Dispute over baby eels worth $4,900 a kilogram heads back to N.B court
Commercial licence-holder seeks injunction against Indigenous fishers
Canada's most valuable fishery per kilogram will be back before the courts in Saint John next week in a case that pits a longtime commercial licence holder against Indigenous fishers who want a piece of the elver action.
On one side, the original plaintiff in the case accuses Indigenous groups of poaching the baby eels in waterways where she has exclusive rights to fish. On the other side, Indigenous groups want to exercise the right to engage in a moderate livelihood commercial fishery in their traditional territory.
In April, Mary Ann Holland applied to the Court of Queen's Bench for an injunction to stop several groups and individuals from fishing her waterways, and from threatening and intimidating the people who were catching for her company.
The lawsuit named Neqotkuk, also known as Tobique First Nation, Sitansisk Wolastoquiyik, or St. Mary's First Nation, Welamukotok, or Oromocto First Nation, and Woodstock First Nation, along with the four chiefs and some other individuals.
In documents filed with the court, Holland acknowledged that Maliseet, or Wolastoqey, are entitled to engage in a limited moderate livelihood commercial fishery in their traditional territory but have historically never fished for elvers "for food, social, or ceremonial purposes."
In a joint statement issued in May, the chiefs vowed to fight the claims.
According
to court documents, Indigenous fishers clashed with non-Indigenous
fishers for several nights in a row on the banks of the Magaguadavic
River, below the falls in St. George, N.B. (Roger Cosman/CBC)
They said the Wolastoqey and other Indigenous people have a right to earn a livelihood through fishing by virtue of Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution and the Peace and Friendship treaties of the 18th century.
In response to Holland's request for an injunction, the defendants filed their own motion with the court, asking for Holland's statement of claim to be struck. In court documents, they have also asked for a number of things, including an order "striking out" the plaintiff's statement of claim because, among other things, "it is scandalous, frivolous, and vexatious."
They also want more information from the plaintiffs on many of the allegations contained in the statement of claim.
A hearing on that motion has been scheduled in the Court of Queen's Bench in Saint John on Tuesday.
Nearly all baby eels caught in New Brunswick are sent to China, where
they're grown to market size and sold around the world. (Canadian
Wildlife Federation)
The defendants want to know the names of the people the plaintiffs allege "interrupted and hampered" the plaintiffs while they tried to fish for eels. They also demand to know exactly what activities are alleged and where they happened. They also want to know how the plaintiffs "came to know they were a member of that First Nation."
The motion also asks whether the chiefs named as defendants — Timothy Paul, Shelley Sabattis, Alan Pochies, and Ross Perley — were present during the alleged incidents.
In response to the demand for particulars, the plaintiffs repeatedly stated that the details were contained in the original statement of claim.
Roots of the case
The court case began in April, when Holland applied for the injunction to stop Indigenous groups from fishing areas where she claims "exclusive" rights to fish, and from threatening and intimidating her workers.
She said things came to a head on the Magaguadavic River, and others in southwestern New Brunswick in the St. Stephen-St. George area at the end of April. According to court documents, she said Indigenous fishermen "positioned themselves and their nets so as to reduce the number of elvers which could be caught by said fishers … and proceeded to poach the elvers for themselves."
On April 29, Justice Danys Delaquis granted an interim order, telling the defendants to stop "threatening, coercing, harassing or intimidating" the plaintiff and the plaintiff's fishers. The defendants were also ordered to stop fishing the plaintiff's designated watercourses.
But in another affidavit by Holland, she said the defendants were back on the water the same day the judge made the interim order.
A researcher with the group Coastal Action measures an elver caught in
the East River near Chester, N.S., in June 2019. (Richard
Cuthbertson/CBC)
On May 19, Justice Danys Delaquis granted an injunction against the defendants, ordering them to stop "threatening, coercing, harassing or intimidating the Plaintiffs and their fishers, and harvesting elders on the Plaintiffs' licence designated watercourses and ordering, directing persuading, aiding, abetting, and encouraging other persons to commit the above pending the disposition of the action or further order of the court."
In his decision, Delaquis said the defendants "are undoing what the plaintiffs have done for over three decades with respect to the elver fishery."
He also said the plaintiffs' reputation "will also be irreparably harmed unless the defendants' conduct is restrained."
"Lastly, the Defendants have put the court on notice that they have no intention of following any orders it renders. Such behaviour is not condoned or accepted by the court. As a result, I also order that defendants pay the plaintiffs $5,000 in costs on the motion."
'Secretive industry'
Karen Pinchin is a journalist who has written extensively about niche seafood markets, including elvers.
"It's a very secretive industry," she said.
Pinchin said the "money is just undeniable" and that leads others to want in on the action, including Indigenous groups.
"And so it just has all the makings of conflict, right? Because you have the value, you have the secrecy of the species, and then you have environmentalists who are basically saying, 'Wait a sec, we think this species might be in trouble.'"
The value of the catch hasn't always been sky-high though, said Pinchin.
Elvers are scooped into a bucket in 2019 as part of research on the East River near Chester. (Richard Cuthbertson/CBC)
"For a very, very long time, this fish was worth almost nothing. And the people who fished it, the people who held quotas from before that spike in value, they fished the fish because they loved it; because they were fascinated with its life cycle; because they thought it was really smart; because they found something kind of enigmatic about it."
And then the North American market exploded.
When the European supply crashed, prices really shot up. By 2015, elvers in the Maritimes were being sold for $4,685 a kilogram.
The price peaked in 2019 at $5,200. Since 2011, the average price per kilogram has been $3,300, according to DFO data.
As it usually does, the price per kilogram fluctuated throughout the season that closed on July 31, but averaged about $4,900 per kilogram.
Holland was one of only nine licence holders in all of Canada until 2021, according to information provided by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Two additional licences were provided to Indigenous communities in 2022.
In court documents, Holland said her usual quota of 1,200 kilograms was reduced this year by 14 per cent to make room for Indigenous fishers, who have been increasingly drawn to the lucrative fishery.
A bucket of elvers is shown near Chester in 2019. (Richard Cuthbertson/CBC)
Her quota this year is 1,035.6 kilograms. Using the average price this year, her catch is worth more than $5 million. The 14 per cent reduction represents a loss of more than $800,000.
The documents also say the usual total allowable catch for Canada is 9,960 kilograms. At $4,900 per kilogram, it's worth about $48 million.
That's the price paid to commercial licence-holders by dealers who sell overseas — nearly all of it to China.
"So these eels go on these remarkable journeys all around the world, and the value of them keeps going up at every step," said Pinchin.
Remarkable journey
In fact, their remarkable journey begins at birth.
The larvae of the American eel hatch within the Sargasso Sea, an area within the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda. The larvae grow as they're carried along by the Gulf Stream along the East Coast of North America.
By spring, they have become tiny eels, and millions make their way to inland rivers as far north as Greenland. It's in these inland waters that they mature into adult American eels and spend up to 40 years, before finally returning to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and start the process all over again.
Since eels are difficult to breed in captivity, the Asian market depends on "seed" stock from North America, especially after European stocks began to crash in the 1990s.
Baby American eels, which are called elvers or glass eels, legally fished in the Maritimes are packed in a little water, chilled in ice and put on airplanes to China, where they are grown to market size. Eel is particularly popular in Japan, which accounts for 70 per cent of the world's eel consumption.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/commercial-elver-fisher-lawsuit-1.6553134
Defense lawyer says more detail is needed in case against Indigenous fishers
The judge granted the plaintiff's lawyer 30 days to amend the statement of claim.
The case of a commercial fisher who's suing Indigenous groups continued in Saint John on Tuesday.
