Head of native aquaculture group barred from federal meeting

Judith Lavoie
September 12, 2009
The Times Colonist

A Vancouver Island First Nations leader, who heads a provincewide aboriginal aquaculture committee, was turned away from a meeting in Vancouver with federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea yesterday.

Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Kwicksutaineuk Ah-Kwa-Mish First Nation, chairman of the First Nations Leadership Council's aquaculture working group, tried to attend the Fraser River sockeye meeting in Vancouver, but was barred by Department of Fisheries and Oceans staff.

"I felt I was absolutely in my right to try and force my way in because of the knowledge and expertise I have gathered," said Chamberlin, whose request to attend the meeting had been turned down.

Chamberlin is from the Broughton Archipelago, where salmon farms and wild salmon exist together uneasily. Wild fish advocates think the farms have played a role in the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye fishery, but DFO says there is no proof of that.

Read the full story in The Times Colonist

See Damien Gillis' video "Fisheries Minister in Vancouver for Emergency Meeting; Chief Chamberlin Shut Out"