Cermaq: To Whom Do I Write the Cheque?

Faced will a legal bill in excess of $500,000 ($75,000 in damages and legal costs estimated at between $450,000 and $500,000), I'm obviously keen to know: to whom do I write the cheque?

The half-a-million dollar question is this: which company has the right to claim damages and legal costs? Should I make the cheque payable to Mainstream Canada (a company which changed their name last year and which will cease to exist later this year), EWOS (which were sold last year by parent company Cermaq) or Cermaq (the Norwegian Government-owned company which recently renamed Mainstream Canada as Cermaq)?

And whoever they are, will they accept Canadian dollars?

Or Norwegian kroner?

An added complication is the fact that the permanent injunction granted by the Court of Appeal of British Columbia in July 2013 refers specifically to Mainstream Canada – a company that has since been re-named and a company which will soon cease to exist! Here's the text of the injunction:

And here's the 'Defamatory Words' as defined in the 'Amended Notice of Civil Claim' (July 2011) – 52 statements in total:

Since Mainstream will soon cease to exist and since Cermaq changed the name of Mainstream late last year, how can the injunction be worth the paper it is written on?

A press release issued by Mainstream Canada (and by Cermaq) in November 2013 included:

In October 2013, Cermaq also completed the sale of EWOS to Altor Fund III and Bain Capital.

The Plaintiff ("Mainstream Canada, a division of EWOS Canada Ltd") successfully argued in court during the 20-day trial in January/February 2012 that Mainstream Canada not their parent company Cermaq (the then owner of EWOS) was the aggrieved party.

In her Supreme Court of British Columbia judgment (September 2012), Justice Adair ruled that Mainstream Canada was the subject of GAAIA's campaign – the judgment included:

In the 'Notice of Civil Claim' filed in March 2011 it is obvious that Cermaq was the company pulling the strings:

And now as soon as the case is over and the plaintiff has won, it is Cermaq who are crowing about being vindicated – here's a news report (sourced from a press release issued by Mainstream Canada) in the Campbell River Mirror (13 February):