NewsUK & WorldAnti-fish farming campaigner to land on Scottish shores

Anti-fish farming campaigner to land on Scottish shores

Don Staniford will arrive in Scotland in March

AN anti-fish farming demonstrator who is being deported from Canada is returning to Scotland to continue his campaign against the industry.

Don Staniford is fighting a high-profile court battle in the Canadian province of British Columbia, after a fisheries company accused him of making defamatory comments.

But the Canadian government will deport the Briton in any case, as he has been living in the country illegally since 2010.

He says he will ‘bring energy’ back into the campaign against fish farming, which he says damages the environment and spreads disease.

Mr Staniford, who is originally from Birkenhead, near Liverpool, in England, has previously worked with Friends of the Earth in Edinburgh and the Pure Salmon campaign. He is due to arrive in Scotland in March.

He said: “I’m now going to work for the Green Warriors of Norway where I will be global salmon farming co-ordinator.

“I will spend time in Scotland, where I will cut my teeth. I plan to bring energy back into the campaign.

“I’ll be looking at the salmon farms in Orkney and on the west coast, where there has been growing dissent in terms of escapes, sea lice and infectious diseases.

“There will be a lot of work and I’ll be getting my hands dirty.”

Fisheries firm Mainstream Canada, a subsidiary of Norwegian-owned Cermaq, is seeking around £80,000 in damages from Mr Staniford.

They are also seeking a ‘permanent injunction’ to stop him ‘writing, printing or broadcasting defamatory words against Mainstream.’

Cermaq has interests in Scottish waters, as well as other locations around the world.

The judgement in the case may not come for six months, but Mr Staniford will be in the UK by that point.

A Canadian Border Agency spokesman declined to comment on the case but said foreign nationals must show they meet requirements to enter and remain in Canada.

 

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