Fish farm suing environmentalist for defamation

CANADA - A fish farm that is striving to be recognized for producing organic salmon is suing for defamation after being attacked by an environmental group campaigning against aquaculture on the West Coast.

The case, which began in the Supreme Court of British Columbia yesterday, opens a new front in a bitter, intense and long-running battle between environmentalists and the fish-farming industry.

The two sides have exchanged verbal insults for years, but the case of Creative Salmon Company Ltd. versus Don Staniford, an aquaculture campaigner for Friends of Clayoquot Sound, marks the first time the courts have been asked to decide where the truth lies in an escalating war of words.

Creative Salmon, a relatively small fish-farming operation in Tofino, is asking for unspecified damages because of a series of news releases and posters produced by Friends of Clayoquot Sound in June of 2005.

Source: The Globe and Mail