B.C. parliamentarian to speak on environmental issues in Canada in Wednesday lecture

British Columbia Parliamentarian Fin Donnelly will speak on "Environmental issues Facing British Columbia: Fish Farming and Oil Tankers in BC Coastal Waters" during the World Issues Forum discussion at noon Wednesday, Jan. 27, in the Fairhaven Auditorium.

Donnelly will discuss his work at the federal level on two major environmental issues facing B.C.: the impact of sea lice from fish farms on wild salmon and the threat of oil tanker transport off the north coast.

Donnelly has been an elected Member of Parliament, New Westminster-Coquitlam and Port Moody, since 2009. As the NDP Critic for Fisheries and Oceans, he introduced legislation to ban tanker traffic along B.C.'s sensitive northern coast, and he introduced six bills to transition all fish farms to closed containment. Before being elected, Donnelly served on the Coquitlam City Council for seven years and was the executive director of the Rivershed Society of B.C. for 14 years. He twice swam the length of the Fraser River to promote sustainable living and stewardship. He played a key role in calling for the securing the Cohen Inquiry into the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River sockeye salmon run. He has a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Victoria. He was born in New Westminster, grew up in Port Moody and currently lives in Coquitlam with his wife, Lynda.