Indigenous rights, environmental, and social justice activists are staging sit-ins at Constituency Offices of acting NDP Ministers today -- including Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister Scott Fraser, and Agriculture Minister Lana Popham's offices.
Hereditary Chief Ernest Alfred represents 3 First Nations is First Nations. He says they are demanding action to remove open pen fish farms from BC Waters:
" Well, it 'll give us an opportunity to have our voices heard. And that's really all we're trying to do here is pressure the government to make a move and make a decision. Because our people are quite frankly fed up with the talks and discussions and negotiations, and we've been pushed out of total frustration to this point."
Alfred says the fish farms threaten wild fish stocks, and the traditional food fishery of coastal First Nations communities. They are calling on the NDP government to keep their promise to remove the farms, something First Nations have been asking previous governments to do for the last 3 decades.