British Columbia

PORT HARDY, B.C. — Members of two British Columbia First Nations say they have occupied a salmon farm on a small island on the province’s coast, the second such protest to be held in the past week.

Chief Willie Moon, also known as Okwilagame, said about 16 members of the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw and the Kwikwasutinuxw Haxwamis arrived at the Wicklow Point salmon farm on Thursday afternoon.

He said about five protesters plan to stay until the provincial and federal governments revoke permits for the facility on Broughton Island, about 50 kilometres east of Port Hardy.

Today I submitted an analysis to the BC Utilities Commission in response to their consultation on the economics of the Site C dam. You can read it here.

From: Cameron Fenton - 350.org <350@350.org>
Date: Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 2:30 PM
Subject: Kinder Morgan needs one permit - and we can stop it.
 

From: Cameron Fenton - 350.org <350@350.org>
Date: Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 2:30 PM
Subject: Kinder Morgan needs one permit - and we can stop it.
 

A Federal Court of Appeal judge has granted British Columbia intervener status in a legal challenge of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, while scolding the provincial government for its "blasé" approach to the case since taking power earlier this summer.

The New Democrats campaigned on using "every tool" available to kill the project and announced plans to join the Federal Court of Appeal case several weeks ago.

August 28, 2017 - When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced approval of the Trans Mountain project, he said the expansion “will create 15,000 new, middle-class jobs – the majority of them in the trades.” 

British Columbia’s new NDP government campaigned on a promise to transition the province’s fish-farming industry away from open-sea pens to land-based sites, but First Nations are pushing for more aggressive action. They want the province to revoke the licences of unwanted salmon farms operating in their territorial waters.

B.C.’s aquaculture industry was once again in the spotlight last week after thousands of Atlantic salmon may have escaped a Washington State fish farm near the border.

A United Nations panel on racism is calling on the B.C. government to immediately halt construction on the $8.8-billion Site C dam, arguing the province needs to review the controversial project in consultation with the First Nations communities facing irreversible destruction of their lands.