Good Sunday Morning!
So happy to wake up on Mayne Island after a great community meeting last night and on to Pender for today’s meeting at 4!
Last week when I wrote about herring, I left out so much I had wanted to say. There was no accountability for the destruction of the northern cod by DFO. If 30,000 people had lost their jobs overnight from a bank failure or bursting housing bubble one would imagine a national inquiry would have been launched. As it was, the complacent media elite, like Jeffrey Simpson in the Globe and Mail blamed “too many fishermen chasing too few fish.” But the fishers had fought so hard, going to court, demanding an environmental assessment of the DFO quota, only to be rebuffed. The in-shore fishers were begging for science to be heard, for the catch rate to be slashed. But DFO heard only the big corporate voices of National Sea Products and Fisheries Products International. The big companies with their high tech draggers, scraping the ocean floor like clear-cutting feller bunchers in our forests. Taking it all. Those dragger nets could scoop up several 747 size aircraft, with sonar and radar to hunt down every last fish – until they did. When the 1992 cod moratorium was announced it was because FPI and NSP could no longer find fish. Then these business leaders won awards for their acumen in shifting gears, selling their draggers to Africa, to countries like Somalia where they wiped out those fisheries, driving former artisanal fishers to piracy. What a world. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2019.00704/full
The other aspect of BC’s herring fishery that did not get examined was the weird reality that DFO has a management system in BC, but not Atlantic Canada, that allows the landed fish to belong to a single corporation, in the case of herring – Jimmy Pattison. https://thenarwhal.ca/feds-called-on-to-enforce-emergency-closure-of-b-c-s-last-herring-fishery/
From the Narwhal: “According to McAllister, B.C. business magnate Jimmy Pattison owns the majority of the herring fishing fleet and the majority of processing facilities.”
In Atlantic Canada the reverse policy applies: DFO fleet separation rules in Canada’s Atlantic fisheries, prevent fish processing companies or other large corporations from owning and operating fishing vessels in the inshore fisheries, ensuring that the in-shore fisheries remain with independent fishers and communities.
One last note, Briony Penn played a huge organizing role in the February 13 herring event and wanted me to share these clarifications.
Dr. Yoshida is Professor of Medicine, UBC; the event was cohosted by the W̱SÁNEC Hereditary Chiefs, Herring Conservation and Restoration Society, University of Victoria Environmental Studies and Conservancy Hornby Island; hereditary chief Vern Jacks, whom I quoted as former Tseycum Chief, should have been identified as part of the W̱SÁNEC Hereditary Chiefs.
And back to Trump. Impossible not to react in horror to this week’s abuses, starting with his full-on support for Russia’s former KGB thug Putin, falsely claiming Ukraine started the war. Trump’s attack on Zelensky as a “dictator” would be shocking if it were not so predictable.
Trump’s Secretary of Defence, the massively unqualified Fox news presenter, Pete Hegseth, has fired the chair of the Joint Chiefs, Air Force General CQ Brown. Brown stands accused of supporting “woke shit” to quote Hegseth. Hegseth suspects General Brown rose to the rank of general because he is black. And Hegseth is suspicious. Of course, one might wonder whether Hegseth got the job because he is white. But being white is merely proof in Trump-land of a merit-based process. Hegseth’s non qualifications were ripped to shreds during the confirmation hearings. As below:
“I asked him basic questions that even the most junior folks working in the Pentagon would know, like naming one of the main international agreements he’d be responsible for leading. He couldn’t name one. I asked him to tell me just a single country in ASEAN. Again, he couldn’t give me one. Not one.
This was shocking—yet not surprising—from a man whose main form of policy education has come from reading the Fox News teleprompter.”
But Republicans stripped of anything that resembles integrity lined up to approve him anyway.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/21/trump-hegseth-joint-chiefs-cq-brown-jr
As a country Canada is pulling together. And we are refreshing our story of burning down the White House in the War of 1812. But of course, Canada did not exist in 1812, so we can enjoy the retelling, but we were not there. The story we need to know and share is our own BC history and the Fraser Canyon War of 1858. BC’s first Governor, the remarkable James Douglas. His father a Scot and his mother a free black woman, he married to an indigenous woman… what a story (thanks to husband John, a keen student of BC history, for bringing this to my attention years ago)!
Some 12,000 or more American gold seekers, many fresh from the California Gold Rush had made it to Yale in the Fraser Canyon. Many were still seized of the American belief that “the only good Indian is a dead Indian”, and had ransacked Nlaka’pamux (people of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers) and and Sy’lix (Okanagan) villages and murdered inhabitants including 5 Nlaka’pamux chiefs at Spuzzzum. Not surprisingly, some Americans were killed as a result. This is a contemporary account from a Jason Allard:
“Bodies were picked out of the river, and Indians were blamed for murdering the white men who had been drowned through inexperience of the difficult waters of the river. My father repeatedly warned white men against the dangers of such a fate. Agitations were started to clean up the Indians. The climax came when the body of a headless white man was found floating in a back eddy of the river, and near it the body of a white woman, both stripped of clothing. Then war was declared against the Indians. Mass meetings were held at which wild speeches were made and two companies of troops were formed and officers. Captain Snyder and Lieutenant Graham and an officer named Donelly were among the officers selected…The irregular troops started out for vengeance in military form, the stars and stripes at their head. A week later they straggled back, arriving at midnight with the story that now a war of extermination was essential.”
