will prevail as there is really no rock for this industry to hide under and longer.

Alexandra Morton

I believe it is pertinent here to call for a boycott of Farmed Salmon. If the world can boycott our East Coast Seal Hunt, then it is possible to Save Our West Coast Salmon with a world wide boycott.

CN Settles Cheakamus spill

Eighty cents a goddamn fish and not a friggin cent for the birds and other animals. If I was to dump oil near a well from, say, an oil change on one of my vehicles, you can bet your ass they would be seeking the same amount of money.
$1.8 million settlement the majority of which goes to Alberta for the devastation there. Why? Why not $1.8 million or even $10 million in each province.
And don't anyone give me any shit about how they are paying another $139 million for cleanups etc. That is not a fine that is hush money. I give up. You can have this province.
All we have to do now is wait for the BC Rail trial to be derailed. This isn't British Columbia. This is Whitewash Columbia. Owned 100 % by big business and their puppets.

CN Case #49026 In North Van Court Today

CN Rail the new owners of a gift given to them by the Province of BC (BC Rail) is in the Honorable Judge W. Rodgers courtroom in North Van Court today . They are apparently there to finally enter a plea to 5 counts for spilling waste into the Cheakamus River north of Squamish on August 5th 2005.

August 5th 2005? This trial is taking almost as long as the BC Rail trial in the Supreme court.

What's the problem? The train was too long. CN didn't utilize the experienced BC Rail staff. The bloody train derailed. Toxic chemicals were introduced into the environment. CN attempted, I allege, to cover up the carnage wasting hours before notifying the Hazmat boys or the RCMP.

A rail line was blocked. Chemicals were spilled into a fish bearing river. Wells were polluted and no one was notified for hours. And more than a Half Million Fish were destroyed. Initially CN claimed only a few thousand. I say one fish lost is too many under these circumstances.

More than a Half Million Fish
Now it's not just the fish. Others rely on them as well. There's the Natives. The sport fishermen. Bears, otters, seals, Eagles. Have you ever been to Squamish and seen the Eagles nesting there? They are American Bald Eagles and the population is arguably greater there than in all of the United States.

In my younger days I fished these rivers. The fishing was great. In September 2006 there were virtually no fish running the Cheakamus. That's a Half million fish that the saltwater fishermen couldn't catch.
All this caused by the negligence of a company seeking to give their shareholders a higher dividend on their shares.

So here we are today more than 46 months just to get these bastards to enter a plea in Provincial Court. And they say the court system isn't broken. Maybe not. Maybe it's just government pandering to big business?

Oh, did I mention that they weren't charged until the Squamish Band started legal proceedings just before the deadline for the governments to charge them expired.

So we await with baited breath for the outcome of todays court. And as Koot and Mary have pointed out the new online court BS has been moved to Stonewalleys' site at the government propaganda site. So we may not be able to followup today. Unless there are any concerned citizens in North Van who are able to make the courtroom.

The Dismanteling Of The Rest Of BC Hydro Begins

The Sun Online is reporting that the Independent Power Producers, a powerful lobby group is going after the Burrard Thermal Plant near Port Moody. For those who are not familiar with this plant it is run on Natural Gas and supplies the whole lower mainland with power in the overload times.

Excerpt from The Sun with comments in italics by me.

Without Burrard, the closest source of electricity big enough to support B.C.’s population hub is more than 500 kilometres distant, at Revelstoke — and the high-voltage transmission system between the two communities is itself in need of a major upgrade.

A project to twin that line — and minimize the risk that an ice storm or a landslide would trigger a blackout in the Lower Mainland — is not expected to be complete for a decade.

Nonetheless, critics such as the Independent Power Producers Association of British Columbia are questioning why Hydro should be spending such a large amount of money ($119 million annually by 2017) for a facility that will run only a few weeks a year and is essentially a very expensive hedge against spikes in Lower Mainland electricity demand.

I find it very troubling to hear a spin from a vested interest in power supply to get rid of a power source to further their own interests.( GaryE)

In a recent submission to the utilities commission, IPPBC described Burrard Thermal as “antiquated and very inefficient” — converting into electricity only 31 per cent of the energy it consumes.

