Dead without Comics

More than 50% of Indigenous communities in reserve areas in Canada are at high risk of pipeline spills. When there is a spill, reserves are disproportionately impacted.

The National Energy Board and Supreme Court of Canada has a history of declaring the "public interest and economic interests outweigh Indigenous and treaty rights." Basically, Indigenous peoples don't count enough as "public" to matter.

Pipelines are built without proper consent from the Indigenous Nations they choose to occupy. Keep in mind I say choose, because this is the case even when alternative pipeline routes are suggested that could avoid reserve land. This is a direct, constant, and often violent threat to Indigenous sovereignty.

The MMIW crisis is funded by the oil industry through the creation of worker's "man camps" near reserve land. These "man camps" are nothing but pits of sexual violence and human trafficking of Indigenous women and girls. I am not exaggerating; this is well studied and well documented.

Resources & Sources:

To become an ‘energy superpower’, Canada wants to bulldoze Indigenous rights (START HERE!)

Indigenous Resistance to Alberta Oil and Gas Development Report

When the environment is destroyed, you're destroyed: Achieving Indigenous led pipeline justice

First Nations Consent Ignored as Canadians Asked to Subsidize LNG Expansion

Oil pipelines and food sovereignty: threat to health equity for Indigenous communities

Is Violence against Indigenous Women in “Canada’s interest”? Liquified Natural Gas in B.C., Sexual Violence & Narratives of Terra Nullius

The colonial playbook never ended, Canada’s pipeline deal proves it

"Decolonize Everything"

“When the last tree is cut, the last river poisoned, and the last fish caught… then you will realize money cannot be eaten.”

Up until 1941 in Canada Indians required a pass from a (white) Indian Agent to leave the reserve. This was enforced by the North West Mounted Police.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/pass-system-in-canada

This is where the phrase "going off the reservation" comes from. From pass systems that restricted the movement of certain ethnic groups. (aka segregation)

A reserve is not a city slum, it's more like a tiny country. Some are extremely remote.

Fernwood Publishing has curated a collection of FREE online books:

In solidarity with the people of Palestine resisting occupation and fighting for liberation and their right to self-determination, we share this curated collection of titles available to read for free on their product pages. These works shine light on the realities of displacement, refugeehood, surveillance and imprisonment by the hands of foreign occupying forces and how we may best stand together against colonial complicity and advocate for a free Palestine.

The collection currently includes the following:

"Driving in Palestine" by Rehab Nazzal

"Advocating for Palestine in Canada: Histories, Movements, Action"

"Siegebreakers" by Justin Podur

"Bombardier Abroad: Patterns of Dispossession" by David P. Thomas

// Fears are not memories. Feeling something is not the same as knowing