Even as DFO shutters salmon farms, it maintains link between farms and sea lice infestations is ‘uncertain’ A federal decision to shut down 15 open-net Atlantic salmon farms around B.C.’s Discovery Islands is being lauded as a win for protecting wild salmon, and a significant blow to the fish-farm industry — all while reigniting a decades-old debate between industry and scientists. The decision from Ottawa came just weeks after a Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) report found no “statistically significant association” between sea lice infestations among wild juvenile chum and pink salmon and the fish farmsRead more

Trudeau facing pressure from Quebec, Conservatives to close unofficial border crossing in Quebec Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he plans to push U.S. President Joe Biden to renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement during his visit to Canada next month. That agreement states that asylum seekers who enter the U.S. or Canada must make their claims in the first country they arrive in, because the two countries share similar approaches to immigration. But the treaty doesn’t cover unofficial points of entry. Since 2017, Canada has seen an influx of refugee claimants crossingRead more

William Beynon’s work considered to be unparalleled in scope and detail The accidental discovery of four reels of microfilm that contain an extensive historical record of the Tsimshian First Nations is creating a buzz in northwestern B.C. Indigenous communities and in the world of academia. The microfilm turned up last week at Tea Creek Farm in the village of Kitwanga, about 1,230 kilometres northwest of Vancouver. Workers Joel Letendre and Noah Beaton found it in a bin while cleaning out the workshop at the farm owned by Noah’s dad, Jacob Beaton. The information onRead more

2021 flooding most expensive disaster in B.C. history, insurance bureau says The federal government says it is giving more than half-a-billion dollars to B.C. to help deal with ongoing recovery costs after 2021’s devastating floods. Federal minister for emergency preparedness Bill Blair was in Abbotsford — one of the many communities hit hard by flooding in November 2021 — on Thursday to announce a $556,955,880 payment to the province through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) program. According to the Government of Canada, this brings the total amount of money givenRead more

‘When these numbers are not tracked, it’s a lot easier to dismiss the magnitude of the problem’ Joanne MacIsaac recalls the day in 2013 when she found out police had shot and killed her brother Michael. “Something like that changes you,” MacIsaac said. Michael MacIsaac was shot dead by a Durham police officer while running naked through his Ajax, Ont., neighbourhood and wielding a metal table leg — a psychological episode related to his epilepsy, according to his family. What if instead of yelling ‘Drop your weapon,’ police asked ‘How can I help?’Read more