1/ For 100+ years, the Fraser River fishery in British Columbia, Canada has been associated w/ countless salmon controversies. Despite dozens of inquiries + reports, these controversies persist. My PhD thesis, which I defended in April, seeks to explain why. Here’s what I found…
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Callum C. J. Sutherland, Ph.D. (he/him)
@MilkyWayMusings
alum. Postdoctoral Fellow, . Settler. Decolonizing methodologies; salmon controversies; & STEM education research. Tweets my own.
Callum C. J. Sutherland, Ph.D. (he/him)’s Tweets
Really?
You decided on Toronto Metropolitan University out of this?
Is Reconciliation U that hard to recognize? Even just Tkaronto U is better than the blah metropolitan
- 2013 Alum, Master of Planning in Urban Development at X University
#Xuniversity #TMU #Toronto #Ryerson
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HUGE missed opportunity on X University’s part to choose a name that a) isn’t incredibly boring b) actually does some reparative work by honouring one or more of the Indigenous people(s) on whose land it exists and who were harmed by its original namesake
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Ryerson University renamed Toronto Metropolitan University toronto.ctvnews.ca/ryerson-univer
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Are you interested in the implications of #science & #technology for our societies, politics, culture & economies? Come & study for an MA or PhD at #STS #scipol || sts.gradstudies.yorku.ca
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📢Another report, another recommendation that cannot BOTH protect wild salmon AND promote farmed salmon❗️
Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans' State of the Pacific Salmon - Report 5:
ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer
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“Flags at our Keele & Glendon campuses will be lowered for 215 hours beginning on Monday, May 31, in remembrance of the 215 children who never returned home” #everychildmatters #residentialschools 👇🏼👇🏼A community is mourning, stand with us & commit to change. Everyone step up!
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The #YorkU community is deeply saddened by the discovery of the mass grave of 215 Indigenous children near the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Our thoughts remain with Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation and all Indigenous communities across Canada. (1/3)
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1/ For 100+ years, the Fraser River fishery in British Columbia, Canada has been associated w/ countless salmon controversies. Despite dozens of inquiries + reports, these controversies persist. My PhD thesis, which I defended in April, seeks to explain why. Here’s what I found…
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20/ I could not have completed this study on my own! Thanks to those who participated in this study, including Grand Chief Ken Malloway, Latash Maurice Nahanee, Chief Slá’hólt Ernie George, , & . Thanks also goes out to my family & my fiancée Lillian.
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19/ I will also do my best to answer any questions which may arise here. Please note, however, that this is a complex study, and that my ability to respond on Twitter is limited. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
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18/ For those interested in reading this study in full, the full text can be found here: bit.ly/3aQkzdv (I've also provided the title page and abstract below)
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17/ For those interested in learning more, the map pictured throughout this thread can be explored here (The map may not display correctly on mobile devices. I recommend viewing on a desktop/laptop browser): bit.ly/3jLi66M
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16/ …the politics of a commission of inquiry. These recommendations provide the basis for an inquiry that is better capable of perceiving (& thereby devising durable solutions to) the underlying sources of controversy.
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15/ I suggest that future inquiries into the fishery must (i) go beyond merely recognizing Indigenous rights (e.g., by appointing Indigenous commissioners); (ii) confront the biases associated with an emphasis on process efficiency; and (iii) attend to, rather than ignoring...
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14/ For all these reasons, a plurality of salmon controversies resisted the Commission’s black-boxing process - i.e. as Cohen largely failed to account for underlying sources of controversy, his recommendations proved incapable of resolving the controversies associated with them
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13/ By tasking the fisheries minister w/ determining whether salmon farms pose more than ‘minimal risk’ to sockeye, Cohen understated the influence of politics on ministerial judgement & overstated the ability of experts to account for the uncertain effects of salmon farming.
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12/ These factors shaped & thereby problematized Cohen’s findings and recommendations. (e.g., by not attending to the politics of expertise, Cohen erred in treating Indigenous perspectives on sockeye as potential sources of contention to be efficiently eliminated.)
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11/ During the Cohen Commission’s proceedings, understandings of sockeye were (de)legitimated through: (i) the boundary work of expertise; (ii) the Commission’s emphasis on process efficiency; & (iii) differing assessments RE: the importance of place.
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10/ By contrast, the Cohen Report’s life-cycle overview only accounts for controversies associated w/ climate change, effectively reducing the life-cycle of sockeye to a series of physiological transformations that are only loosely connected to the particulars of place.
