My wife, daughter and I also attended. Outstanding presentation with a lot of evidence all pointing one way. Myself, Foxsea and Theb55 all spoke up and asked questions. One thing I took away is she needs help getting the message out to a wider audience. The attendance tonight was certainly disappointing. So as well as as posting links to all her material here I'm going to join a few other forums and raise general awareness of the issues and post links to her material on those places too.
We owe a debt to Dr. John Volpe, from UVic, who helped organize this event. It was great to meet a few guys from this Board and many others taking up the fight for wild salmon, including a family from the Cowichan Tribe. It's clear that Alexandra is tired from fighting on her own for so long. she asked a great question: where are the media notables in this battle - Suzuki, for instance?
It's her opinion that most vocal critics have been beaten into submission by government and legal intimidation tactics, threats and actions to censor their voice. With the number of DFO and industry scientists that have repeatedly lied and hidden damning information
their tactic is obvious - lie and deny. This was fully revealed in the Cohen inquiry. It is now clear that DFO has no true interest in wild salmon. They are focused on maintaining trade in aquacultural products and all integrity has been compromised to maintain that. Their scientists have lied or been muzzled when discussing viral disease such as ISA - but it's here, they have know about it for many years and they pretend to know nothing.
ISA's here, has been for a while - since salmon feedlots first arrived on our coast and it's mutating - getting much more virulent and dangerous. So forget about negotiating or cooperating with DFO - you are thereby totally cooperating with industry. Fishermen and wild salmon will lose with DFO - every time. They are feeding rendered animal parts to the fish and a steady stream of bullsh*t to us. We are gullible putzes to think they give a crap about us -
it's about feeding us just enough allocation to shut us up. "Yassa, Massa." We're lapdogs! Meanwhile biz as usual for Marine Harvest and Cermaq - ROI.
There is mounting and unequivocal evidence that our wild salmon are in big trouble. They are threatened by natural and man-made conditions but more importantly, by increasing numbers of parasites and viruses that the salmon feedlots are releasing into our waterways hourly, by the
billions. Smolts and adults are twice forced through Johnson Strait and the gauntlet of disease and death surrounding the feedlots. The miracle is that any can survive at all. The Cultus Lake sockeye run is pretty much done for ever. Most others in the Fraser system are under very serious threat of extinction. The only healthy and growing sockeye run is from the Harrison system.
Now - here's the good news for a few of the fish and the most damning evidence that the feedlots are the major factor in the fisheries collapse - the Harrison run does not migrate past the feedlots but heads out quickly through JDF to the Pacific. The only run that does that and the only successful run!!!
Pre-spawn mortality for all the others is catastrophic. Connect the dots?... government and DFO could care less.
Dr. Volpe and Dr. Morton both feel that our wild salmon are resilient and can recover, if only given a chance. We have to get the f8cking feedlots out of our ocean. Job 1. It's a tough battle against very big guns but it can be won. How? Dr. Morton believes that we need to be relentless in revealing the whole story - how government and DFO have lied repeatedly to protect the Norwegian corporate criminals: Cermaq and Marine Harvest and their shareholders. They are afraid of a WTO challenge and trade sanctions if they move against this trans-national corporate train-wreck that has trashed every environment it has moved into. We are coming to the point where the only thing that will get their attention is the Raging Grannies and our civil disobedience.
Their market is in the toilet right now - prices are way down - so now's the time to act. Everything we can think of to stir it up - raise hell. Alexandra suggests that creating another bureaucracy will not be effective. I'm saying we need to be freedom fighters for salmon and the environment - Harper's version of terrorists. As they are, we need to be committed and relentless.
Can you imagine the media frenzy around sportfishers chained to the gates at Marine Harvest, Campbell River and Port Hardy? Upsetting their transportation network? Attacking their market image and the precious trade value of their product? It's diseased!!! Who in their right mind eats that sh*t - mad cow X 1,000,000! Write letters to Clark and demand action - Adrian Dix, as well. Demand action!!! Harper? a waste of skin. Attract media attention by dramatic means - peacefully but dramatically! We have numbers and potential power!
But
My wife and I attended the outstanding presentation from Alexandra Morton.
Maybe 40 people in a hall that holds 300...shame on us.!!!
Some good questions, but unless you guys get off your A_ _ nothing is going to happen!