Dougas, being warned of these troubles and anticipating an American annexation of the territories (the US-Canada border had not yet been formalized), went from Fort Victoria to Yale with some Royal Engineers who were part of the Boundary Commission and 20 Royal Marines. Staring down a rowdy and armed band of want-to be gold rush stakers, and the two organized companies of armed “troops”, Douglas held the line. He told the Americans that this was British territory, not lawless California, that the California practice of wildcat staking was not allowed and they had to buy mining licences, that the Indigenous peoples were under the protection of the Crown, and that armed forces were to be disarmed and disbanded. A real threat of annexation, not Trump’s bluster and braggadocio, successfully resisted by not much of an army, but by one hell of a leader. Lessons for these troubled days.
I think we need to raise his name, maybe set in motion out own version of Homeland defence, the James Douglas Home Guard anyone?
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-james-douglas
As he wrote to British Prime Minister Edward Stanley on 19 May 1858: “I am now convinced that it is utterly impossible, through any means within our power, to close the gold districts against the entrance of foreigners, as long as gold is found in abundance, in which case the country will soon be over-run.”
Douglas took the precaution of claiming the land and the minerals for the Crown. He also distributed licenses to the miners and, to stem an invasion, stopped foreign vessels from entering the river. For this action, which seemed designed to protect the HBC monopoly, he was reprimanded by the Colonial Office.
In search of immigrants who might be sympathetic to Britain, Douglas reached out to members of San Francisco’s Black community, who had been discussing the need to emigrate to a more welcoming environment. In 1857, a United States Supreme Court decision had denied citizenship to both free and enslaved African Americans. Douglas promised them British citizenship after five years of land ownership and full protection of the law in the meantime. The community established a 35-member “pioneer committee” to investigate the offer, meeting a “very cheerful and agreeable” Douglas in Victoria on 25 April 1858. Not long after, several hundred Black families moved to the colony ( see Black History in Canada).
The treaties that currently are to govern rights and relationships between the Coast Salish peoples of this region and the settler culture colonizers were negotiated by Douglas. Properly respected, we would be able to rely on Coast Salish peoples to manage and control the fishing of herring and salmon and all of us would be much better off!.
Wishing all a better week ahead. We are in the count down to a new prime minister, to be revealed March 9. I expect an election soon thereafter!
Please consider a donation! When the writ drops we will be in one heck of a scramble!
Love and thanks!!
Elizabeth
And look at the PS to sign this petition: https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-5359
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to transition official government communications away from Twitter/X to more secure, community-regulated platforms that prioritise public safety, accurate information, and accessibility. We encourage the government to explore publicly accountable alternatives, including decentralised networks, to ensure reliable and responsible communication with Canadians.
Elizabeth
P.S.:
Upcoming community meetings!
PENDER ISLANDS: Sunday, February 23 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Community Meeting – Pender Islands
Pender Island Community Hall 4418 Bedwell Harbour Road, Pender Island, BC, Canada
We hope you consider joining a community discussion on Sunday, February 23, taking place from 4-5:30pm PST! For further questions or comments, please email [email protected].
SATURNA ISLAND: Tuesday, February 25 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Community Meeting – Saturna Island
Saturna Community Hall 105 E Point Road, Saturna Island, BC, Canada
We hope you consider joining a community discussion on Tuesday, February 25, happening from 7-8:30pm! For further questions or comments, please email [email protected]
GALIANO ISLAND: Wednesday, February 26 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Community Meeting – Galiano Island
Galiano Island Community Hall 141 Sturdies Bay Road, Galiano Island, British Columbia, Canada
We hope you consider joining a community discussion on Wednesday, February 26, taking place from 6:30-8pm PST! For further questions or comments, please email [email protected]
SALT SPRING ISLAND: Friday, February 28 @ 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Elizabeth speaking at ASK Salt Spring
Please join Elizabeth at ASK Salt Spring on Friday, February 28, from 11am-1pm PT. Bring your questions, concerns and a friend! All gatherings are in the SIMS (Salt Spring Island Middle School, 124 Rainbow Rd, Salt Spring Island.)
…………………………………………
Please send your feedback on this newsletter to [email protected].
Saanich-Gulf Island Greens publish two newsletters:
- The monthly SGI Greens Newsletter
- The weekly Good Sunday Morning — Elizabeth May’s perspective
To subscribe to one or both of these go to sgigreenparty.ca/signup_2020.
Click here to unsubscribe from one or both newsletters.
Our archive of past editions is at sgi.edagreens.ca/news-events.
Saanich-Gulf Islands Greens
https://www.sgigreenparty.ca/