Fish Farm Company Silences Activist Opponent With Defamation Order

The BC Court of Appeal has ordered well-known anti-fish farm activist Don Staniford to pay $75,000 in damages because the mock cigarette packages he had made criticizing Norwegian-owned fish farm companies lacked footnotes or other appropriate citations. The court also granted a permanent injunction muzzling Staniford's attacks on the fish farms: Mainstream Canada v. Staniford, 2013 BCCA 341.

According to the court, the plaintiff, Mainstream, owns 27 salmon farm sites on the coasts of Vancouver Island, making it the second largest producer of farmed salmon in British Columbia. It is a division of EWOS Canada Ltd., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of a Norwegian company. (The other two largest producers of farmed salmon in British Columbia also have ties to Norway.)

Don Staniford has dedicated himself to eradicating salmon farming, e.g. through the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture. He received a Master of Science degree in 1993, with his thesis topic being the environmental impact of shellfish farming. He has been working with environmental organizations over the past 15 years.

Mainstream sought general and punitive damages for allegedly defamatory comments made by the respondent in various publications, as well as a permanent injunction restraining him from publishing similar words and images in the future. The trial judge found the defence of fair comment applied to Staniford's comments, because a determined reader could have located the facts upon which his comments were based.

According to the Court of Appeal, that was not enough, because some of his publications (such as the mock cigarette ads) did not clearly...