What the utilities commission needs to ask is just how much profit the IPP expects to squeeze out of the folks in the Lower Mainland when they put in their own plant.(Gary E)

The association says it can “through competitive bid processes” provide from renewable energy projects the electricity that Hydro seeks.

What "competitive bid process" will that be? Will it be the "granting" of a contract to replace Burrard Thermal by the present liberal government? Done throgh the now usual secret bidding? Will the power be given away like BC Rail. Will the bid winner be pre determined like the Rail winner? What cosolation prize will their be? Site C?(Gary E)

And just as an afterthought where will they put their IPP "run of the river" power plant? The upper Pitt River? They've already tried that route. OOps, pardon me, Campbell thinks he has a new mandate to give the rest of our once beautiful province away.

The Killing Off Of Our Wild Salmon

I have been a angler all my life. Since before I started school. I caught my first fish with a maple branch, a piece of string, a safety pin, and a worm. My dream was to catch a 90 pound Chinook Salmon. I'd probably release it as I do most of my catch. I only cook and eat what is necessary.

A few years ago under the Anderson and the Federal Government policies the fish schools started to noticeably disappear. Fraser River Fishermen began going broke under draconian policies dictated by the governments of the day. A rift was caused between Native and non-native fishermen. Violence erupted.

Recently, Alexandra Morton went to court, fought, and won her case that proved the salmon farming off the coast of BC is not under the jurisdiction of the BC Provincial Government. The Norwegian Fish Farms are appealing the decision and the BC Government is helping them.

I have been receiving e-mail updates from Morton and publishing them here. I will continue to do so to try and help get the message out. This bullshit has to stop. We are in grave danger of losing our wild salmon and people are operating illegally.

Please feel free to copy any portion of this post and forward it to your friends and relatives. The following is from Alexandra Morton


Hello

Gordon Campbell locked the doors when I tried to deliver our letter and left us on the street. Campbell has been re-elected and at first I thought this meant BC does not actually want wild salmon, nor their rivers. I began to make plans to give up and get my own life back in order, but then someone forwarded me this map. The ridings with wild salmon and wild salmon rivers, did not actually elect Campbell.

Thousands of people have told me they want wild salmon and have wished me success in this, but at every BC election a handicap is laid on us who are trying to do this. I am writing to say people cannot wave from the sidelines any longer, because we are not succeeding. Wild salmon are going extinct on our watch. Yes, yes climate change will be a factor, but wild salmon are built to survive cataclysmic change in their environment and if we allow their genetic warehouse to rebuild right now, we stand a far better chance of receiving the food and energy this fish brings to us in the years to come.

Grieg Seafood is trying to build two of the biggest fish farms on the coast, on the juvenile salmon migration route for Fraser River and East Vancouver Island stocks, at York Island. Marine Harvest is trying to increase the size of their “farms” coastwide. They are taking me back to court this summer to resolve whether they own their fish in the Canadian Ocean. Atlantic salmon eggs are still being imported into BC, despite the Infectious Salmon Anemia virus popping up everywhere the Norwegian salmon farmers operate. Emamectin benzoate (Slice) is being used in our waters....with no warnings posted during usage...even though the U.S. Food and Drug Agency apparently has a ban on any food products “exposed” to this neurotoxin (Pacific Fishing current issue). This means all of us who are fishing, and harvesting seafood near fish farms have no way to make sure we are not “exposed” to the drug. And the fish feedlots are in violation of many sections of the Fisheries Act.

Not only is there no progress, we are moving backwards.

I am headed to Norway next week, but doubt anyone is listening there either.

I can only see two ways forward.... The courts..... And for us all to step up and say “no more.”

The solution is so simple: Apply the laws of Canada, The Fisheries Act. If the Norwegians can’t comply they should leave. Give the Canadian fish farmers who want to revamp their industry in closed tanks a break in getting set up. Market wild and farm fish to raise the value of both. And restore wild salmon in a way that has never been tried.....adhering to their biology, the natural laws that have caused them to thrive in the first place.