The case began in April, when Mary Ann Holland applied to the Court of Queen's Bench for an injunction to stop Indigenous fishers from catching elvers in an are where she has an exclusive licence to fish. The lawsuit named Neqotkuk, also known as Tobique First Nation, Sitansisk Wolastoquiyik, or St. Mary's First Nation, Welamukotok, or Oromocto First Nation, and Woodstock First Nation, along with the four chiefs and other unknown individuals.
Holland operates the fishery, which is located in southwestern New Brunswick, under Brunswick Aquaculture and Alder Seafood, who are co-plaintiffs.
Today's hearing was held to discuss a motion brought forward by the defence to strike the plaintiff's statement of claim. The defendants' lawyer, Nick Kennedy, argued the claim should be struck because it does not specify how the chiefs named were involved in the allegedly illegal fishing.
The chiefs are named in the suit, the plaintiff's lawyer said in court Tuesday, because when the fishers were confronted they refused to identify themselves and said the chiefs authorized their fishing.
Barry Morrison argued that the chief's authorization of the fishing makes them liable for it.
Kennedy said this notion has caused his clients a great deal of stress.
"This idea that [chiefs] can authorize something then people are going to jump up and run out and do it, is based on, frankly, dated, offensive views to how these communities are organized," he said.
Morrison said Kennedy's argument grants Indigenous communities special exemptions.
"Saying that they have the ability to do things, like that, that you couldn't do, I couldn't do, corporations couldn't do. That they're a special status, and they can do that thing with impunity. I don't believe that to be correct," Morrison said.
Delay granted
Citing the fact that the elver fishing season is now over, the judge granted the plaintiff's lawyer 30 days to submit an amended statement of claim. The judge asked Morrison to address the issue of authorization in that amended statement.
The lawsuit also alleges that Indigenous fishers physically interfered with Holland's employees. Indigenous fishers positioned their nets in such a way that they "basically forced them out of their position," Morrison said.
In April, an injunction ordered the Indigenous groups to cease fishing and to stop threatening, coercing, harassing or intimidating the plaintiff and her fishers.
The defence argued that more detail is needed in a statement of claim to make clear who is alleged to have done what. In much of the statement of claim, the defendants are simply called the defendants, not a specific chief or community.
"They've asserted no specific facts against each of the defendants," Kennedy said. "And so it's impossible to know from this what each individual is alleged to have done."
Kennedy said the plaintiffs are waiting for discovery – the period in a civil case when both sides must disclose their evidence – to get a better understanding of who is truly liable.
"It's not my client's problem that [the plaintiffs] don't know who to sue," Kennedy said.
Morrison said this is not a strategy, simply the facts of the matter.
"We were asked about the identity of the specific people who were acting in this terrible fashion. We say candidly, we can't provide the details because they refuse to identify themselves and we'll have to wait for discovery of documents," he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Mia Urquhart
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/sea-lamprey-video-spawning-1.6484828
Blood-sucking, snake-like fish arrive in New Brunswick waterways to spawn
Video taken near Belleisle shows the parasitic fish spawning and building nests
But the good news is that they're so focused on spawning that their digestive systems shut down.
"They couldn't feed if they wanted to," said Marc Gaden, the communications director for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
"They have only one thing in mind once they reach that spawning phase, and that's to find a mate and to spawn successfully."
WATCH | Sea lampreys build their nest underwater near Belleisle Bay
Sometimes mistakenly called an eel, the sea lamprey is a fish with a powerful suction cup of a mouth filled with multiple circular rows of horn-shaped teeth and a tongue that burrows into the body of the host so it can liquify its tissues and feed at will.
These lamprey spend a good part of their life at sea, attached to, and feeding off the blood of, other fish. But at this time of year, adults return to inland brooks and rivers to spawn.
Oana Birceanu, an assistant professor at Western University in Ontario, has been studying sea lamprey for years.
"I've worked with the sea lampreys for so many years, yet I've never seen them build their nests in the wild," said Birceanu.
The
Great Lakes Fishery Commission’s website describes a lamprey's mouth as
'a large oral sucking disk filled with sharp, horn-shaped teeth
surrounding a razor sharp rasping tongue.'
That's why she was fascinated by a video taken by Mike Sherwood near his Belleisle area home. It's underwater footage of several lamprey building nests in a brook in Midland.
"It's fascinating," Birceanu said after watching the video.
Sherwood's video show adult lamprey latching moving rocks around — some bigger than softballs.
Other parts of the video show them latched onto even bigger rocks with their powerful suction-cup mouths.
At one point, it even captures two fish spawning in one of the crescent-shaped nests they were working on.
Life cycle of lamprey
Birceanu said the males typically leave the Atlantic Ocean first and lead the way to the spawning grounds.
She said pheromones given off by the larvae from previous seasons that are still in the area help guide them. The females then follow those pheromones and the ones given off by the males, which begin working on the nests even before the females arrive.
She said sea lampreys seek out rocky areas to spawn because the rocks help protect the newly laid eggs. Ideally, they look for rocky terrain upstream and a silty bottom downstream.
The eggs develop into worm-like creatures that make their way to where they can burrow into the sandy bottom. They usually remain in this state, feeding off algae and decomposing matter, for three to seven years — and as long as 14 years in some cases, said Birceanu.
The head of a sea lamprey with its mouth closed, concealing the creepiness within.
Once they reach about 120 millimetres in length, they stop feeding and they go through a metamorphosis, where they transform into their adult bodies. This roughly two-month transformation even alters the way they breathe, so that they can continue to breathe while completely latched onto a host.
Once the transformation is complete, these juveniles head to the sea, where they attach to host fish and then feed at will as the host goes on with life.
Then, when it's time to spawn, lampreys return to inland waters to start the cycle all over again. But once finished, both males and females die.
"They exert all of their energy in that spawning phase, and they die after spawning," said Gaden.
Same fish, different story
Sea lampreys are native to Atlantic Canada. They are part of the ecosystem, and other species have learned to evolve with them. They are even beneficial to fish such as salmon, by returning valuable nutrients to the environment when scores of them die after spawning.
But in other places, they are an invasive species that has altered the ecosystem and decimated other fish populations.
The Great Lakes were particularly hard hit after new canals opened up new habitat for sea lampreys in the mid-1900s.
Gaden said the sea lampreys' scientific name means stone sucker.
"The power of that suction cup is also what makes the sea lamprey so lethal in the Great Lakes," he said.
Marc Gaden is communications director and legislative liaison for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. (Submitted by Marc Gaden)
They latch onto fish and their tongue drills through the scales and skin of their host and feed on the blood and tissue, usually killing the host.
"Very often in their native range in the Atlantic, the sea lamprey will be a true parasite. That is, it might be able to feed off of the fish and not kill the host and then maybe move on to another species."
But in the Great Lakes, the native species aren't large enough to survive their parasitic hitchhikers, and millions of fish were killed in the process.
Gaden said a single sea lamprey can feed and kill off about 40 pounds of fish in about two years.
For decades, the Great Lakes Fisher Commission has been working to get control over the lamprey population. Each year, they spread lampricide in waterways to kill the larvae by the millions.
Sea
lamprey populations in Lake Superior are on the way back up ,according
to Alex Gonzalez of the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service. (photo credit: T. Lawrence GLFC)
Without such vigilant and sustained efforts, Gaden said it wouldn't take long for sea lampreys to flourish again. After all, each female is capable of laying between 50,000 and 120,000 eggs. And without any natural predators, the comeback would be swift.
"Sea lamprey are very opportunistic. If you ease up control even briefly, they'll bounce back in the matter of a couple of years."
The commission keeps a running tally on its website of how many sea lampreys have been killed so far this year. The counter is currently at more than 2.5 million.
Since their numbers peaked, Gaden said the eradication efforts have reduced sea lamprey by 95 per cent, "and that saves well over 110 million pounds of Great Lakes fish a year."
