The aquaculture giant Cermaq Canada Ltd. is taking the Canadian government to court again, this time for alleged damages caused by the federal decision to remove open-net pen salmon farms from B.C.’s Discovery Islands.
Cermaq filed a civil suit in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in February 2025, naming the Attorney General of Canada, the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the Canadian Coast Guard and former Fisheries minister Joyce Murray. The lawsuit alleges that Cermaq suffered millions of dollars in damages because of the federal government's flawed decision to remove fish farms from the Discovery Islands in 2023, including what the lawsuit calls the alleged "misconduct" of Murray.
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The 24-page lawsuit alleges that while serving as the DFO minister responsible for the transition of fish farms from the Discovery Islands from 2021 to 2023, Murray misused her authority, acted in bad faith, placed political interests over scientific considerations and violated the public law obligations owed to Cermaq.
One allegation details that Murray, known to be a long-time supporter of the anti-salmon farming movement in B.C., organized meetings with scientists outside of the DFO to gather alternative input about the impacts of salmon farms. These insights reportedly contradicted nine peer-reviewed risk assessments commissioned by the federal ministry, which had investigated pathogens potentially associated with aquaculture. These meetings also included activists and environmental non-governmental organizations that have consistently opposed open-net pen salmon farms. The lawsuit claims that Murray's actions were intended to gather submissions that would support her “predetermined decision to not re-issue the Discovery Islands licences."
The court documents allege that in seeking what it considered “biased submissions,” Murray acted unlawfully, violating DFO's standards for how to deal with the aquaculture industry on the island.
The lawsuit also details an email exchange with Murray's aunt from December 2022, which was sent at the request of a friend. It reveals how Murray felt overwhelmed by the transition's complexity.
According to the lawsuit, Murray wrote that her “difficult assignment ... regarding both Discovery Islands and the broader transition ... is not helped by the fact that DFO’s science division has done a formal and comprehensive peer-review process to assess the research and came to the conclusion that aquaculture operations pose minimal risk to wild salmon.”
The central theme of the lawsuit asserts that the policy decisions leading to the removal of salmon farms from the Discovery Islands were influenced by political motivations rather than being based on scientific evidence.
"The 2023 decision was made for collateral political or otherwise improper reasons having no relation to the merits or legality of the aquaculture licenses," reads the court document, adding this makes the 2023 decision invalid and unlawful.
Cermaq is seeking general and other damages but did not specify a dollar amount in the lawsuit.
A DFO spokesperson said the department cannot comment at this time as the matter is before the courts.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
