SALMON WARS

Last week in Sheet Harbour I attended a public viewing of an excellent new documentary film, Salmon Wars. The event was organized by the Association for Preservation of the Eastern Shore (APES). Despite the recent announcement of government support and public funding for aquaculture industry expansion, these folks are determined that open-pen salmon farming will not be permitted along Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore.

I highly recommend the film, and we can view it at home, for free, via the Internet.

Salmon Wars: Wild Fish, Aquaculture and the Future of Communities is a wide-ranging exploration of net cage salmon aquaculture and its social, economic and environmental impact on the communities where it operates.

This eye-opening 70-minute video documentary surveys industry representatives, community activists, scientists, environmentalists and politicians, including Nova Scotia's Minister of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Environment. Financed entirely by citizen donations and designed for free distribution on the internet,

Salmon Wars probes not only our stewardship of the oceans, but also the alliances between industry and government, the ability of local communities to influence their own futures, and the health of democracy in Atlantic Canada.

The documentary can be viewed at:

http://www.thegreeninterview.com/salmon-wars-interview

Donations to support the project can be made at:

http://www.salmonwars.com/

The video was produced by Silver Donald Cameron, one of Canada's most versatile and experienced professional authors. His work includes plays, films, radio and TV scripts, an extensive body of corporate and governmental writing, hundreds of magazine articles and 16 books, including two novels. His nonfiction subjects include history, travel, literature, politics, nature and the environment, community development, ships and the sea, as well as education and public affairs. His most recent books are Sailing Away from Winter: A Cruise from Nova Scotia to Florida and Beyond (2008) and A Million Futures: the Remarkable Legacy of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation (2010).

From 1998 to 2011 he wrote an influential weekly column for the Halifax Sunday Herald. He has been writing about environmental issues since he was an editor of The Mysterious East magazine from 1969 to 1971. His best-known environmental work is The Living Beach (1998), which was a video, a TV show and an award-winning book.

His books have received the Evelyn Richardson Award, the Atlantic Provinces Booksellers Award, and the City of Dartmouth Book Award. His TV drama Peggy was named Best Short Film at the Canadian Film Celebration and the Moonsnail Awards, and was also a Gemini Award finalist. His magazine articles have received four National Magazine Awards. Four of his radio dramas have been ACTRA Award finalists, and The Sisters (available on CD) was also nominated for the

international Prix Italia. He has also won a Mercury Award and a Wilmer Shields Award for corporate writing.

He has been Writer-in-Residence at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the University of Prince Edward Island, and the University College of Cape Breton. He has served on numerous Canada Council juries, and his corporate, governmental and non-profit clients include four federal departments, five provincial departments, Maritime Life, Maritime Tel and Tel, the Canadian Conference of the Arts and the J. W. McConnell Family Foundation, for whom he recently completed a substantial report called Getting Wisdom: The Transformative Power of Community Service Learning (2010).

A distinguished educator, Dr. Cameron was the first Dean of the School of Community Studies at the University College of Cape Breton (now Cape Breton University). He previously taught at Dalhousie University, the University of British Columbia and the University of New Brunswick. He holds a B.A. from U.B.C., an M.A. from University of California, and a Ph.D. from the University of London, England. In 2004 he received an honourary Doctor of Civil Law degree from the University of Kings College, and in 2007 Cape Breton University awarded him an honorary D.Litt.

And just last week it was announced that Dr. Cameron has been named a member to Canada’s highest honour, the Order of Canada

Dr Cameron told the Chronicle-Herald that he was “thrilled with word of his induction, which will take place later this year in Ottawa”.

“There’s something extremely gratifying, if you have this kind of mixed bag of a career that I’ve had, to get to the latter part of your life and to feel that your fellow citizens don’t think that your life was entirely wasted,” he said.

“It really is kind of a lovely validation.”

Please send comments and suggestions to:

 slim@rivermagic.ca

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