And we need everyone who wants wild salmon to sign this letter. Currently we are at 14,000.....and we are still on the street, this was not enough to even get in the door.

It is up to you guys.


Alexandra Morton

To sum it up

The Campbell government’s record of arrogance and neglect has affected nearly every family in BC over the last 8 years:
Residents of rural communities have seen mills close and thousands of jobs lost while Campbell does nothing.

• Minimum wage workers have been told flat out he won't give them a hand, even while he gives his top advisors a 43% pay increase.
  
• People in need of health care suffer on wait lists or see first hand the dangerous overcrowding in our emergency rooms.
  
• Seniors suffer neglect and abuse in care homes
  
• Families are pushed to the brink by increased ferry fares, transit fares, tuition fees, the gas tax and Hydro rate increases.
• They are giving away all our rivers
• They refuse to act on an SCC ruling against them regarding fish farms on the west coast

The people of BC have just given him another 4 year mandate. We are now about to go from bad to worse. Just watch.

I, as many others have blamed the mainstream media and our only saving grace is that the Canned Waste network will die by the time the absentee ballots are counted and some liberals are defeated.

The vote may not change considerably but the squeaker seats could change.

Provincial Voting Day 2009

Today is voting day in British Columbia.

I know there are may people out there who may not want to vote but I urge you to get out and vote anyway. Your vote does count. Take a look at what is going on around you. Your life has been affected whether you realize it or not.

If you are wondering how to fit the vote into your hectic day the Elections Act states that your employer must give you four consecutive hours of to vote.

Get out and Vote

Back in 2004 CN Met With North Van City

The following is from the Teamsters Rail Union page:

City of North Vancouver Meets with CN Rail Officials Regarding Recent Sale
of BC Rail. Council Vows to Oppose the Sale

In response to the recent sale of BC Rail to Canadian National Rail, and the resulting planned closure of BC Rail's head office in the City of North Vancouver , Mayor Barbara Sharp and City staff have met with the CN Rail officials to discuss the negative impact on the City of North Vancouver . At the meeting, the full impact of the sale was discussed, as well as CN
Rail's future plans, and the City's request for mitigation measures. CN Rail officials have confirmed the following facts regarding the impact on local operations: - there are 379 active BC Rail employees in North Vancouver - 172 of these employees will be retained - 74 will be offered early retirement - 99 positions will be eliminated through attrition and
severances - 24 will be relocated to CN in Edmonton - 10 will be relocated to CN in Prince George CN officials confirmed that passenger service will not be part of their operations. Portions of the existing BC Rail yard will not be acquired as part of their operating "franchise". CN has identified the track lines they require, and disposal of surplus assets will be at the
discretion of the Provincial Government. CN officials confirmed their commitment to retain operations on the existing line to the north. CN Rail will continue to operate from the head office at Chesterfield and Esplanade for a minimum of three years. They will reduce their presence at that location by subletting surplus space or returning it to the Province. CN Rail will provide details regarding the lease for this building including its obligations for disposal of excess space after that time. The CN yard
at Lynn Creek will continue to operate although some operations may be relocated to the western yard to improve efficiency.

As a result they will look at the land holdings at Lynn Creek and will strive to create developable parcels. The City has requested that a commitment be made to initiate noise mitigation practices in this area due to the close proximity to the Cloverley neighbourhood. There are no other "off track" parcels or buildings in the City affected. Further to the meeting with CN Rail officials, City Council has adopted a resolution to reiterate its opposition to the sale of BC Rail and call for a full public disclosure of all documents held by the Province of British Columbia with regards to the sale of BC Rail to CN Rail. Council has also resolved to contact all North Shore MLA's urging them to vote against the sale. "The City plans to make its
voice heard on this matter," says Mayor Barbara Sharp. "The loss of 200 professional and technical jobs, as well as the City's grant in lieu risk of approximately $140,000, arriving on the heels of the Province's recent Ports tax cap which delivers a liability of $1.25 million, will impact the City's economy, therefore, we will aggressively oppose this sale. " The Council
motion will be circulated to all MLA's and all member municipalities. .....[snip]

Of course we know that neither CN nor the provincial Gov't evr deliberately made any disclosure. And I'd like to know just how many of the 172 employees are left at BC Rail in North Van. Also do they still own the head office building on West Esplanade?