'A great parlour trick'
Gaden helps run the commission public awareness campaign, where he takes live sea lampreys on the road. He said they make "a great parlour trick" and he's lost count of the number of times he's had one attached to his flesh.
He said it's a demonstration of how powerful the suction is, but since lampreys don't feed on warm-blooded animals, they don't drill into humans with their tongue.
Gaden said it's impossible to pull the fish off once they latch. It shows how impossible it would be for a host fish to shake one off itself. He said it takes some effort to squeeze the sides of its mouth until the suction is broken with an audible pop.
Hamilton
Mountain MP Lisa Hepfner with a sea lamprey attached to her hand, along
with Niagara Centre MP Vance Badawey on Parliament Hill in April. (Submitted by Marc Gaden)
"You do have to break the seal. You can't just pull it off. I've heard it described as about as powerful as a shop vac."
Gaden recently took his lamprey show to Parliament Hill and had several members of Parliament volunteer to have a lamprey attached to their hand.
With all the horror-show attributes lampreys have going for them, one legend is not true. Lampreys do not travel across land, said Gaden. Although they're capable of sucking their way over and around barriers, they do not leave the water, unlike some species like the snake head, another invasive species in Canada, which can travel across land for short distances.
The video
Birceanu said Sherwood's video shows the males building the nest. She said the males have a ridge along their back that "looks like a vein." They're also more silvery than females.
She said at one point in the video, the female releases her eggs at the same time the male releases his sperm.
"The male and the female are intertwined and they have that quivering behaviour and that's when they're releasing eggs and the males are releasing the sperm," said Birceanu.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
https://twitter.com/cbcnb/status/1160963395845316608?lang=es
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/cuts-quarry-swimming-nb-invasive-goldfish-1.5239849
Invasion of the giant goldfish: Pets overrun local swimming hole
Discarded goldfish grow and multiply, potentially causing chaos in local ecosystem
Getting a goldfish is easy.
Getting rid of them? That's a whole other story.
On a hot August afternoon at the Cuts — a popular swimming hole in Springfield, near the head of Belleisle Bay — swimmers paddle and dive off the tall cliffs.
Darting through the water are dozens of orange, white and calico goldfish.
Some are thumb-sized, like the ones you'd see in a pet store. Others are bigger than your hand.
A handful of goldfish were in the Cuts last summer. But this year, they've multiplied — and fattened up.
"To be honest, they are the biggest goldfish I've ever seen," said Saint Johner Riley Keenan, who estimates some fish are 10 inches, or about 25 centimetres, long.
"it's just a weird thing to see."
"I've swam with fish before," said swimmer Bonnie Ferguson."But goldfish? Not so much."
How'd they get there?
The goldfish didn't get to the Cuts on their own.
The best theory is that "they were someone's pet that they released," said Graeme Stewart Robertson, executive director of the Atlantic Coastal Action Program in Saint John.
One of the beefier specimens sharing the water with swimmers at the Cuts. (Brian Chisholm / CBC)
Goldfish sell at local pet stores from just 29 cents to $7 apiece — making them an easy impulse buy.
But the consequences of setting Goldie free are far-reaching.
"When they're released in the wild, they can grow much larger — sometimes even a couple of feet long or longer," he said.
Rogue goldfish have also been spotted in Rockwood Park's Fisher Lakes and other bodies of water in the Saint John region, according to Stewart-Robertson.
ACAP workers pulling a shopping cart out of Ritchie Lake in Quispamsis once found "a goldfish that had grown so large that it clearly couldn't have entered through the gaps of the cart mesh metal anymore," Stewart-Robertson said.
"They grow to the size of the environment."
In the Cuts — a pool formed when gravel pit excavators hit a natural spring — the goldfish are isolated from other waterways.
But elsewhere, fugitive goldfish are a serious problem.
They've choked out ponds in St. Albert, Alta., closed fishing lakes near Terrace, B.C., and invaded the harbour in Hamilton, Ont.
In Hamilton, scientists with Fisheries and Oceans Canada started banding and tracking the fish after up to two million goldfish were estimated to live in the harbour in 2016.
They tear up vegetation — and with no natural predators — throw the local aquatic ecosystem into chaos.
"They'll just keep feeding and growing for many years until they're causing competition problems for local, native fish," Stewart-Robertson said.
- Alberta city guts ponds of invasive 'monster' goldfish
- Goldfish invasion closes popular lake to fishing in northwestern B.C.
The Cuts quarry is deep enough that goldfish can spend the winter below the frost line and return in the spring to keep breeding.
"Unless something eats them," Stewart-Robertson said.
"I'm sure there are some local birds of prey who are looking forward to easily spotting a bright fish in the environment."
Radical anti-goldfish measures employed elsewhere in Canada include include electrocuting them or killing them with a natural pesticide called Rotenone.
But for the people flocking to the Cuts to swim and take pictures, swimming with the fishes is a novelty — at least for now.
"It's kind of a nice surprise when you're out for a swim," said Riley Keenan.
"It's a cool experience to see them here."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZbtS3jM-Cg&t=578s
Inside the Media with Michael Depp: CBC Information Morning's Julia Wright
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Inside the Media with Michael Depp: News and Media Literacy
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Matthew Johnson
Director of Education
Matthew Johnson is the Director of Education for MediaSmarts, Canada’s centre for digital and media literacy. He is the author of many of MediaSmarts’ lessons, parent materials and interactive resources and a lead on MediaSmarts’ Young Canadians in a Wired World research project. As an acknowledged expert in digital literacy and its implementation in Canadian curricula, Matthew is the architect of MediaSmarts’ Use, Understand, Create: Digital Literacy Framework for Canadian K-12 Schools. He has contributed blogs and articles to websites and magazines around the world as well as presenting MediaSmarts’ materials on topics such as copyright, cyberbullying, body image and online hate to parliamentary committees, academic conferences and governments and organizations around the world, frequently as a keynote speaker. He has served on expert panels convened by the Canadian Pediatric Society, the Ontario Network of Child and Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Services and others, consulted on provincial curriculum for the Ontario Ministry of Education, and been interviewed by outlets such as The Globe and Mail, BBC News Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Radio Canada International and CBC’s The National.
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https://newslit.org/newsroom/press-release/nlp-founder-charles-salter-named-successor/
NLP founder & CEO Alan Miller to transition to new role; Charles Salter named successor
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 4, 2022 — Alan C. Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who founded the News Literacy Project in 2008 and who has led the organization for the past 14 years, will step down as CEO on June 30. NLP’s current President and Chief Operating Officer, Charles Salter, will become the education nonprofit’s CEO, effective July 1. Miller will stay with NLP on a full-time basis, with the title of founder, through NLP’s next fiscal year, which ends on June 30, 2023. In this capacity, Miller will continue to play a major fundraising role, serve as an adviser to Salter and remain a member of NLP’s board.
The transition comes amid the increasingly urgent battle to reduce the harm from mis- and disinformation. NLP educates young people and adults to fight a proliferation of false information that threatens our public health and democracy, including misinformation about COVID-19, the results of the 2020 presidential election, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and other vital matters.
“While our work remains more urgent than ever, I decided that the time was right for me to turn over the reins to Chuck,” Miller said. “Chuck has proven that he’s ready to lead NLP’s efforts to meet this challenge. He’ll become CEO just as we embark on an ambitious new four-year plan.”
Miller launched NLP after speaking to his daughter’s sixth grade class and realizing that young people needed guidance to learn how to know what information they could trust, as social media and smartphones were revolutionizing how people access news. As a founder of the field of news literacy, Miller helped raise more than $35 million and oversaw the growth of NLP to a team of 30 staffers to make NLP the leading provider of news literacy resources in America.
