The newly launched SFU action group Wild Salmon Creative Action sought to spread environmental activism and awareness last week through a medium everyone could enjoy: pancakes.
The Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group (SFPIRG) affiliate’s breakfast fundraiser “Pancakes Not Pipelines,” held on March 24, was a collaboration with Nature’s Garden. The Cornerstone cafe has already declared their organic deli farmed salmon free, as has Nester’s Market.
Wild Salmon Creative Action is campaigning to make SFU a farmed salmon free zone — an issue that extends beyond environmental activism to questions of social justice and democracy. Said Mia Nissen of her introduction to environmental activism, “It was like waking up from a naïve slumber.”
Nissen, a member of Wild Salmon Creative Action, went on a seven-day hunger strike last December after hearing of the National Energy Board’s conditional approval of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline. Shortly after breaking her fast, Nissen attended a Stó:lo First Nation wild salmon ceremony where she was introduced to the wild salmon as a keystone species in terms of ecology, economy and culture.
“It was like waking up from a naïve slumber.”
– Mia Nissen, member of Wild Salmon Creative Action
Nissen admitted that a lot of people are uncomfortable with the term genocide, but said that if oil spills or fish farms compromise the BC coastline, “the people who depend on wild salmon will no longer be able to sustain themselves.” She declared, “If you’re controlling the food supply, you’re controlling the people.”
Wild Salmon Creative Action opposes pipelines and fish farming as threats to wild salmon habitats and migration routes. Nissen cited a risk assessment conducted by SFU that suggested that there is at least a 90 per cent probability of an oil tanker spill if the Northern Gateway pipeline proceeds. Fish farms can be equally devastating to wild salmon populations, says Nissen, as they can create breeding grounds for sea lice and disease.
Nissen said of government compliance with both oil companies and fish farms: “It’s a continuation of exploiting the land and oppressing indigenous people.”
Partial proceeds from the breakfast will go to Unis’tot’en Camp, a First Nations community located in the middle of the proposed Northern Gateway route that refuses to cede their land to the government or private enterprise. This is the site where, Nissen says, if all other forms of resistance fail, protestors will lock arms against the pipeline.
Despite this, Nissen resents the term “radical.” Wild Salmon Creative Action’s ultimate goal is to normalize resistance and make activism accessible to everyone.
“Our group wants to demonstrate that the culture of resistance is not about being an anarchist or about being radical. It’s about identifying social wrong and taking a critical stance,” said Nissen.
She and Wild Salmon Creative Action hope that events such as their pancake breakfast will increase public awareness and encourage all kinds of involvement. “I have tons of optimism,” said Nissen, “otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this.”
“ ‘Our group wants to demonstrate that the culture of resistance is not
about being an anarchist or about being radical. It’s about identifying
social wrong and taking a critical stance,’ said Nissen.” = best attitude! Resistance to the domination by the 1% is what won democracy in every western country formerly ruled by the few. It won the vote first for men, later for women, & finally for First Nations. It won the 8 hour day, the minimum wage, and in most western countries public education and medical care. These wins were not handed to the public on a plate: they were hard-fought battles. The problem is that those whom these battles were won against over the decades have now entrenched themselves in power. It’s as though every generation has to re-win the battles of old because the forces of entrenched wealth IN POWER NOT TO SERVE THE PUBLIC GOOD but instead to line their own pockets are EVER-PRESENT.