Activists are calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to appoint a Fisheries Minister, who will echo their falsehoods about salmon farming in British Columbia, fearing his pick this week could unravel years of grooming cabinet allies to serve their agenda.
By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews
As Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares to unveil his cabinet, anti-fish farm activists are pressuring him to walk away from his campaign promises to base policy on science, uphold Indigenous rights, and modernize regulations to grow Canada’s agri-food sector.
Fearing that their long and expensive campaign to cultivate Fisheries Ministers into doing their bidding could unravel, the activists have mounted a coordinated social media campaign demanding that Carney appoint a Fisheries Minister from British Columbia.
While framed as a call for regional representation, their real objective is to install a cabinet ally who—like the Trudeau-era Fisheries Ministers they groomed—will bow to activist demands and ignore federal science showing that B.C.’s salmon farms pose less than a minimal risk to wild stocks.
In their recent “action alerts” and open letters, the activists are calling for a Fisheries Minister from B.C. who will echo their falsehoods about the sector in exchange for political support at the ballot box.
They worry that if Carney upholds his campaign promises, his government could reverse the trend of politically expedient, activist-influenced decisions that led the Trudeau Liberal government to propose a ban on open-net salmon farms in B.C. after 2029.
The playbook to secure ministerial allies was exposed in a recent report by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), which found that foreign-funded activist groups actively manipulated federal decision-making to advance the proposed salmon farming ban, in direct contradiction to government science and Indigenous interests.
The MLI report outlines how these groups used emotionally charged messaging, ghostwritten communications, and targeted lobbying to pressure Fisheries Ministers into adopting ideologically driven policies.
Among their most significant political victories was securing the allegiance of key Liberal cabinet ministers, particularly Joyce Murray and Jonathan Wilkinson, both of whom represented B.C. ridings.
Murray, who served as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans from 2021 to 2023, embraced activist rhetoric and overrode her department’s own scientific research, which repeatedly found that salmon farming posed less than a one-percent risk to wild fish stocks.
Wilkinson, Fisheries Minister from 2018 to 2019, was instrumental in pushing the narrative that ocean-based salmon farms must transition to land-based systems, despite expert warnings that such technology is neither economically viable nor environmentally sustainable for B.C.
Another former Fisheries Minister under scrutiny is Bernadette Jordan, who held the role from 2019 to 2021. Her decisions were also heavily shaped by activist lobbying, with little regard for science or consultation with affected First Nations.
According to MLI, activist groups gained direct access to these ministers, feeding them selective data and emotionally charged narratives while dismissing reports from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS), independent scientists, and salmon farmers.
“It is a textbook case of activists hijacking national policy, dismissing science, crippling economic stability, and sabotaging reconciliation efforts with First Nations,” said report author Ken Coates, director of Indigenous Affairs at MLI.
“The (proposed) ban on West Coast salmon farming exemplifies the dangers of special interest-driven decision-making,” Coates added, saying it needs to be reversed.
The Trudeau Liberals also pushed to phase out ocean-based salmon farming in B.C. without any evidence that removing these marine operations would lead to a recovery in wild salmon populations.
Currently, farm-raised salmon generates over $1.17 billion for the B.C. economy, supports 4,560 well-paid full-time jobs, and remains the province’s top agri-food export. That represents nearly half of what the sector produced before the Trudeau government aligned itself with anti-fish farming activists.
An industry economic analysis warns that a full ban would unleash widespread economic devastation, leaving taxpayers potentially liable for $9 billion in compensation to fish farmers, suppliers, and Indigenous communities with signed benefit agreements.
Unlike the activists hoping Carney will walk back on his promises, BC salmon farmers have presented a plan that aligns with Carney’s commitment to job creation and Indigenous leadership in resource development.
They have pledged $1.4 billion in direct investment to drive innovation, upgrade infrastructure, and deploy next-generation aquaculture technologies in partnership with First Nations. The strategy would support nearly 10,000 new jobs, deliver 380 million additional meals annually, and generate up to $44 billion in cumulative economic activity by 2050, all while helping Canada meet its climate and reconciliation goals.
“The next Fisheries Minister will be hard pressed to justify ignoring a sector that delivers on climate action, Indigenous reconciliation, and job creation…everything the Carney government claims to stand for,” said a Victoria-based political analyst.
“If Carney capitulates, he risks cementing a legacy of policymaking driven not by evidence or national interest, but by ideology and activist misinformation.”
Main image shows Prime Minister Mark Carney