Since 2016, more than 345,000 students have used NLP’s Checkology® virtual classroom, and the organization has engaged with over 50,000 educators in all 50 states and more than 120 other countries. All told, educators using NLP resources and programs in the last year have reached an estimated 2 million students. In 2020, the organization dramatically expanded its reach and mission by making the curriculum free to schools and teachers and partnering with other organizations to educate the general public.
“In my time leading NLP, I’ve felt that we went from being a voice in the wilderness to being an answer to a prayer,” added Miller. “It’s been deeply gratifying to see so many students and adults use our resources to gain a better understanding of how to tell fact from fiction. I’m especially grateful to the committed board and staff members, educators, journalists, donors and others who have supported our vision of seeing news literacy embedded in the American education experience and the creation of a news-literate nation.”
Salter joined NLP in 2018 as its first chief operating officer and was awarded the title of president one year later. Prior to joining NLP, he spent nearly two decades in education — often working to advance opportunity in under-resourced communities — as a teacher, school leader, teachers union president and senior executive with several national education organizations.
As Salter prepares to steward the nonprofit he’s spearheading the creation of a four-year strategic plan that will chart a new phase of NLP’s expansion and impact. “From Mission to Movement: Creating a Future Founded on Facts,” calls for the creation of a new platform to enable people to access fact checks on major public issues and to gain skills and resources to become better able to discern credible information themselves. It will be the focus of NLP’s bold new initiative to engage the public to combat mis- and disinformation.
NLP also will begin developing a graduate-level course to train educators how to teach news literacy and will host an annual national news literacy conference as it continues to expand its reach with educators and students nationwide.
“I am very honored and excited to have been chosen to lead this critical work in light of the growing harm done by misinformation. As we scale up to meet this moment, we will aspire to encourage more states to pass legislation requiring that news literacy be taught as part of a broader civics curriculum as a requirement for graduation,” Salter said. “The benefits for our democracy will be enormous as our research has shown that students who become more news-literate are more likely to participate in the civic life of their communities.”
NLP’s board unanimously approved the leadership transition on Feb. 3.
To learn more about this transition or to schedule an interview with
Miller and Salter, please contact Mike Webb at media@newslit.org.
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ACAP Saint John,
Belleisle Watershed Coalition (BWC)
belleislewatershed@gmail.com
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/indigenous-fishermen-fight-lawsuit-1.6455339
Chiefs vow to fight court action trying to limit where they can fish elvers
Statement calls threat allegations 'wild'
Indigenous groups are vowing to continue to fight a lawsuit trying to keep them off a number of waterways in southwestern New Brunswick.
They also say accusations they threatened or confronted commercial fishermen are "wild allegations … and we don't condone such behaviour," according to a statement issued by four chiefs named in the lawsuit.
"We will fight these claims in court, where we'll argue there is no legal basis for the claims in this injunction against the Chiefs or the First Nations," said the chiefs.
They said the Wolastoqey and other Indigenous people have a right to earn a livelihood through fishing by virtue of Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution and the Peace and Friendship treaties.
The
Wolastoqey territory in New Brunswick is shown by the shaded area of
this map, which was part of the land claim filed last August by several
First Nations. (Submitted by Wolastoqey Nation in New Brunswick)
"It is inappropriate and frankly, irrelevant that any commercial licence-holder that acquires a privilege to fish resources from our traditional waters from the DFO, should make any statements that attempt to dictate limits of our rights and define our territory.
"The Wolastoqey have these rights in the entirety of our territory, which is described in the attached map," said the chiefs.
The lawsuit filed by Mary Ann Holland names Neqotkuk Maliseet Nation (also known as Tobique First Nation), Sitansisk Wolastoquiyik (St. Mary's First Nation), Welamukotok First Nation (Oromocto First Nation), and Woodstock First Nation, along with the four chiefs and some other individuals.
In documents filed with the court, Holland acknowledged that Maliseet, or Wolastoqey, are entitled to engage in a limited moderate livelihood commercial fishery in their traditional territory but have historically never fished for elvers "for food, social, or ceremonial purposes."
In their joint statement, the chiefs said the Supreme Court "has been clear: a First Nation exercising its commercial fishing right is not limited to harvesting species that were harvested traditionally."
Elvers are young American eels that are harvested largely for an
overseas market, where they are grown to maturity. (Richard
Cuthbertson/CBC)
They also said the Wolastoqey Nation has been working with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans "toward an arrangement that respects the rights of the First Nations to earn a livelihood through fishing."
They say the government "has continued to prioritize recreational and non-Indigenous commercial fishing interests" and placed "constraints" on Indigenous fishers on harvesting other species.
Holland, who has fished for elvers since 1988, applied to the Court of Queen's Bench in April for an injunction to stop Indigenous fishermen from fishing areas where she claims "exclusive" rights to fish, and from threatening and intimidating her workers.
She said things came to a head on the Magaguadavic River, and others in southwestern New Brunswick in the St. Stephen-St. George area at the end of April. According to court documents, she said Indigenous fishermen "positioned themselves and their nets so as to reduce the number of elvers which could be caught by said fishers … and proceeded to poach the elvers for themselves."
Plaintiff
Mary Ann Holland says she has the exclusive rights to harvest elvers on
the Magaguadavic River, seen here in an aerial shot above St. George. (Roger Cosman/CBC)
On April 29, Justice Danys Delaquis ordered the defendants to stop "threatening, coercing, harassing or intimidating" the plaintiff and the plaintiff's fishers. The defendants were also ordered to stop fishing the plaintiff's designated watercourses, although another affidavit by Holland said the defendants were back on the water the same day the judge made the order.
The parties were back in court on May 13. After hearing arguments from both sides, Delaquis said he needed more time to make a decision. He said the interim order will remain in effect until he renders a decision.
In a separate court action launched last year, multiple First Nations are asking the courts to recognize that New Brunswick and surrounding areas were never ceded to settlers.
The notice of action was filed in August 2021 and lists as defendants, the Province of New Brunswick, the Attorney General of Canada, and dozens of privately owned businesses.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/magaguadavic-river-elver-indigenous-rights-1.6452317
Indigenous fishers still banned from catching elvers in Magaguadavic after hearing
Interim injunction in effect until judge makes decision 'as soon as possible'
A judge is considering whether to extend an order preventing Indigenous fishers from harvesting elvers from waterways claimed by a licensed commercial fishery.
The mouth of the Magaguadavic River in southwestern New Brunswick has become fraught territory, according to Mary Ann Holland, who filed a lawsuit alleging Indigenous fishers were threatening her staff, disrupting her operations and "poaching" the young American eels without a licence.
She alleges the river doesn't fall under Indigenous territory and "elvers have never been caught by the Maliseet for food, social, or ceremonial purposes."
There is currently a land claim filed by multiple First Nations asking the courts to recognize that New Brunswick and surrounding areas were never ceded to settlers.
Holland, who operates the fishery under co-plaintiffs Brunswick Aquaculture and Alder Seafood, said she's the only one entitled to catch elvers in the area, and she has the licence from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Indigenous
fishers clashed with commercial fishery employees on the banks of the
Magaguadavic River, below the falls in St. George, a lawsuit alleges. (Roger Cosman/CBC)
Can Holland prove 'irreparable harm?'
At issue is whether the judge should ban Indigenous people from fishing for elvers in that area until the actual lawsuit goes through the justice system and a final decision is made.
To keep the injunction, Holland's lawyer has to prove there is "irreparable harm" in Indigenous fishers continuing to catch elvers on the Magaguadavic.
Holland's lawyer Barry Morrison said loss of business, potential loss of employees, and the threatening of elver populations are all harms caused by Indigenous fishers that can't be easily repaired.
He said employees have been feeling threatened, and Holland worries she will lose her workers because they feel unsafe.
