Tag Archives: Watershed Watch

Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Federal Court of Appeal Dismisses Mowi’s Challenge

The lengthy legal battle over salmon farming in British Columbia’s Discovery Islands reached a significant milestone on January 29, 2026, when the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge by MOWI. This decision follows five years of tension that began when former Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan mandated the removal of all salmon farms from the region by mid-2022. While the industry complied with the order, they simultaneously pursued a series of lawsuits to overturn the government’s directives. Following their latest defeat, Mia Parker, MOWI’s director of environmental performance and certification, emailed media “While we are disappointed that the federal court of appeal did not find in our favour, we respect the findings of the court.”

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Rivers & Oceans

Fish farm giant Mowi suing fisheries ministers, taxpayers for Discovery Islands closures

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

An international aquaculture giant is suing two former Canadian fisheries ministers for alleged damages from a federal decision to close fish farms in B.C.’s Discovery Islands region.

Mowi Canada West, a subsidiary of the Norwegian seafood company, filed a civil suit in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in March against the Canadian government that personally names former fisheries ministers Bernadette Jordan and Joyce Murray. 

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Rivers & Oceans

Under Investigation: Lois Lake Fish Farm

It has been five days since the Watershed Watch Salmon Society issued a press release stating Agrimarine’s semi-closed containment fish farm on Lois Lake, east of Powell River, may have been operating illegally since at least July 21, 2021. 

A provincial bullet point template of that date, from BC’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, states, “DFO has determined that the new infrastructure is not located within the associated FLNR Crown land tenure and therefore (is) in non-compliance.” 

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Rivers & Oceans

Report of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans

Originally published by the Parliament of Canada

On 1 February 2022, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (the Committee) agreed to undertake a study to “examine how the Department of Fisheries and Oceans prioritizes, resources and develops scientific studies and advice for the department, how the results of scientific study are communicated to the Minister and Canadians, and how the minister applies data and advice provided by the department and other government departments to ministerial decisions.”The Committee heard from 57 witnesses over nine meetings held between 26 April 2022 and 7 October 2022.

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Environment, Indigenous Nations

‘We should avoid monitoring’: feds quietly backed off while Coastal GasLink pipeline work killed fish

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

On a dreary gray day in late October, passers by gawked at a scene outside a hotel in Smithers, B.C. The charred remnants of several trucks sat in the parking lot in the wake of what police described as a “targeted attack” in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. 

Among the blackened wreckage were four police cruisers — marked and unmarked vehicles with the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group, a special task force assigned to police opposition to industrial projects. The controversial RCMP unit maintains a constant presence on Wet’suwet’en yintah (territory) where Coastal GasLink (CGL) is building a pipeline without the consent of the nation’s Hereditary Chiefs. 

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