Read this story from the Winnipeg Free Press on salmon activist Don Staniford’s deportation from Canada and new job taking on the aquaculture industry in its global headquarters nation of Norway. (March 5, 2012)
VANCOUVER – Only days after he was removed from Canada for overstaying a visitor’s permit, a controversial salmon-farming critic says he has settled in Norway to “slay the dragon in its own lair.”
Since 2005, British-born activist Don Staniford has been a divisive force in British Columbia’s ongoing salmon-farming debate. He has been accused by the industry of going beyond rational dialogue and distorting facts and has twice been sued by B.C. companies for defamation.
But supporters see him as a tireless critic and Staniford is promising to take his battle against the industry to Europe, where he’ll serve as the global campaign co-ordinator for another environmental group.
“I’ve gone straight to work for the Green Warriors of Norway and straight to the belly of the beast here in Norway,” said Staniford, in a phone interview.
“Norway controls much of the global industry and I’m going to slay the dragon in its own lair.”
The new job is significant because Kurt Oddekalv, leader of the Green Warriors of Norway, has described himself as the most “hard hitting environmental warrior” in his country.
Also significant is Staniford’s legal history.
Staniford’s most-recent defamation case was launched by Mainstream Canada, a subsidiary of the Norwegian company Cermaq.
The case has wrapped up in the Supreme Court of B.C., but a judgment has yet to be made.