Salmon aquaculture in Canada: What’s wrong with this picture

Commentary By Fabian Dawson SeaWestNews Last week, a group of Indigenous leaders held a Press Conference to attack salmon-farming First Nations in British Columbia, lacing their emotional rhetoric with the oft-repeated falsehoods of anti-fish farming activists. The event, organized by the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance (FNWSA), was staged to criticize the efforts of the Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship (FNFFS), which is fighting to retain its traditional rights to farm the oceans and determine its economic future. Ironically, the media event, intended to rally support for the Alliance’s anti-salmon farming stance, instead spotlighted the glaring hypocrisy at the core of their message. At the heart of the Alliance’s message lies a conspicuous contradiction: the FNWSA’s stated commitment to Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination seems to vanish when other First Nations choose to support salmon farming. At the same time, many members of the FNWSA are ...