Bricks and Mortars

There has been much talk of incivility plaguing the Nordic Aquafarms debate, but truth is the essence of civility, and here Nordic is coming up woefully short. In two recent columns I wrote about numerous misrepresentations made by Nordic regarding its proposed Belfast fish factory, such as the suggestion that fish can't escape from land-based fish factories — they can and they do. But since the publication of those two columns, Nordic has migrated from mere misrepresentations squarely into the realm of outright lies. At a June 12 public information meeting, a panel of purported experts fielded softball questions tossed out in soothing tones by Des Fitzgerald, founder of Belfast's Ducktrap River, now owned by Marine Harvest, the world's biggest salmon producer and a Norwegian corporation with a list of environmental problems as long as your arm. After Fitzgerald's questions, the panel took questions from the audience, and in response to a question about ...

This Stinks Published May 24, 2018 To the Mayor and City Council: On behalf of many of my fellow Belfast citizens, I'm sorry that democracy is inconvenient for you. I apologize. But you see, we live here. This is our home. And we think we should have a say in what happens here. We don't think big corporations should be able to do whatever they want while we're expected to roll over and play dead. We don't like being handed a done deal. The decision to change zoning so Nordic Aquafarms can build one of the world's biggest land-based industrial salmon farms here in Belfast was clearly made well before the formal vote. Why else have the April 17 city council meeting in the tiny city council chamber, which everyone knew would overflow. To be able to televise the meeting, we're told. But at least some of you knew it could be televised elsewhere. And why were accommodations not made so Director of Code and Planning Director Wayne Marshall's presen...