The ʼNa̱mg̱is First Nation is going back to court to protect wild salmon, and it needs your support. Rally together in community for an evening of food, critical discussion, fundraising, and live music—celebrated ʼNa̱mg̱is/Dzawada’enux̱w blues musician Garret T. Willie will be headlining, and introducing the eminent broadband, all the way from Gabriola, as the opening set.
Funds will be used to by ʼNa̱mg̱is to fight in court for the survival of wild salmon, a fight that is critical to all British Columbians.
Ticket holders will:
This special event is open to all. Please turn out and support our community’s deeply important, ongoing struggle to protect wild salmon.
Donations over $100 are eligible for a charitable tax receipt upon request.
With his guitar in hand and a voice that cuts like hi-beam headlights on a dark backroad, Garret T. Willie delivers songs that feel lived-in and timeless. His newest album Bill’s Cafe, released this year, is about the forces that hold us — love, loss, addiction, ambition, and the unshakable call of music as a means of survival. It’s a live wire of raw energy and soul — a reminder that sometimes the most dangerous thing is also the most irresistible.
That edge runs through the whole record. From roadhouse stompers to backseat ballads, Willie shines a light on hustlers, heartbreakers, and the broken pieces we all carry. He doesn’t just sing the blues — he spits them, shouts them, and bends them into something both timeless and dangerous.
Website: https://garrettwillie.com/about
A dynamic all-women’s band from Gabriola, broadband is a five-piece women’s band bringing energy, heart, and a love of live music to every stage. They are strongly influenced by the rhythms of R&B and the story-telling of folk, country and blues. Sound like a mash-up? It is: broadband is made up of women who have been around the block, a few times, and appreciate the many approaches to song that are available to them. And they love it when you dance! United by a passion for performance and community, they’re proud to support this benefit and the important work it represents.
broadband is: Margo Hennnigar, Barb McIntosh, Carolyn Mandrusiak, Jacqui Parker-Snedker, Karen Teese
The legal fight to end fish farms and their ongoing harm in BC is far from over. In 2024, ʼNa̱mg̱is reactivated its judicial review of Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) policies around testing open-net farmed salmon for the well-known virus piscine orthoreovirus (PRV), which is lethal to wild Pacific salmon.
In 2021, ʼNa̱mg̱is had agreed to suspend this litigation while DFO implemented then Prime Minister Trudeau’s mandate to remove open net-pen feedlots from British Columbia. However, due to a series of delays, obstructions, and policy shifts, the ʼNa̱mg̱is have lost faith in DFO’s, the Minister’s and the Prime Minister’s commitment to that mandate.
“DFO won’t protect wild fish. DFO won’t protect our rights,” said elected Chief Victor Isaac. “Unfortunately, we have to. We can’t let DFO drive wild Pacific salmon to extinction. We won’t let the Minister ignore and trample on our rights.”
The DFO’s PRV Policy (to not test for the piscine orthorevirus before transferring Atlantic salmon to open-net fish farms) is one of the risk assessments DFO relies on to deny that open net-pen feedlots stocked with Atlantic salmon do not harm wild Pacific salmon. When ʼNa̱mg̱is is successful and the PRV Policy is again found unlawful, the lawfulness of any decisions relying on it will be called into question – including DFO’s impending Transition Plan, the renewal of aquaculture licences, and the licences the companies need to stock fish farms.
“We put this litigation into abeyance in 2021 based on the Prime Minister’s mandate to remove fish farms from British Columbia,” said hereditary Chief Don Svanvik. “DFO promised to collaborate with us on the Transition Plan. DFO broke that promise. It’s clear that DFO is going to break its promise to implement the then-Prime Minister Trudeau’s mandate.”
In 2023, Parliament’s Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans asked for an investigation of the value and accuracy of DFO’s risk assessments, including the PRV risk assessment, noting the suppression of scientific evidence. The Public Sector Integrity Commissioner is currently investigating DFO officials for preventing scientists communicating their research to the public, the media and Parliament. Those same DFO officials oversaw the creation and the implementation of the PRV Policy.
“In 2019, I was part of consultation on the PRV Policy,” said elected Councillor Kelly Speck. “It was all window dressing. DFO didn’t want to listen to us. DFO didn’t want to listen to the science. It’s been the same thing with consultation on the Transition Plan. It’s all window dressing for DFO to buy time for an industry whose time is long past.”
PRV-1 is a foreign virus that causes disease in both Atlantic and Pacific salmon. DFO refuses to act on that science and protect wild fish.
“Our research has found that PRV-1 originates from the Atlantic Ocean and has been spread to BC through salmon aquaculture,” said Dr Gideon Mordecai Research Associate, UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. “In BC, the virus is continually transmitted between open-net salmon farms and wild Pacific salmon. PRV-1 causes heart disease in Atlantic salmon and has been closely associated with a different disease in Chinook salmon in which blood cells rupture, leading to kidney and liver damage.”
In 2024 there were incredible salmon returns on the east coast of Vancouver Island and adjacent mainland coast, contrary to the very low returns forecasted by DFO. These salmon directly benefited from the removal of disease and lice-laden fish farms on their out-migration path. This proves that devastating disease transmission and outbreaks will continue until all salmon farms are removed. It’s for these reasons ʼNa̱mg̱is is heading back to court.
Help us win this fight once and for all! Join us at Wild Salmon Blues on August 29th at Qualicum Beach Civic Centre.
