This multi-million dollar question, along with many others, is expected to be answered as the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River (‘Cohen Inquiry’ for short) delves deeper into the disease-infested cess-pool of salmon farming.  In August - after a summer recess and a ruling last week which prevented the disclosure of damning disease data - Justice Cohen will finally grapple with the slippery problem of infectious diseases and salmon pharming. 

It promises to be an expensive show - if the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) is to be believed the public can expect a “media circus” and the shocking revelations will cause “reputational and economic damage” to the salmon farming industry.  Book your ring-side seats now for the risky high-wire act as the BCSFA tries to pull off the greatest escape act in history! 

Riddle me this, riddle me that, who has even the faintest clue what’s going on at the Cohen Inquiry? 

If the answer is a resounding ‘no’ then you’re not alone.  The Cohen Inquiry is wrapped in such a shroud of secrecy and cloak of confidentiality that even the legions of lawyers are struggling to fathom out what’s going on let alone the public.  

 
In open contempt for transparency, Justice Cohen's “not so public public inquiry” – and so-called “Inquiry into the Art of Avoidance” - keeps submissions secret and rarely posts documents on the Cohen Commission’s website.    "It is reminiscent of the criticisms of the Star Chamber," lawyer Greg McDade told The Globe & Mail last month.  "It is not appropriate to a public inquiry".

 

Batman’s nemesis the Riddler and even Tom Hanks (playing Robert Langdon in Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’), Kate Winslet (in her code-breaking role in the film ‘Enigma’) and Keanu Reeves (playing Neo in ‘The Matrix’) would all have difficulty deciphering the Cohen Code and breaking through the security cordon. 

In a redacted (i.e. censored) submission last month to the Cohen Commission, the BCSFA wrote that: “There have been numerous publications relating to the BCSFA’s disclosure of [blacked out] to the Commission, many of which suggest [blacked out] that should be disclosed to the public” (read in full online).
 
In another heavily redacted submission (also in May), the BCSFA stated:  “In fact it obtained a limited release of Ms. Morton to report to [blacked out] alleging that [blacked out].  This release occurred notwithstanding the fact that Canada, BC and BCSFA submitted arguments and evidence [blacked out]”.

 
The BCSFA further stated that: “It is extremely easy for a single document, leaked to the media without any context, to create a false impression in the public” and referred to allegations “to the media that [blacked out] are founded on those documents” (read in full online). 

 
Another redacted submission from the BCSFA argued that: “statements were made to the media implying documents disclosed by the Province and the BCSFA to the Commission contain information that [blacked out]” and that: “confidentiality is necessary to protect the reputational and financial interests of the aquaculture industry and its shareholders” (read in full online). 

As The Times Colonist reported last month:
 
“The level of secrecy is ramping up and, by not reporting things that are reportable by law, we have a problem," said Morton, who could not talk about her concerns because of the secrecy undertaking. "It's a terrible situation. I am at my wits end."  Greg McDade, Morton's lawyer, said the commission's work should be public. "But, currently, the rules preclude me from telling you what's in the letter, they preclude me from telling you what the issue is and they preclude me from telling you what the ruling is," McDade said. "Hence our concern ... All I can tell you is that I can't comment.”
 

The North Shore News also asked in an article on the “Fishy Commission Blackout”:
 
“I can only echo Morton's concerns by asking: What do salmon disease records have to do with government security?”
  
Security and secrecy is so tight in the Cohen Inquiry that anyone trying to track down the truth inside is crying out for an enigma machine – a device used by the Nazi war machine in World War II for the encryption and decryption of confidential information. 

Allied code-breakers and military intelligence used their own enigma machines to decrypt secret messages – and in the process helped changed the course of the war. 

 

Make no mistake, the online battle Vs. salmon farming is a propaganda war and the BCSFA’s central strategy is designed to keep damaging documents secret (just read the BCSFA’s various submissions).  Judging by the “irrevocable damage to the economic interests and reputations” predicted by the BCSFA, so-called ‘Farmageddon’ is approaching faster than you can say “Is ISA in BC?”.

Riddle me this, riddle me that, what’s Justice Cohen hiding?

How Justice Cohen - the legal eagle charged with finding out what happened to the millions of missing sockeye salmon – allowed himself to get caught up in a web of secrets and lies is a puzzling question. 