The
Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada has
recommended that American eels be classified as a threatened species. (Richard Cuthbertson/CBC)
Defence lawyer Nick Kennedy argued Morrison can't make conservation claims because that's a complicated issue and is the purview of DFO.
And he said loss of business is not "irreparable" harm because if Holland were to win the case, she could demand damages for money lost.
Morrison wants the judge to extend the ban until the end of the elver season around July 30, or until another order is made to remove it.
DFO extends quota to First Nations
In April, Justice Danys Delaquis ordered the Indigenous fishers to stop "threatening, coercing, harassing or intimidating" the plaintiff and the plaintiff's fishers. He also ordered them to stop fishing in the plaintiff's designated watercourses and "ordering, directing, persuading, aiding, abetting and encouraging" others to do so.
An injunction is often made to stop alleged harm from continuing while a lawsuit is mid-process.
The lawsuit names Neqotkuk Maliseet Nation (also named Tobique First Nation), Sitansisk Wolastoquiyik (also known as St. Mary's First Nation), Welamukotok First Nation (also named Oromocto First Nation), and Woodstock First Nation, along with the four chiefs and some other individuals.
The first order was first made without defence lawyers for Indigenous groups present. After hearing arguments from both sides on May 4, Delaquis further extended the injunction until Friday, so both sides can submit more evidence.
After hearing arguments Friday, Delaquis said he needs time to consider the evidence and arguments, but that he will render a decision "as soon as possible."
"The interim order will have to remain in place until I render a decision," he said. "I can't render a decision today."
In an affidavit, Holland alleges Indigenous fishers were back on the water the same day the order to stay off was made.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-elver-fishery-in-court-1.6444335
Commercial elver fisher accuses Indigenous groups of poaching
Court documents seek injunction against Indigenous fishers
A legal battle is brewing in southwestern New Brunswick between a licensed commercial eel fisher and some First Nations fishers.
Mary Ann Holland, who has been fishing elvers since 1988, is accusing several Indigenous groups and individuals of poaching elvers in waterways where she has exclusive rights to fish.
She has applied to the Court of Queen's Bench for an injunction to stop them from fishing and from threatening and intimidating behaviour toward her fishers.
The parties were in court on Wednesday, but lawyers recently hired by some defendants requested more time. As a result, the hearing was adjourned until May 13.
On April 29, the defendants were ordered by the judge to stop "threatening, coercing, harassing or intimidating" the plaintiff and the plaintiff's fishers. The defendants were also ordered to stop fishing the plaintiff's designated watercourses and "ordering, directing, persuading, aiding, abetting and encouraging" others to do so.
But in an affidavit filed with the court on May 3, Holland said the defendants were back on the water the same day the judge made the order. In fact, Holland said an even larger group was present late on April 29 when she and her lawyer, Barry Morrison, arrived at the Magaguadavic River to deliver copies of court documents.
Elvers are baby American eels that are shipped overseas where they are grown to maturity. (Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press)
According to the statement of claim, Holland's commercial licence gives her "exclusive rights" to fish elvers in a number of waterways in southwestern New Brunswick
Holland operates the fishery under co-plaintiff's Brunswick Aquaculture and Alder Seafood.
"As indigenous people, in addition to receiving funding from the Government of Canada, the Maliseet are entitled to engage in a limited moderate livelihood commercial fishery in their traditional territory to secure necessaries …," according to the statement of claim.
The document goes on to say that "elvers have never been caught by the Maliseet for food, social, or ceremonial purposes."
The document said Holland's fishers were going about their business on the nights of April 26, 27, and 28 when they were "interrupted and hampered" by the defendants. As the court documents explain, elvers, or baby American eels, are harvested at night on high tides as they enter watercourses on their way upstream.
Plaintiff
Mary Ann Holland says she has the exclusive rights to harvest elvers on
the Magaguadavic River, seen here in an aerial shot above St. George. (Roger Cosman/CBC)
In Holland's affidavit, she says, "the most egregious event" took place on the Magaguadavic River on April 27 "when more than 30 members of the Defendant First Nations and other Defendants swarmed their way onto the banks of the river in intimidating manner where the Plaintiffs' fishers were catching elvers and positioned themselves and their nets so as to reduce the number of elvers which could be caught by said fishers … and proceeded to poach the elvers for themselves."
The statement of claim said two officials with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans told the defendants they were poaching and instructed them to stop, "but the defendants arrogantly and in a high handed manner refused to stop and successfully harvested for themselves a substantial number of elvers."
The plaintiffs say the defendants refused to identify themselves that night, saying instead that they were fishing under the authority of their chiefs.
"They stated they were exercising their First Nations rights on unceded territory and were doing so not just to gain income, but to force the Government of Canada to recognize those rights and would continue to exercise those rights whenever they wanted to exercise them," states the court document, copies of which were obtained by CBC.
More than 40 people attended an elver fishery training session held by Kingsclear in April. (Mrinali Anchan/CBC)
Holland said the "poachers" also interfered with her fishers on other waterways where she has exclusive rights. She said several people positioned themselves and their nets directly in front of where her fishers had set up, preventing them from catching anything. She said her fishers "effectively were forced off the stream to avoid further confrontation."
Holland said she approached three of them and told them about the court injunction that had been issued earlier that day.
"One of them, who appeared to be the leader, told me they would continue to fish at that location until the season was over despite the Court Order, as that was their Indigenous right. I then left," said Holland in her affidavit filed with the court.
Holland went on to say that officials with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans managed to get the Indigenous fishers to leave. But they returned the next night.
Included in the court file is a document created by the Maliseet people, describing their territory as the St. John River watershed.
A researcher with the group Coastal Action measures an elver caught in
the East River near Chester, N.S., on June 18, 2019. (Richard
Cuthbertson/CBC)
"None of the watercourses I fish are in the Saint John River watershed," Holland wrote in her affidavit filed with the court on May 3. "The watersheds I have a licence for total less than 6,000 square kilometres."
The list of defendants includes Neqotkuk Maliseet Nation (also named Tobique First Nation), Sitansisk Wolastoquiyik (also known as St. Mary's First Nation), Welamukotok First Nation (also named Oromocto First Nation), and Woodstock First Nation, along with the four chiefs and some other individuals.
According to court documents, there were also First Nations fishers from Nova Scotia involved in the confrontations on the Magaguadavic River.
Holland said one of the men identified himself as a member of the Millbrook Mi'kmaq First Nation in Nova Scotia. He said he read about the fishing opportunity on a poster he saw on a lamp post in the St. Mary's First Nation telling people where and when to meet.
CBC left messages for the chiefs of all four bands named in the lawsuit, who are also listed individually as defendants, but none responded by publication time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
https://twitter.com/DavidRaymondAm1/status/1559749272949645312
https://www.karenpinchin.com/about
I'm a journalist specializing in complex, investigation-fueled stories about food, science, culture, and the environment. I live in Nova Scotia, where I am currently writing my first book—the story of a mercurial fisherman and one Atlantic bluefin tuna he chased—for Dutton, Knopf Canada and William Collins. I was the 2019/2020 Tow Journalism Fellow at PBS FRONTLINE and my work has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Scientific American, Vox, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, National Geographic, Maclean's Magazine and The Counter, to name a few. I'm a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, the National Association of Science Writers and Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Born in Toronto, I've lived in Quebec City, Vancouver, and Fredericton, and briefly in France and Malaysia. I studied journalism and history at Carleton University, French as a second language at Université Laval, international affairs at Bard College, and professional cooking at Northwest Culinary Academy.
Most recently, I earned my MA-Science from Columbia Journalism School, where I was awarded the Lynton Fellowship for Book Writing. (I've also won an Atlantic Journalism Award in business reporting and been awarded grants from the Sloan Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Fund for Environmental Journalism and the Access Copyright Marian Hebb Research Grant.) I’m represented by Mackenzie Brady Watson at Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency.
