Resisting Extractive Capitalism: The Criminalization of Indigenous Activism


Natalie Snow, Humber College; Manjot Naroo, Independent

This study explores the criminalization of Indigenous activism protesting the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline that runs through Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. Despite the pipeline’s well-known negative impact on the Indigenous communities and the environment, the expansion approval of this project juxtaposes the commitments made by the government to (1) prevent rising global temperatures under the Paris Climate Agreement and (2) the path to reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples. We argue that Indigenous activists are criminalized by agents of the Canadian state as a political strategy to delegitimize the Indigenous opposition and neutralize dissent. One of these agents is the news media, as it normalizes the criminalization of Indigenous communities and plays a significant role in people’s understanding of social movements. Movements such as Idle No More are powerful examples of the Indigenous resistance against colonial violence, corporate destruction and brazen human rights violations. Direct action in the form of blockades represents material obstacles to extractive capitalism and challenges the settler-colonial constant circuitry of capital from the lands. The protests raise awareness of the lack of prior and informed consent from Indigenous communities, the erosion of treaty rights, and the suppression of Indigenous self-determination/sovereignty. Thus, through content analysis, we examined the framing of Indigenous activism in 284 Canadian newspapers between June 18, 2019, to December 19, 2023. Our findings suggest that Indigenous activists are indeed hyper-surveilled and over-criminalized by the settler-colonial state as a strategy to eliminate interference within the construction of the pipeline project. The negative framing of the protestors revealed overarching patterns of how Indigenous resurgence and self-determinism are met with punitive forces by the state. Secret surveillance technologies and aggressive law enforcement interventions further highlighted the colonial logic that seeks to alienate, criminalize, and oppress Indigeneity. Our research illuminates the anonymity of the institutional colonial power that dwells within the matrix of the overlapping social, economic, environmental and technological dimensions of society. Through the deconstruction of Indigenous criminalization, we hope to unveil the true paradoxical nature of the post-colonial humanitarian society that Canada aims to be.

This paper will be presented at the following session: