Green Party of Nova Scotia

Building a Sustainable Future Together

Press Release – Vigilantism in the Fisheries Dispute

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

THERE IS NO PLACE IN CANADA FOR VIGILANTISM

 

The Green Party of Nova Scotia condemns in the strongest possible terms the illegal acts of vigilantism demonstrated by some Fundy shore commercial fishermen over the past 24 hours.  

Canadian civilians are not allowed to enforce regulations or interpret  laws, or deputize themselves to do so.  Governments and police are the sole authorities empowered to regulate resources and enforce laws.  

21 years of inaction towards the practical application of the Moderate Livable fishery by successive governments represents a complete dereliction of duty to both Mi’kmaq and non-native communities, leading  some to desperate and criminal acts.

 

The events of the past few days in Comeauville, Saulnierville and Metahegan are extremely dangerous, shameful, and demand immediate provincial government action to guarantee the safety of all people and protect the rule of law.  

In the past 24 hours, groups of commercial fishermen admitted, through spokesmen Colin Sproul, the president of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermans Association, and Martin Mallet of the Maritime Fishermans Union, to taking the law into their own hands, removing lobster traps and releasing catch that did not belong to them, which Sproul contends was done under the supervision of RCMP and DFO authorities.  They also admit to cutting lines to traps, adding to the growing pile of ghost gear polluting the ocean. In Comeauville dozens of vehicles and more than 50 men identified and surrounded the home of an individual they allege purchased lobster in a manner they considered illegal. 

Under what legal jurisdiction did these fishermen operate when they confiscated property not belonging to them?  Which authority from the RCMP or DFO appointed commercial fishermen as deputies in regulatory enforcement?  Was permission or training given to everyone, or specific individuals?  The mob that assembled in Comeauville claim they were protesting, but made clear accusations offering no evidence towards an unnamed individual, while openly flaunting provincial COVID laws governing social distancing and masks. 

Canadians do not have the right to enforce regulations or interpret laws.  The acts committed over the past days are equivalent to theft, vandalism, illegal dumping, intimidation, and mob rule without any accountability or liability to the public.  If police, federal and provincial authorities tolerate this behaviour, then governments are complicit in normalizing vigilantism and exploiting those commercial fishermen to solve problems they are responsible for.

The Green Party of Nova Scotia condemns acts of vigilantism in any form. We live in a land of law and order.  The Mi’kmaq people used legal means over 21 years to have their rights ruled on in the public court system.  The commercial fishermen of Nova Scotia who participated in the events of the last week would be well served to follow the Mi’kmaq example of how to respect the laws of Canada.

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN!!!

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Hello everyone!

The Green Party of Nova Scotia will be nominating  candidates for the 55 ridings to be contested in the next Nova Scotia provincial general election, starting… today!

There are lots of amazing people who are Green Party members already, and lots of amazing people that Green Party members know, who haven’t yet joined the party. All of those people are encouraged to join the process of finding our candidates. We believe that this will be the election where we elect the first Green MLA in Nova Scotia, and we’re working hard to find a great set of people to make that a reality!

We note that people often have to be asked more than once in order to seriously consider the idea of running, and people who have not traditionally seen themselves, or people like them, in positions of political power often have to be asked more than that. The Nova Scotia Greens are committed to doing our best to get out and ask those people, and that means our Members need to be doing this, too.

As for you, please consider this your first invitation!

The party will be working hard to support all of our nominated candidates. This means you will not be on your own for resources including graphic design, a template webpage, and a set of professional photos, as well as training and organizational help (database access, etc.).

The first step is to submit the application form (linked at the bottom of this post.)

The information gathered is used to do candidate approval (“vetting”), so we ask a lot of questions about your background. We will honour your privacy, and will not release any information to people beyond the people directly involved in its review. In fact, we will not tell even tell anyone that you have applied until and unless you are ready to make your candidacy public.

The GPNS does not use the candidate approval process to “pick” its candidates. We believe in local participatory democracy as one of our critical foundations, so the local members in the area to be represented will do the choosing. However, a candidate may not be approved during this first stage if they directly oppose fundamental Green values, if they have a history of hateful behaviour, or if they publicly support widely discredited scientific or historical theories. We expect no significant number of exclusions.