In past lives I was acquiring editor of non-fiction at Goose Lane Editions, Canada's oldest independent publishing house, and the local food columnist on CBC Radio Information Morning in Fredericton. I edited for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games and Maclean's Magazine's higher education platform OnCampus, and in 2012 I founded and managed a community-based editorial team for the now-defunct OpenFile Vancouver. I started my reporting career at The Canadian Press.
Find me on Twitter, use the form below or send an email to karen@karenpinchin.com.
https://www.coastalaction.org/coastal-action-our-team-staff-biographies-861687.html
OUR TEAM
https://www.coastalaction.org/coastal-action-contact-us.html
The Mahone Bay Centre
P.O Box 489
45 School Street, Suite 403
Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia
B0J 2E0
Tel: 902-634-9977
Email: info@coastalaction.org
https://www.cosewic.ca/index.php/en-ca/reports/preparing-status-reports/required-contacts.html#toc5
Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre
Maritimes requests: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island
P.O. Box 6416
Sackville, NB E4L 1G6
Fax: 506-364-2656
Sean Blaney
Executive director / senior scientist
Telephone: 506-364-2658
Email: sean.blaney@accdc.ca
Zoologist
Telephone: 506-364-2660
Email: john.klymko@accdc.ca
COSEWIC secretariat
Canadian Wildlife Service
Environment and Climate Change Canada
351 St. Joseph Blvd, 16th floor
Gatineau QC K1A 0H3
Email: cosewic-cosepac@ec.gc.ca
Even Species at Risk are cramped at home
Printable version (PDF - 152 kB)
(Ottawa, May 7, 2021). For over a year now, Canadians have been urged to stay home. Sometimes, though, home can not only feel too small, it can be too small. At their most recent virtual meeting, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) assessed the status of 26 wildlife species, some of which have particularly small spaces to call home. While not all are actually declining, a single stroke of bad luck could eliminate their entire Canadian population. And climate change may bring that bad luck.
Two rare lichens were assessed. Both live in specialised environments, one on the Pacific coast and one on the Atlantic. The tiny Seaside Centipede Lichen occurs on a narrow strip of western Vancouver Island and nearby islands. It occurs only on small Sitka Spruce twigs that are within a few metres of the forest floor. This lichen also needs a nitrogen supply, and so is usually found on trees near Bald Eagle perches and sea lion haul-outs where poop supplies that key nutrient. In Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Vole Ears Lichen occurs in a few forests near the coast where necessary fog is common. We know more about this rare lichen because of the increased interest of naturalists -- the Canadian population is the only one remaining in North America and may number fewer than 2000 individuals.
Increasingly severe storms can damage the lichens and their host trees on both coasts, layered upon local threats. Seaside Centipede Lichen was assessed by COSEWIC as Threatened and Vole Ears Lichen as Endangered.
Black Hills Mountainsnail has been isolated in the Cypress Hills on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border since glaciers covered much of the continent. The Canadian population is one of only four in the world that survived on rare hills or "sky islands" above the ice (the others are in Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota). Climate change-fueled megafires could affect all these Canadian snails in one fell swoop. COSEWIC assessed this snail as Endangered.
"Large wildfires can damage and even wipe out snail populations -- they really can't just run away!" noted Dwayne Lepitzki, Co-chair of the Molluscs Subcommittee. "The Cypress Hills had major fires in the 1880s and we know that wildfires are getting bigger and more common in western Canada. Hopefully, fire management can help protect this snail."
The attractive Edwards’ Beach Moth is restricted to a few windswept beaches and small dunes around southern Vancouver Island, isolated from populations known in California. Thanks to work by dedicated volunteers, invasive vegetation is being kept at bay. However, climate change is a threat because warming brings rising sea levels and more numerous and intense storms that threaten to destroy the upper beaches and dunes where the moth lives. It was assessed as Endangered.
Fully 15 of the 26 wildlife species assessed by COSEWIC are threatened by climate change. Not all of them have restricted ranges. Short-eared Owl is still widely distributed, but Christmas Bird Count and Breeding Bird Survey volunteers have documented a worrying decline in their numbers.
"Citizen science observers across the continent are fundamentally important in determining population trends for this and many other species," commented Birds Subcommittee Co-chair Richard Elliot. "We couldn’t do it without them."
Climate warming in the North is resulting in shrubification of tundra habitat, making it less favourable for the owl, and adding to human impacts it faces further south. Short-eared Owl was assessed as Threatened.
Altogether, COSEWIC assessed 5 birds, 5 plants, 3 insects, 3 reptiles, 3 molluscs, 2 sharks, 2 lichens, 1 amphibian, 1 freshwater fish, and 1 mammal wildlife species. Further details on all the wildlife species assessed at this meeting can be found on the COSEWIC website. For more information on how COSEWIC assesses species, and a complete list of Canadian wildlife species assessed by COSEWIC up to 2020, please see Canadian Wildlife Species at risk (October 2020).
Next meeting.
COSEWIC’s next scheduled wildlife species assessment meeting will be held in November 2021.
About COSEWIC
COSEWIC assesses the status of wild species, subspecies, varieties, or other important units of biological diversity, considered to be at risk in Canada. To do so, COSEWIC uses scientific, Aboriginal traditional and community knowledge provided by experts from governments, academia and other organizations. Summaries of assessments are currently available to the public on the COSEWIC website and will be submitted to the Federal Minister of the Environment and Climate Change in fall 2021 for listing consideration under the Species at Risk Act (SARA). At that time, the status reports and status appraisal summaries will be publicly available on the Species at Risk Public Registry.
At its most recent meeting, COSEWIC assessed 26 wildlife species in various COSEWIC risk categories, including 7 Endangered, 9 Threatened, and 10 Special Concern.
COSEWIC comprises members from each provincial and territorial government wildlife agency, four federal entities (Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada Agency, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Canadian Museum of Nature), three Non-government Science Members, and the Co-chairs of the Species Specialist and the Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Subcommittees.
Definition of COSEWIC terms and status categories:
Wildlife Species: A species, subspecies, variety, or
geographically or genetically distinct population of animal, plant or
other organism, other than a bacterium or virus, that is wild by nature
and is either native to Canada or has extended its range into Canada
without human intervention and has been present in Canada for at least
50 years.
Extinct (X): A wildlife species that no longer exists.
Extirpated (XT): A wildlife species that no longer exists in the wild in Canada, but exists elsewhere.
Endangered (E): A wildlife species facing imminent extirpation or extinction.
Threatened (T):
A wildlife species that is likely to become Endangered if nothing is
done to reverse the factors leading to its extirpation or extinction.
Special Concern (SC):
A wildlife species that may become Threatened or Endangered because of a
combination of biological characteristics and identified threats.
Not at Risk (NAR): A wildlife species that has been evaluated and found to be not at risk of extinction given the current circumstances.
Data Deficient (DD):
A category that applies when the available information is insufficient
(a) to resolve a wildlife species’ eligibility for assessment or (b) to
permit an assessment of the wildlife species’ risk of extinction.