 

Thanks to Justice Cohen’s ruling last week on “Undertakings of Confidentiality” the public will have to wait until August to find out what infectious diseases are lurking in the B.C. salmon farmers’ closet.  The BCSFA successfully persuaded Justice Cohen that: “releasing the documents would promote a media trial which would distract the public from the Commission’s work” and “would cause significant mischief” (read the BCSFA’s submission online). 
 
As Justice Cohen cryptically explained in his ruling last week: “Premature publication of any of that material would defeat the purpose of treating compelled documents confidentially initially” (read more via ‘Cohen’s Clampdown on Confidentiality’).

 
In March, Justice Cohen also cravenly kowtowed to the Norwegian-owned salmon farming industry and ruled against releasing paper records (read more via the Globe & Mail’s: “Salmon farms investigation hampered by incomplete government data”).  Sabra Woodworth wrote in her blog “Hindsight Blurs History of BC’s Salmon Feedlots: One Decade’s Records are Insufficient for Cohen Commission”:
 
“The Commission has been persuaded by industry and government not to require records of fish farm data prior to 2000 on the basis that those records don’t exist or are too difficult to produce or there was no legal obligation to keep them.  It is difficult not to conclude that Justice Cohen’s Rulings on these matters rely on evasive excuses of inconvenience: “records… if they even exist, are likely in paper format” or in out-dated computer media. “These records may also hold different types of information than that submitted to the current fish health databases.” 

Yet in December 2010, in a victory for freedom of information Justice Cohen ruled that the B.C. salmon farming industry must disclose 10 years of disease data for 120 farms.  Strangely, despite being delivered to the Cohen Commission in January, the disease data has yet to see the light of day.  Such are the two public and private faces of Justice Cohen: championing disclosure of information in one breath and then clamping down on confidentiality the next.   

 

Until August at least, Justice Cohen is keeping his head down and walking on by ignoring the insanity of salmon farming in open net cages. 

 

Riddle me this, riddle me that, what horror show is lurking in Cohen’s closet?
 

Behind all the smoke and mirrors, it promises to be a fascinating story of cover up, cock up and conspiracy.  Reading between the lines of miscommunication and non-disclosure, two particular issues leap out of the water like disease-ridden sea-lice infested ‘Frankenfish’: Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) and Salmon Leukemia.  

Riddle me this, riddle me that, what’s Salmon Leukemia?
 

The issue of Salmon Leukemia – described variously as a “novel, cancer-causing viral disease”, “brain lesions” and a “retrovirus” - was first tackled by the Cohen Inquiry in March when Dr. Scott Hinch and Dr. Laura Richards, Regional Director of Science at DFO, testified.   Alexandra Morton, who paddled down the Fraser River last year to the opening of the Cohen Commission, wrote to Dr. Richards before she took the witness stand and stated:

“Here in BC, beginning in the early 1990s, an epidemic of Salmon Leukemia swept up the BC coast in salmon farms.  At exactly this time the Fraser sockeye began declining, behaving strangely, some runs dying by the millions in the river just before spawning.  Today, when DFO scientist, Dr. Miller, reported Salmon Leukemia may be in these dying sockeye she was not allowed to speak to the media. Why?.....Dr. Scott Hinch, a co-researcher on this project stated at the Cohen Inquiry last week that he does not know if farm salmon have been examined as a potential ongoing source of the purported virus.  If salmon farms are a reservoir for this retrovirus the public needs to know”.
 
The Globe & Mail reported that:
 
“Of all the theories heard so far by the Cohen Commission, the most intriguing involves new research by a molecular scientist who is pointing to the possibility of an epidemic of salmon leukemia.  Kristi Miller hasn’t been called to testify on her research yet, but her work is already causing a buzz at the inquiry, in part because it seems an effort has been made to keep it under wraps....Dr. Miller won’t testify for months yet and she remains banned from giving any media interviews. But her research, which could explain why up to three million salmon a year are dying in the Fraser, is already reverberating at the Cohen Commission”. 
 
When Dr. Richards takes the witness stand again in August/September the Cohen Inquiry will surely play to a packed house (normally there are only 10 people in the audience – with 120 seats in the public gallery empty).  Hopefully, the brain of Dr. Richards will not go “fuzzy” again too and she can answer the questions.  

DFO scientist Dr. Kristi Miller - a leading expert on Salmon Leukemia - is also expected to take the witness stand in August (so long as she is not muzzled and silenced by her enforcers at DFO). 

Riddle me this, riddle me that, who’s afraid that big bad ISA is lurking in B.C.? 
 
Even bumbling Inspector Clouseau could not fail to spot the clues relating to ISA. 

