Représentations :
Dear Justice Cohen,
The drama of the warriors for wild salmon versus DFO, the industry and the Harper government all together in the same leaky basket shows just who are lying and selfish, and who are working for a better world and a sustainable future. I think a perceptive 12 year old could deduce what is going on, with DFO leading the way with utter disregard for our wild salmon, betraying its sworn first mandate to protect the wild resource and the public trust as well.
So the question is, why has it not been deposed, dissolved, sent to the salt mines, whatever it takes to let others do the right thing by our wild salmon? (In this regard I can think of no one more qualified to lead the way than Dr. Alexandra Morton, whose courage, integrity and devotion to saving our wild salmon into a future worth having have never wavered. Her expertise, knowlege, humanity, diligence and purity of motive are unassailable, and I think the majority would agree).
For in your courtroom, we sit dumbfounded to behold DFO scientist Dick Beamish having to recant his own research when pressed to produce the data responsible for his unfounded conclusion- (that the Fraser sockeye crash was due to death of the youngsters from "starvation" in Georgia Straits when there was no such thing) and having to admit he was wrong and excuse himself--only to re-fluff his feathers and crow that the fish farming industry was a wonderful fit with BC and wishing it well, as if that was his real mission in life.
Unfortunately this deflection of the truth and denial of harm seems to be the norm within DFO, whether by choice or by political pressure. In any case showing it is not to be trusted with our wild salmon heritage.
And now that the decision or not to place appropiate blame and remedy on the DFO industry agenda rests in your hands, I pray that you will recognize that the DFO is not fit to lead, and that the industry fixated on expansion, will also claim anything to deflect the truth and consequences of its destructive open netcage regimes in our waters.
Have not both conspired to keep from public knowledge the new mystery virus lurking in our waters and killing sockeye with brain lesions before they spawn?
Did not DFO and the industry's lawyers fight hard to keep this crucial data secret from the public? Are they not subsequently trying to deny their own data, and recant their science to regain their proclaimed innocence? Is this not grave derecliction on one hand and contempt for our wild fisheres etal by both? If the new virus is a mutant strain of ISA as suggested by Dr Kristi Miller's research, then it could be said both parties are comlicit in actions of betrayal on a national scale that could result in our wild salmon, the herring billions that uphold them and the chain of life at sea, and even our groundfish, could be irevocabley wiped out. It is no small offence, this continual state of denial and deflection of the truth that is one and the same between DFO and the industry, while the Province and Ottawa egg them on.
You must perceive that without the courage and integrity of Dr Kristi Miller and Dr. Alexandra Morton, there would be no future at all for the wild under the msssive expansion being pushed for with a blindness and greed that is extraordinary.
I hope and I pray Justic Cohen, that you will in no uncertain terms, rule that Dr. Miller be allowed to test all the farms for the new virus in a way that is clearly free of interference from industry manipulation such as choosing the farms she can test, filtering her science, defining paremeters of her work, or otherwise inflicting its motives on her performance. I further hope that you will command that funding for her research be restored. Does not DFO's withdrawal of funding for the advanced research necessary to resolving the virus mystery, prove it is not interested in protecting our wild fisheries from even a worst case scenario of ISA and oblivion?
Further, does not DFO banning the public from raising the necessary funds, make plain its dishonorable intent to prevent the truth being known and the remedy applied?
In this capacity the idustry is no different, and I submit that it is not to be trusted ever, and must at the very least, (1) get its murderous farms out of the "Wild Salmon Narrow" comprising major routes of the Fraser sockeye and other salmon as well and (2), GO on land or GO away! Our wild marine resources of worth and beauty must take precedence over the drug laden, dangerous farming of alien species in our waters. |