Species at Risk: A wildlife species that has been assessed as Extirpated, Endangered, Threatened or Special Concern.
| Dr. John Reynolds Chair, COSEWIC Department of Biological Sciences Simon Fraser University Telephone: 778-782-5636 Reynolds@sfu.ca |
For general inquiries: COSEWIC Secretariat Canadian Wildlife Service Environment and Climate Change Canada 351 St. Joseph Blvd, 16th floor Gatineau QC K1A 0H3 ec.cosepac-cosewic.ec@canada.ca www.cosewic.ca |
| For inquiries on amphibians and reptiles (Coeur d'Alene Salamander, Common Five-lined Skink, Eastern Hog-nosed Snake): Dr. Tom Herman Acadia University Telephone: 902-670-3535 tom.herman@acadiau.ca |
For inquiries on arthropods (Cobblestone Tiger Beetle, Edwards' Beach Moth, Grappletail): Dr. David McCorquodale Cape Breton University Telephone: 902-574-1547 david_mccorquodale@cbu.ca |
| For inquiries on birds (Band-tailed Pigeon, Barn Swallow, Ferruginous Hawk, Ross's Gull, Short-eared Owl): Dr. Marcel Gahbauer Telephone: 343-809-2757 marcel@migrationresearch.org |
For inquiries on freshwater fishes (Lake Chubsucker) Dr. Nicholas E. Mandrak University of Toronto Scarborough Telephone: 416-208-2248 nicholas.mandrak@utoronto.ca |
| For inquiries on lichens (Seaside Centipede Lichen, Vole Ears Lichen): Dr. David H. S. Richardson Saint Mary's University Telephone: 902-422-4979 david.richardson@smu.ca |
For inquiries on marine fishes (Tope, White Shark (Atlantic population)): Dr. Bruce Leaman Telephone: 250-510-3625 bruce.leaman@outlook.com |
| For inquiries on molluscs (Atlantic Mud-piddock, Black Hills Mountainsnail, Purple Wartyback): Dr. Dwayne Lepitzki Telephone: 403-762-0864 lepitzki@telusplanet.net |
For inquiries on terrestrial mammals (Swift Fox): Dr. Stephen D. Petersen Assiniboine Park Zoo Telephone: 204-927-6090 spetersen@assiniboinepark.ca |
| For inquiries on plants (American Water-willow, Coastal Wood Fern, Kentucky Coffee-tree, Lakeside Daisy, Western Silvery Aster): Del Meidinger Meidinger Ecological Consultants Ltd. Telephone: 250-881-1180 Telephone: 778-977-1180 delmeidinger@gmail.com | For inquiries on Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge: Roger Gallant Telephone: 709-638-4343 rgallant@gallantenvironmental.com |
https://www.oktlaw.com/team-members/nick-kennedy/
Nick Kennedy
Associate
Barry R Morrison QC
Lawyer Firm: Morrison Pierce
1212-1 Germain St, Saint John, NB E2L 4S7
Website: www.morrisonpierce.com
Ross A. Pierce
Practice Areas: Corporate, Commercial, Estate Planning
Ross has been advising clients on a variety of corporate, commercial, estate planning as well as commercial litigation matters for more than two decades.
His past experience as Vice President and General Counsel of a regional communications enterprise and as a director of a publicly traded junior mining company, brings a business perspective when assisting clients in achieving their goals.
Past transactions include a regional plan of arrangement, securities matters including initial public offering, corporate reorganizations, debt and private equity financing, restructurings, owner manager tax planning as well as commercial litigation including shareholder disputes and oppression actions involving corporate governance.
Ross holds a Commerce degree (with Distinction) from Mt. Allison University and an L.L.B. from the University of New Brunswick where he was a Beaverbrook Scholar in Law. In addition to being a member of the New Brunswick Law Society, he is a member of the Law Society of Alberta, the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, Canadian Tax Foundation and the Canadian Bar Association. Ross has more than two decades experience advising clients on a variety of corporate, commercial, estate planning as well as commercial litigation matters.
Admissions and Qualifications
Law Society of Nova Scotia 1992
Law Society of Alberta 1995
Law Society of New Brunswick 1995
Education
B.Comm. Mount Allison University (Distinction) 1987
LL.B. University of New Brunswick 1991
Direct line: (506) 633-2673
rpierce@piercelaw.ca
Saint John lawyer suspended, fined for having relationship with client
Lawyer Barry Morrison is now retired and lives with former client in common-law relationship
A Saint John lawyer has been fined $3,000 and is suspended from practising law for three months, after admitting to a sexual relationship with a client.
Barry Morrison's suspension went into effect Oct. 17, after a joint agreement was presented to the discipline committee of the Law Society of New Brunswick.
"I admit that I fell in love with my then client, Miss A, during the time of my retainer by her, her company, and by Mister A," Morrison wrote in his reply to the New Brunswick Law Society's disciplinary committee.
He also described the relationship as consensual and denied any form of harassment.
And he said Miss A is now his common-law wife.
Cases rare
Cases like this are very rare, said Shirley MacLean, registrar of complaints.
"As a lawyer, it's your obligation to give objective, disinterested, professional advice to your client," she told CBC News.
"If you have a personal and sexual relationship with your client, that, in all probability, cannot occur."
In 2013, Bathurst lawyer John Calver was disbarred and fined $5,000 after he admitted to a personal and sexual relationship with a woman he had been retained to represent in a separation and divorce.
The discipline committee also noted that after Calver withdrew from representing the client, he failed to deliver to her all her papers in an expeditious manner.
Calver also admitted to taking the woman to a meeting where he made misrepresentations to third persons that she had legal training and was at the meeting in that capacity.
Retired after long career
MacLean said Morrison retired from practising law prior to the discipline committee's final hearing on his matter.
The suspension still applies as a retired lawyer remains a member of the bar association and could choose to return to practising law.
Morrison made headlines back in 2012 as legal counsel for Saint John's pension board in a failed defamation lawsuit against former Saint John City Councillor John Ferguson.
Focus on legal fees
The jury concluded Ferguson was well within his rights to criticize management of the city's deficit-plagued pension fund while he was a councillor.
The legal fees in that case became a separate focus of attention.
Documents showed the pension board's legal fees jumped to an average of $442,500 a year once the lawsuit against Ferguson commenced, up from $30,000 in 2006, prior to the action.
Between 2007 and 2010, the board was charged a total of $1.77 million in legal fees, according to the financial statements.
The lawyer who sued the law society - and won
It was a telephone call no lawyer wants to receive.
Barry Morrison was at his desk in Fredericton in late 2001 when he got the call from Harry Underwood, a Toronto-based litigator with McCarthy Tétrault LLP. Mr. Underwood was hunting for New Brunswick counsel to aid his client First Canadian Title Co. in a business dispute.
Problem was, Mr. Underwood explained, no local lawyer would touch the case. First Canadian needed a New Brunswick lawyer to help sue the Law Society of New Brunswick for its alleged campaign to shut the Oakville, Ont., company out of the local land title search business, a core legal real estate practice. Accepting the assignment meant Mr. Morrison would be going up against many of his local brethren and his own regulator, which polices the province's 1,500 lawyers.
Luckily for First Canadian Title, a subsidiary of California-based First American Title Insurance Co., Mr. Morrison doesn't shrink from controversy. After 36 years of legal jousting in New Brunswick's criminal and civil courts, the partner with Clark Drummie LLP said in an interview: "I'm proud to be a lawyer, so I stepped up to the plate."
It was no small step. Led by Mr. Underwood, Mr. Morrison and McCarthy Tétrault lawyer Awanish Sinha, the lawyers spent six years and close to half-a-million dollars alleging that the Law Society had improperly expanded its powers in 2001 to thwart First Canadian.
Mr. Underwood's legal digging uncovered embarrassing e-mails from some Law Society members, one of whom railed against the "Yankee ingenuity" of outside title insurers seeking to fill their pockets with "New Brunswickers' dollars." The case got red hot in 2004, when the intrepid legal team won a mistrial after a presiding local judge revealed she had previously worked on the Law Society's executive council.
Understating the big legal challenge, First Canadian's president Patrick Chetcuti said: "It was a difficult issue for us."
The awkward journey paid off last week when a new trial judge, Mr. Justice Thomas Riordon of the court of Queen's Bench of New Brunswick, ruled in favour of First Canadian Title.