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9/ Using the above map, I explored the ‘social life of sockeye’, which revealed that sockeye undergo myriad social transformations during their life-cycles as they travel through particular places + interact with a wide variety of humans/nonhumans.
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8/ Together or separately, these sources of controversy generate salmon controversies because they may provoke responses from human/nonhuman actors which not everyone will fully understand or comprehend.
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7/ During my fieldwork, I observed 4 primary sources of fisheries controversy: Indigenous responses to colonial violence; the Western drive to establish + maintain ‘dominion over nature’; the view that fish are vehicles for profit; & the effects of anthropogenic climate change.
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6/ Important note: I am a white, settler, cis-man from Tkaronto (Toronto). So, despite privileging Indigenous perspectives on sockeye throughout this study & seeking to conduct research as praxis, it is doubtless that my findings contain some measure of settler bias.
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5/ To address these questions, I used a 3-phase, multi-method approach which involved (i) collecting qualitative data in the field; (ii) creating a map from these data; & (iii) using this map to virtually analyze the ‘social lives’ of various human + nonhuman actors.
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4/ That is, (i) What are the primary sources of controversy in the fishery? (ii) Which of these controversies are accounted for in the Cohen Report’s sockeye life-cycle overview? (iii) What factors (de)legitimated particular understandings of salmon during the #CohenCommission?
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3/ “Sockeye at the Boundary: Controversial and Contested Salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012” brings postcolonial technoscience + feminist STS to bear on an ‘engaged controversy study’ of the #CohenCommission. In this empirical study, I explore 3 research questions…
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2/ Prior to describing my findings, I wanted to acknowledge the many Indigenous territories on which I carried out my doctoral research and wrote my thesis. This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Rich Jarrell and Chief Slá’hólt Ernie George.
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Lassonde's K2I Academy has launched the Helen Carswell STEAM Program for Black and Indigenous Youth.
The 2021 theme for #BHM is "The Future is Now" and Lassonde’s K2I Academy is focused on addressing systemic barriers in #STEM.
Learn more➡️ bit.ly/2Zljap0
#BHMatYU
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In 2018, local elected leaders in BC passed a motion at the Convention supporting the transition to land-based closed containment aquaculture. This motion demonstrates strong support from cities — big and small — across BC for a just transition. ➡️ wildfirst.ca/transition
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A new Centre for Indigenous Fisheries is being launched at UBC, with Indigenous fisheries scientist, conservation biologist and Nisga’a Nation member Dr. Andrea Reid joining as Principal Investigator. Welcome! bit.ly/2YhlLQB
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THEY WON!!!!! #Salmon farms are LEAVING the #FraserRiver #Sockeye migration route!
An unbelievable victory by the leadership of the Nations of the Discovery Islands, and the Fraser River Nations who informed the federal government this fight was just beginning!
read image description
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8/ in this way. (Credit to for the juvenile outmigration routes used in the map above) #fishfarmsout
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7/ of those farms. This is perhaps the most significant finding from my forthcoming doctoral thesis, "Sockeye at the Boundary: A Symmetrical, Postcolonial Analysis of the Cohen Commission as a Site of Technoscientific Controversy", but still disappointing to see it validated...
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6/ have a constitutional right to fish for food, social, and ceremonial purposes. In this context, if they were to find that salmon farms are harmful to wild stocks, they would be forced to take significant steps to limit the impacts, which would likely result in the removal...
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5/ and laid out his 'no more than minimal risk' recommendation, he effectively provided the DFO with a blueprint to bring this controversy to a close. In so doing, I believe he underestimated the DFO's fear of learning too much RE: the impacts. After all, First Nations in BC...
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4/ decided that salmon farms were harmless first, and only sought to justify this belief later, when and others raised alarm bells about the impact of salmon farming on wild stocks. And, when Commissioner Bruce Cohen made this a matter of ministerial discretion...
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3/ land, water and aquatic resources”, and it was on this basis that they committed the DFO to “work[ing] with provincial and territorial governments to provide aquaculturists with predictable, equitable and timely access to the aquatic resource base.” It seems that the DFO...
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2/ salmon farms as far back as 2002, when its Aquaculture Policy Framework (APF) was released, and before DFO had conducted any substantive research into its impacts. As reflected in the APF's 5th principle the DFO had already decided that “aquaculture is a legitimate use of...
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1/ Disappointed to hear that the federal government has concluded that salmon farms in the Discovery Island region pose no more than 'minimal risk' to Fraser River sockeye, but also not terribly surprised. After all, the federal government had its mind made up about...
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