In fact, the risks of importing ISA into B.C. waters have been widely reported since the first outbreak of ISA in Canada (New Brunswick) in 1996.  A report published by Friends of Clayoquot Sound in 1998 asked “Could a similar ISA outbreak happen in BC?”.  In January 2009, a letter to the Premier of British Columbia from David Suzuki, Chief Bob Chamberlin, Professor Larry Dill, Alexandra Morton and over 100 other concerned citizens stated:
 
“We respectfully request that B.C. immediately prohibit the importation of live farm salmon material (all species) (broodstock, milt and eggs) to protect BC from the spread of Infectious Salmon Anemia”. 
 
In June 2009, Alexandra Morton wrote:
 
“I am not hearing how the industry can possibly safeguard British Columbia from contamination with their ISA virus.  Infectious Salmon Anemia is a salmon virus that is spreading worldwide, wherever there are salmon farms....Professor Are Nylund head of the Fish Diseases Group at the University of Bergen, Norway, reports that, “… based on 20 years of experience, I can guarantee that if British Columbia continues to import salmon eggs from the eastern Atlantic infectious salmon diseases, such as ISA, will arrive in Western Canada”. 
 
And the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform asked: “What could ISA mean for BC?”.  In March this year, Alexandra Morton wrote to the Canadian Fisheries Minister and said:
 
“I continue to be concerned that Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) has been introduced to British Columbia marine waters in any of the millions of Atlantic salmon eggs that have been imported into BC”. 
 
She asked:
 
“Has there been a suspect case of ISA virus in British Columbia?”
 
Later in March, Alexandra Morton’s blog – “Dear Dr. Richards inform yourself” – challenged Dr. Laura Richards, DFO’s Regional Director of Science, “to learn if B.C. is a suspect area for Infectious Salmon Anaemia and read the salmon farm disease records”. 
 
And in May, another letter from Alexandra Morton to the Canadian Fisheries Minister stated:
 
“If ISA virus is now in BC waters, I see you as personally responsible”. 

In June, Alexandra Morton wrote on her blog:
 
“Even though I have been “assured” repeatedly that measures are in place to protect British Columbia from Infectious Salmon Anemia virus, the most lethal salmon farm virus spreading worldwide, actually there were no such measures”. 
 
In another blog – “Who left the door open to ISA?” – published earlier this month, Alexandra Morton wrote to Members of Parliament:
 
“I am writing to put you on notice that someone in Ottawa has left the door propped open to one of the deadliest salmon viruses spreading across the planet with Norwegian salmon feedlots and if you don't close it and take further action, you will damage British Columbia like the cod collapse damaged eastern Canada”.   

 

Riddle me this, riddle me that, who’s afraid of a big bad bill?
 
The financial implications of the spread of ISA in B.C. are considerable. 

In a submission last month to the Cohen Commission, the BCSFA argued that there would be “reputational and economic damage” and “reputational harm” if documents relating to infectious diseases were released publicly.  The BCSFA claimed that:
 
“Irreparable damage will occur to the reputations and economic interests of the BCSFA’s member companies and their shareholders before the aquaculture hearings have even begun” (read in full online).  
 
Another submission from the BCSFA referred to the: “likelihood of misuse and irrevocable damage to the economic interests and reputations of participants and individuals” and stated that:
 
“The BCSFA says that insofar as there remains a financial incentive to demarket salmon aquaculture in B.C., there is a real and substantial risk that any information relating to aquaculture that is released through the commission process, whether in the hearings or through applications, will be selectively interpreted to harm the industry’s reputation” (read in full online). 

Liability is an issue which will inevitably rear its ugly head sooner rather than later.  In March, Alexandra Morton’s blog “Are you insured for this cover-up?” asked the Canadian Fisheries Minister:
 
“Are your ministry and the Norwegian fish farmers adequately insured to cover damages if we find out BC is an ISAV suspect area, no one told us and it spreads because you did nothing?”. 
 
And Alexandra Morton warned in her blog earlier this month:
 
“All I can say to the shareholders is remember ISAv appears to be traceable to source”. 
 
Alexandra Morton wrote on her Facebook page over the weekend (25th June):
 
“The Fraser sockeye are running the salmon farm gauntlet right now.  Do we have any idea what latest diseases are pouring out of the Norwegian fish farms? No! They are in public waters, their effluent is passing over the gills of wild salmon, we have the right to know.  If these companies want to be secretive they need to go somewhere, where that is allowed, but the ocean is not one of those places. Fish feedlots either go willingly or we are going to chase you out - your choice.  But the more damage you do the greater your liability”.