In a decision that will be required reading for each of the country's 13 law societies and their members, Judge Riordan chastised the 161-year-old Law Society for introducing a new professional standard that was not only illegal, but undermined New Brunswick legislation introduced in 2000 to streamline the province's cumbersome and costly land title system.
The new Law Society standard required the presence of a lawyer when owners swore out affidavits for the sale or mortgage of a property or converted the title to the province's new electronic title system. The new rule was a blow to First Canadian, which since it was founded in 1991 has captured 35 per cent of Canada's land title business by offering consumers a title insurance product that is a cheaper alternative to traditional legal title opinions. The company's process is so streamlined that in New Brunswick, for example, it only employs three full-time lawyers.
By adopting the new standard, Judge Riordon argued, the Law Society put the commercial interests of some of its members ahead of its statutory duty to protect the public interest. Put bluntly, he found the guardian was only looking after the guardian.
"Members of the Law Society are not happy with the encroachment [by First Canadian Title]on what has traditionally been the work of lawyers," the judge said.
When the Law Society changed its standards, he ruled "The predominant purpose ... was to address the concern about competition ... This purpose was not authorized by the Law Society Act."
Judge Riordan's decision is a rare judicial slap against one of the country's provincial law societies, which are bound by law to protect the public interest and regulate the legal profession.
Maria Henheffer, president of the Law Society of New Brunswick, said the regulator is studying the decision and is considering a possible appeal.
"On a case this important it would be very helpful to everyone to have the advice and added wisdom of the court of appeal," Ms. Henheffer said.
The regulator has 30 days to file an appeal. If the appeal is denied, Ms. Henheffer said the Law Society "will do what it has to do to correct anything that is eventually determined not to have been in the public interest." She declined to elaborate.
For McCarthy's Mr. Underwood, last week's decision is a vindication of a case that many legal experts warned couldn't be won.
A dogged veteran of many high-stakes federal and provincial legal battles, Mr. Underwood threw himself into the case. He personally examined most of the witnesses in the case, wrote the pleadings and argued most of the case at trial. "This case is about who guards the guardians, and luckily, the courts do," he said.
Mr. Morrison is more philosophical about the damaging legal blow suffered by his provincial law society.
"People are human and they have frailties. There were frailties here that were uncovered and it was unfortunate," he said.
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Harry C. G. Underwood
https://prabook.com/web/barry.morrison/1127384
Barry Robert Morrison
Background
Morrison, Barry Robert was born on March 11, 1949 in Montreal. Son
of Robert John and Janice Beverly Morrison. Barry Morrison had an affair
on his wife with his client. He was suspended from the Law Society of
NB- https://lawsociety-barreau.nb.ca/uploads/Morrison-Form-22.pdf
Barry's
is now divorced from his wife and living common law (because he would
never marry again) with the client he had an affair with. Please change
his biography to indicate the truth. Barry is not a good Christian or
good lawyer for that matter.
Education
University of New Brunswick (Bachelor of Arts, 1970. Master of Arts, 1972. Bachelor of Laws, 1974).
Spoken languages: French.
Career
Worked at
Clark, Drummie & Company (Saint John, New Brunswick) specializing in
General Practice, Admiralty, Corporation, Banking, Finance, Commercial,
Insurance, Litigation, Probate, Public Utilities, Municipal, Labour and
Eminent Domain Law. Admitted to the bar, 1974, New Brunswick.
Company-Author, "The Layman and The Law?" Booklet.
Author: "The Nuisance Action—Useful Tool Foreign The Environmental Lawyer," University of New Brunswick Law Journal, May, 1974.
Member: Canadian, American and International Bar Associations. Law Society of New Brunswick (Member of Council, 1981-1983.
Chairman, Library Committee, 1981-1983). Saint John Law Society.
Defense Research Institute.
Federation of Insurance and Corporate Counsel. Clark, Drummie & Company developed from a merger, on July 1st, 1971, of two Saint John firms which traced their origins to the early 1920"son Building on the individual reputations of its practitioners, Clark, Drummie & Company has emerged as one of the largest firms in the region.
Clark, Drummie & Company has earned a position of leadership and trust in the legal profession, in public affairs and in the business community.
Achievements
Barry Robert Morrison has been listed as a reputable Lawyer by Marquis Who's Who.Membership
Past chairman City of St. John Environment Committee. Past vice
president Conservation Council N.B. Past president, honorary solicitor
N.B. division Canada Cancer Society.
Member Young Men’s Christian
Association. Past chairman St. John Transit Commission. Member
Barrister's Society N.B., Defense Research Institute, Federation of
Insurance and Corp.Counsel.
Connections
Married Mary Kathleen MacDougall, August 26, 1972. Children: Bridget A., Alec M. Matthew, R. Matthew, Benjamin A.
- Father:
- Robert John
- Mother:
- Janice Beverly Morrison
- Spouse:
- Mary Kathleen MacDougall
- child:
- Alec M. Matthew Morrison
- child:
- R. Matthew Morrison
- child:
- Benjamin A. Morrison
- child:
- Bridget A. Morrison
https://qonaskamkuk.com/contact-us/
Peskotomuhkati Nation at Skutik
Passamaquoddy Recognition Group Inc.
93 Milltown Blvd. Suite 201, 4th Floor
St. Stephen, New Brunswick E3L 1G5
Telephone: (506) 466-2221
Fax: (506) 466-2217
For all mailing purposes, please send correspondences to the following address below:
PO Box 144
St. Stephen, NB E3L 2×1
Chief Hugh Akagi’s Office
- Chief Akagi’s Executive Assistant – Cynthia Howland
cynthia.howland@qonaskamkuk.com
Council
- Skutik Community Chief & Executive President – Hugh M. Akagi
Akagih@nb.aibn.com
Cynthia.Howland@qonaskamkuk.com – Scheduling
- Skutik Community Councillor & Board Executive – Rita Fraser
- Skutik Community Councillor & Board Executive – Margaret Nelson
oldcrowcawcaw@hotmail.com
- Motahkomikuk Community (Indian Township, Me) Vice Chief & Liaison – Darrell Newell
ltgovdnewell@gmail.com
- Sipayik Community (Pleasant Point, Me) Vice Chief & Liaison – Rena Newell
Rena@wabanaki.com
Administration
- Director of Operations – John Ames
John.Ames@qonaskamkuk.onmicrosoft.com
- Assistant Clerk – Megan Smith
Megan.smith@qonaskamkuk.com
- Programs & Projects Manager – Harry Sappier
Harry.sappier@qonaskamkuk.com
- Biologist & Conservation Manager – Lita O’Halloran
Lita.Ohalloran@qonaskamkuk.com
- Community Manager – Allan Fraser
Allan.Fraser@qonaskamkuk.com
- Communications – Allan Bonner
Allan@allanbonner.com
- Lead Negotiator & Legal Counsel – Paul Williams
orihwa@gmail.com
Consultation
John.ames@qonaskamkuk.com
Orihwa@gmail.com
Community
- Fish & Hunt Coordinator – Allan Fraser
Allan.Fraser@qonaskamkuk.com
- Membership, Registry & Census Advisor- Rollie Sappier
rsappier@hotmail.com
- Office Support & Outreach – Megan Smith
Megan.Smith@qonaskamkuk.com
Conservation – Terrestrial Species at Risk
- Challenge Fund Coordinator – Darran O’Leary
OLeary.Darran@gmail.com
- Wildlife Coordinator – Todd Watts
Buteobuz@gmail.com
Conservation – Fisheries & Marine Aquatic Species at Risk
- Coastal Restoration Fund Co-Coordinator – Lita O’Halloran
Lita.Ohalloran@qonaskamkuk.com
- Stream Enhancement Project Coordinator – Allan Fraser
Allan.Fraser@qonaskamkuk.com
- Fisheries Technician – Bronte Thomas
Nomehs@qonaskamkuk.com
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