Mortons' Response to Campbells' Actions

Hello

Please view this Global News clip. A government should be willing to listen to the public. But the Liberals could not be more clear…they locked the door, left the people concerned about wild salmon on the street and suggested we take our concern to the NDP.

http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/bc/video/index.html?releaseID=1116227153

I went to Canada Place because we needed to know:

If re-elected on May 12, will the Liberals protect wild salmon? We got the answer - No.

In this video Liberal Nanaimo-Parksville MLA candidate Ron Cantelon said wild and farm salmon can co-exist. Look at the salmon river next to you. There is no evidence this can or ever will happen (Ford and Myers 2007). Humanity itself is threatened by direct exposure to diseases in feedlots. The fish feedlots absolutely have to be isolated from the ocean environment.

Wild salmon are the backbone of the BC economy, but the BC Liberals are selling hundreds of rivers, in the same watersheds where wild salmon are hatching right now. Farm salmon - need no rivers.

Chief Bob Chamberlin has filed a class action law suit against the British Columbia Government alleging that wild salmon are being decimated by open net-cage salmon farming in their Territories, asking "Why doesn't government realize what's at stake?"

Connect the dots. This is the last time we get to decide if we want wild salmon. I have always voted Green and hope to again one day, but on May 12, I am voting for the best hope my community has to survive …. NDP.

Please forward.

Alexandra Morton


Also THIS VIDEO WAS DONE BY INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS

http://vimeo.com/4403328

No funders, no sponsorship, no political affiliation...

Feel free to forward or embed this video on your site.

Fish Farm Protest In Vancouver

Following is an e-mail from Alexandra Morton on a protest to be held in Vancouver tomorrow

To those of you in Vancouver.

The Wilderness Committee will be carrying our letter with its’ 13,000 signatures to Gordon Campbell’s constituency office. They have built a salmon mascot, Tum Tum who will join them and will be also delivering their own petition with 33,000 signatures on it urging government to protect wild salmon from fish “farms.” I am hoping to be there as well.

When: Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 12 noon
Where: In front of BC government cabinet offices at World Trade Centre at Canada Place, downtown Vancouver

It is remarkable to me that there has been no answer to our letter simply asking for the laws of Canada to be applied and I appreciate the Wilderness Committee delivering this in person. Many of you have received the same email from different Liberal MLA candidates saying that the Province is not allowed to interfere with the BC Supreme Court decision, but this is not accurate. In filing an Appearance they have given themselves the option to send lawyers to the appeal filed by the fish farmers. They may indeed have decided not to fight the decision, but why then has Gordon Campbell not answered our letter?

I am hoping that we don’t get to find out. We need someone in government who can answer a question asked by 13,000 people.

I learned this week that the U.S. Food and Drug Agency has a ban on importation of food products that have been exposed to the chemical Emamectin benzoate (Slice) that Canadian fish farms use to suppress their sea lice. Fish farmers use this chemical in many places where people collect sea food to eat and despite requests never post notices to the public so we could avoid the drug. There is an article on page 12 in Pacific Fishing on this:

http://openpub.realread.com/rrserver/browser?title=/North_West_Publishing_Center/PF_May09_1280 <http://openpub.realread.com/rrserver/browser?title=/North_West_Publishing_Center/PF_May09_1280>

In a remote, wilderness so beautiful it captures your soul, I have raised my children on seafood exposed to a drug banned in the U.S.

Alexandra Morton


For anyone in the Vancouver area that has time and is concerned about our fisheries and habitat I urge you to attend this protest. We need action and we need it now. Gary E.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05/05/09 Update: The Tyee is reporting that Alexandra Morton and the WCWC attempted to deliver 2 petitions with a total of 43000 names to Campbell at the convention Center. They were turned away at the door of our publicly owned building by some Rent-a-cops. So much for our open, honest government.

Time to Take Back Our Province