We are also deeply committed to transparency, so you always have a right to see any information gathered (including from reviews of your social media, or other sources), and to know why a decision to approve or deny your application has been made. There are appeal procedures if you feel a decision was unreasonable.

So – what are you waiting for? Let’s find our great Green candidates – like you!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask (your inquiry will be kept confidential): nominations@greenpartyns.ca

Link to apply: APPLICATION FORM

Thomas Trappenberg and the Green Party of Nova Scotia Stand with Evidence

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Yesterday, the executive director of the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia published an editorial in which he accused Thomas Trappenberg, leader of the Green Party of Nova Scotia, of leading a misinformation campaign against his industry.

Lacking evidence and without citing any specific case of misinformation, the attack, which also names the Ecology Action Centre and four citizen-led groups like the Healthy Bays Network, is damaging because it sours what was until now a civil and democratic discussion about an important issue.

The debate about aquaculture is important because our oceans are not just a massive part of our economy, but vital to how we identify ourselves as Nova Scotians.

This is why thousands of people from all political backgrounds, including an independent MLA and three official parties, have formed their own local groups like the ones named by Mr. Smith to educate and organize the discussion around the development of open-pen aquaculture.

These citizen-led movements flooded town halls and MLA offices in shared opposition to open-pen aquaculture, based on conclusions in publicly available scientific studies like a 2018 analysis by Dalhousie University department of biology, and the Cohen Commission Judicial Inquiry in B.C., where demonstrated that the practice was unsustainable in its current form.

When using evidence to support an argument, it is important to show where that information comes from. Mr. Smith points to the Coller-Fairr Protein Index as proof that open-pen aquaculture is a very sustainable practice, however that study was commissioned to “raise awareness of the material ESG risks and opportunities of intensive animal production.” according the website. The data and conclusions are not available to the public but only investors in equity markets.

If Mr. Smith laments a lack of transparency in the open-pen aquaculture debate, then it does not help that his sole publicly available source of supporting documentation comes from a $1.2 million study by the Cooke Industrial Research Chair for Sustainable Aquaculture, a position created and funded by Cooke Aquaculture, a paid member of Mr.Smith’s Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia. Cooke currently holds the controversial open-pen leases in the province, which were renewed recently with severely limited public debate .

We need a vigorous discussion on economic and resource development in Nova Scotia. “As a physicist, a science professor and as leader of the Green Party, I consider it a requirement to maintain an open mind, to always keep the door open to new information and challenges to established facts, if and when demonstrable new facts come to light.” states Thomas.

“This is the only way we move society forward. Together, with shared facts.”

As of this moment, the facts are that open-pen fish farms often consume more protein than they produce (it takes more food to grow the fish than the food value contained in the fish), and very serious problems of contamination from faeces, antibiotics and sea lice from the farmed fish into the open ocean remain unsolved. Large scale die-offs, like the one that left 10,000 dead salmon in Liverpool Bay reported by CBC last year, cause catastrophic damage to local ocean life. TIANS, the Tourist Industry Association of Nova Scotia, currently endorses closed-pen aquaculture only.

These are the facts.

It is important for Nova Scotians to be properly informed about the issues, and to be clear about the sources of information especially in this era of fake news. Defamatory claims of misinformation are unhelpful, unless of course, they are backed by demonstrable, repeatable facts.

Green Party Supports Citizen Groups Opposing Open-Pen Aquaculture

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“A government that rejects legitimate, critical public input, by using bureaucratic technicalities   is abusing its authority.  

 The decision to extend leases to Cooke Aquaculture under these circumstances, against overwhelming public objection, is at best arrogant, at worst anti-democratic.”