In Chile, the spread of ISA spawned threats of legal action (read “Justice, in the wake of ISA”) and huge economic losses.  Judging by the skeletons lurking in the B.C. salmon farmers’ closet the Cohen Inquiry will open up the floodgates to legal action in Canada too. 
 

Riddle me this, riddle me that, who’s saying ISA is not hiding in B.C. waters?
 
The case against ISA already being present in B.C. is strongly made by the BCSFA and the Norwegian-owned companies Mainstream Canada (Cermaq) and Marine Harvest.  In January 2009, the BCSFA responded to an article – “Can BC remain an ISA-free zone?”- claiming that: “British Columbia has NEVER detected ISA in farmed salmon”.  In February 2009, a presentation – “ISA Virus: how it relates to salmon aquaculture in BC” – by the West Coast Vancouver Island Aquatic Management Board stated that: “No ISAV found in BC to date”.  
 
In July 2009, Marine Harvest stated that ISA was “extremely unlikely to appear at B.C.’s fish farms”.  Just last month, Mainstream Canada’s Communications Officer (Grant Warkentin), wrote in a letter to The Courier-Islander (in reply to an article by Ray Grigg) that ISA is not present in B.C.:
 
“Mr. Grigg parrots the scientifically baseless suggestion that a "mutated form of Infectious Salmon Anemia" might be in B.C.  This is irresponsible speculative rhetoric he repeats which does nothing other than make the industry sound scary, and to try and cover salmon farmers in a cloud of fear, uncertainty and doubt.  As salmon farmers have pointed out many times, there is no ISA here; the disease is catastrophic for Atlantic salmon, so of course farmers are always looking for it; and again, there is no ISA here”.   

 
Riddle me this, riddle me that, which companies are responsible for the “approximately 35 indications of the existence of ISA”?

An article – “Cohen called on to release information on salmon virus” – published last month by The Globe & Mail reported that:
 
“There are approximately 35 indications of the existence of ISA identified in these records to date”.
 
Due to censorship by the Cohen Commission, it is still not known which sites and locations are involved.  The Times Colonist reported last month:
 
“That means no information about applications made to a public inquiry can be made public -- including a letter this week asking that Morton be released from her secrecy undertaking to allow her to report information to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency about an infectious salmon virus. Information about the virus was gleaned from the business records of salmon farms which are among stacks of documents filed with the commission.”
 
A submission by the BCSFA to the Cohen Inquiry last month also redacted the names of the companies involved stating only that: “It is clear from the media spin based upon the recent breaches of the undertaking that the Aquaculture Coalition wishes to be released from its undertaking for the sole purpose of harming the interests and reputations of the BCSFA, its member companies’ [blacked out] at the Province of British Columbia” (read in full online).   

 

The BCSFA also argued in another submission that the public is not expert enough to understand the documents: “Furthermore, because of the highly technical nature of the documents, there is no benefit to the public in being given access to these documents as they would not possess the expertise necessary to properly interpret them” (read in full online).

What is known, however, is the fact that three Norwegian companies control 92% of B.C. salmon farms.  The BCSFA is comprised of just five members companies who farm salmon.  The major salmon farming areas in B.C. are Clayoquot Sound, the Wild Salmon Narrows and the Broughton Archipelago. 
 
Marine Harvest has experienced ISA problems in Norway , Scotland and in Chile.  Marine Harvest Canada also asked in a front-page article - “Are our Fish Safe from ISA?” - in their newsletter in August 2009:
 
“Can we guarantee that MHC will never see ISA?: Realistically no, but MHC will continue to do everything within its power to minimize its likelihood of occurring and mitigate its impact should it ever be found”. 

Cermaq has also experienced ISA problems in Chile and Grieg experienced huge losses due to ISA in Scotland.  Cooke, which operates in Eastern Canada and in Chile, is also experiencing problems with ISA. 
 

Riddle me this, riddle me that, who’s afraid of the vertical transmission of ISA spreading via infected eggs?
 
Despite peer-reviewed scientific evidence proving the vertical transmission of ISA, the Canadian Government refuses to ban the imports of eggs and has allowed millions of potentially ISA-infected eggs into B.C. since 1986.  A scientific paper – “ISA virus in Chile: evidence of vertical transmission” – published back in 2008 proved how infected eggs from a Norwegian broodstock company spread ISA from Norway to Chile (more details online). 

