Mail from Alex Morton - message from Nova Scotia

Hello

I received a message from Nova Scotia this morning, where they are desperately fighting off ELEVEN salmon farms.  Please consider signing their petition. They say the voices for wild salmon are vanishing as the fish go. They have spent years trying to bring wild salmon back, are just beginning to succeed and now 11 salmon feedlots are circling them, hungry for their waters. I know what that is like. My little community of Echo Bay fought hard to protect Broughton, but we were way too small, they didn't even notice us and we lost everything, there are 8 people left.

 http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-open-pen-fish-farming-on-nova-scotias-eastern-shore

 

I wish I had known what we were in for when salmon farms came banging on our door I would have fought harder, I would never have given them the benefit of our doubts, they looked so reasonable - who knew?  Well we know now.

Also, I have written an open letter to Justice Adair, who presided over the defamation trial Staniford vs Mainstream.  There are things Don Staniford is being accused of that are not true.  I offer her ladyship another view, with pictures, from a person who was there - me.

http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2012/02/dear-justice-adair.html

On Friday, Justice Adair refused to rule on Mainstream's draconian proposal to immediately stop Staniford from speaking about fish farms. The terms of the request are so vague as to be nearly impossible to comply with and I believe would affect any who quoted anything related to Staniford. She will make a ruling on this at any moment.  As well, she could rule on the case at anytime - Did Don Staniford defame Mainstream, even though he never mentioned their name in the offending cigarette packs he used to draw parallels between the way Big Tobacco and Big Salmon manage public opinion?  We heard testimony on scientific papers reporting cancer-causing contaminants in farm salmon, then heard about salmon farming advertisements that targeted pregnant women to eat more farm salmon, as well as, an ad used on British Columbians reporting farm salmon are "natural, nutritious and free of contaminants."  Shame.

Most concerning to me was Mainstream's effort to make Staniford a liar for saying that thousands of us gathered in Victoria to tell government to get salmon farms out of the ocean, get away from our fish in the GET OUT Migration. I think it is dangerous when lawyers attempt to undo history, say people were not there. I have posted a slideshow on the link above in defense of all 5,000-7,000 of us who were there. This number came from the security guards at the Parliament Buildings in Victoria.  It would appear our message was not received.

Alex