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, May 27

The Green Party of Nova Scotia strongly supports the statements made by the Protect Liverpool Bay Association in a recent “open letter” to premier Stephen McNeil, in which the citizens group admonished the Liberal government for its blatant disregard of widespread community opposition to the proliferation of large, industrial open net pen salmon farms in the province. “There is direct evidence that open pen aquaculture poisons ocean waters. Fish waste, disease, and contamination from medicines destroys traditional fisheries, on which South Shore families depend.” says Thomas Trappenberg, leader of the Green Party of Nova Scotia. “Worst of all, Cooke Aquaculture has cost Nova Scotia taxpayers tens of millions dollars, threatening jobs and livelihoods of traditional fishers.”

As the first federal political candidate calling for a national ban on this dangerous and economically unsustainable practice, Trappenberg stood side-by-side with the Protect Liverpool Bay Association as they pushed hard to stop massive salmon feedlots that were being forced on Nova Scotians by Cooke Aquaculture, the Dexter NDP and later Liberal governments, mobilizing a massive outcry from residents of St. Margarets Bay and other South Shore communities. In coordination with citizen groups like Twin Bays Coalition, they sent Cooke and farmed salmon giant Cermaq a message: “The community has spoken: no open pen fish farms here.”

Cooke eagerly sought a $25 million loan package from the Dexter NDP government, then failed to make debt payments, and produced only a small percentage of the jobs promised. The company was charged with poisoning lobsters withy illegal pesticide dumping in New Brunswick in 2013, seriously affecting traditional fisheries in the Bay of Fundy. With the recent sudden extension of leases by the McNeil Liberals despite strong public opposition, it is clear that South Shore residents will have to sacrifice even more.

South Shore communities have been strong in their opposition to open-pen aquaculture in Nova Scotia waters. Thomas Trappenberg joined Nova Scotians who made their feelings clear on this issue in many public consultations in 2019 and this year to push back against foreign-owned aquaculture giant Cermaq. “The community has spoken: no open pen fish farms here.” After a meeting at the Tantallon public library filled beyond capacity, where hundreds of members of the community told Cermaq no one wanted them here, the corporation withdrew their bid.

The Green Party of Nova Scotia supports the fisheries and expanding job opportunities in the province, but not at any expense. The recent government approval of unprecedented 20-year leases to Cooke Aquaculture, and the obscure manner in which the process took place is something Trappenberg finds disturbing. “The government rejected an unacceptable number of public submissions against the proposal on trivial, bureaucratic grounds, including from local harbour authorities. A government that rejects legitimate, critical public input, by using bureaucratic technicalities is abusing its authority.”

In addition to authoring the open letter to premier McNeil, Protect Liverpool Bay Association chair Brian Muldoon announced the formation of the Healthy Bay Network this week, designed to network resources and events by all of the citizen-led groups that have organized opposition to open-pen aquaculture. The Network includes: The St. Mary’s Bay Protectors, Protect Liverpool Bay, the Twin Bays Coalition representing Mahone and St. Margaret’s Bays, the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore, with support from the Ecology Action Centre, the Atlantic Salmon Federation, and the Nova Scotia Salmon Association.

“The Green Party stands in complete solidarity with Healthy Bays Network. We will continue to support them to ensure that citizens are heard, and to keep the government accountable for its handling of this industry,” concluded Trappenberg. “The future of Nova Scotia can be bright if we use common sense and expand aquaculture on land, inside contained systems. We can be world leaders in this industry, create jobs and not destroy our oceans.”

 

Green Party of Nova Scotia principles include:

++  Sustainability

Move all open-net pen finfish aquaculture facilities into closed containment systems on land. As with land farmers transitioning from conventional production, provide financial and extension support will be ensure to fish farm workers to make this transition.

++  Ecological Wisdom

Stop to the proliferation of damaging business practices that demand public money to survive, and only invest in businesses that can operate sustainably without degrading Nova Scotia’s natural resources. 

 

         FOR MORE DETAILS ON THE GREEN PARTY of NOVA SCOTIA or THOMAS TRAPPENBERG

              Contact : 

 

   

  Communications Director              

  Michael Uhlarik   

              media@greenpartyns.ca                        

 

  Leader, GPNS

  Thomas Trappenberg

              leader@greenpartyns.ca                         

              telephone : 902 414 3960  

              www.greenpartyns.ca