The culprit was finally identified publicly in April this year as Aquagen– a company whose shareholders include Marine Harvest and Cermaq. 

Even Cermaq (who operate in B.C. via the subsidiary Mainstream Canada) admit publicly that vertical transmission of ISA is a scientific fact (download the presentation “Preventative fish health work”). 
 
Yet, when asked to define ‘vertical transmission’ during the Cohen Inquiry in March, Dr. Laura Richards (DFO’s Regional Director of Science) refused to answer the question explaining that: “My brain went fuzzy”.  Dr. Richards subsequently refused to have her photograph taken (in a public place and as a public civil servant) and then had the nerve to complain about an invasion of her privacy.

Riddle me this, riddle me that, who’s afraid of public scrutiny?
 
Until an enigma machine is invented to break Cohen’s secret code, the public will have to rely on their own eyes by attending the evidentiary hearings at the Cohen Inquiry.  The Cohen Commission has refused requests to live stream video as in other public inquiries and are unacceptably slow in posting transcripts and schedules online.  By not publishing many of the documents on their website, the Cohen Commission is certainly not making it easy for the public to access information.  As a submission from the Conservation Coalition argued last month:
 
“the core concern expressed by the Province [that ‘it is likely that some of the material will be duly disclosed to the media’] can be easily alleviated if Commission Council publicly posts all written submissions and affidavit materials on its website.  In our respectful submissions, there is no better way to ensure the public and media have the proper context than to allow them to see all Participants’ submissions” (available online via 'Salmon Leaks'). 

Sadly, it seems that the censors at the Cohen Commission and the so-called “Slippery secret salmon science society” want to keep the public in the dark.  By barring members of the public access to information during a public inquiry, the Cohen Commission is skating on very thin ice.

 

The Harper Government and the Norwegian-owned B.C. salmon farming industry clearly have a lot at stake (and a lot to hide) and are behind the scenes putting pressure on the Cohen Commission to lock away the evidence and throw away the key. 

Thankfully, the forces of nature are trying to scale the walls of secrecy surrounding this “not so public public inquiry” and “Fishy Commission Blackout”. 

The unsung salmon heroes of Elena Edwards and Sabra Woodworth are shining a much needed light via ‘Cohen Inquiry Notes’, ‘Cohen Inquiry Concerns’, ‘Salmon Leaks’ and the Facebook event page ‘Salmon Inquiry – Cohen Commission Watch’. 

    

The ‘Justice League for Wild Salmon’ and Salmon Are Sacred are also on hand to keep a beady eye on the fishy goings on.

Even the Pope has stepped into the breach and is supporting Captain Condom’s fight against STDs. 

Riddle me this, riddle me that, who’s afraid of the evidentiary hearings on infectious diseases scheduled in August?  
 
It’s painfully obvious to anyone who has attended any of the evidentiary hearings that the salmon farming industry and the Government are feeling increasingly hot under the collar as the discussion on aquaculture approaches (believed to start on 22nd August – although the Cohen Commission refuse to publish details yet online).  
 
“As August approaches, it can be expected that the lawyers for the BCSFA are preparing to object at every opportunity,” writes Elena Edwards in her latest blog ‘Inquiry into the end of the wild salmon?’.  “A question that lingers is: will the lawyers for B.C. and the Government of Canada also be popping up to defend their financial investments in the salmon farming industry?  The recent ruling made by Justice Cohen to keep information about a serious disease known as ISA is but one more example of decisions being made in favor of the industry rather than wild salmon.  With just two weeks left at the Cohen Commission before it adjourns until August 18th, I, for one, will be marking my seat in the courtroom to bear witness to a process I can only hope will not be as grotesque and unreasonable as the claims on the BCSFA's website that open net salmon farming is sustainable.”

Justice Cohen’s sights should be firmly fixed on the role of the Government and industry. 

 

Ray Grigg, in his article “Salmon Farming: The Tightening Noose”, concluded that:
 
“If a fatal oversight by either the salmon farming industry or government should result in a collapse of the West Coast's wild-salmon-based ecology - caused, for example, by a mutated form of Infectious Salmon Anemia - then the cultural and economic consequences would be catastrophic. The environmental cataclysm would be even worse.  The present evidence suggests that these two players have placed a noose around the neck of BC's wild salmon and are fiddling with the trap door's lever.” 

 

Come August when the ISA mystery is finally solved, the villains will hopefully be heard to say:
 
“And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids”.