As the climate crisis steadily worsens in Canada, so do the livelihoods and environments of Indigenous peoples who bear the disproportionate brunt of its effects. Climate change is eroding both access to resources and foundations of Indigenous tradition, ritual, and history. These impacts on Indigenous communities are not incidental. They stem directly from systemic eco-racism, perpetuated by blatant disregard for Indigenous ownership of land and self-determination, as well as Canada’s prioritization of fossil fuel companies, infrastructure projects, and large public institutions such as McGill.
McGill prides itself on its cutting-edge sustainability models and practices, such as its carbon offset program, green roof agriculture, and an online sustainability module. The latest and most ostentatious claim to sustainability is McGill’s New Vic Project—an $870 million CAD renovation of the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) to extend McGill’s STEM and research facilities. McGill claims that this new infrastructure will be a hub for sustainability systems.
There is clear irony in a so-called “sustainability” project being built on stolen Indigenous land; these two realities cannot coexist. The RVH is built not only on unceded traditional Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) territory, but was also the site of violent, unethical psychiatric experiments conducted on Indigenous peoples as part of the MKULTRA project through McGill’s Allan Memorial Institute. The Mohawk Mothers are still in the midst of a legal battle with McGill to stop construction on the RVH site due to the possibility of unmarked graves on the land. However, despite its violent past and blatant disregard for the Indigenous history of the land, McGill stated just two weeks ago that the New Vic Project will move forward.
Performative activism on the part of both McGill and Canada propagates the invisibility of the Indigenous lived experience of eco-racism. These perfunctory gestures are a convenient substitute for the complete paradigm shift required to move in the direction of eco-justice. In its Frequently Asked Questions page for the New Vic Project, McGill states that it is working towards “Indigenous physical representation” in the building’s design, mentioning the Mohawk Mothers’ legal battle without addressing the necessity for rethinking the project altogether.
The New Vic Project is just one of innumerable instances of eco-racism against Indigenous communities which are rendered invisible by Canadian institutions. The Aamjiwnaang First Nation people spoke out in April about the carcinogenic benzene poisoning on their land from the INEOS Styrolution chemical plant in Sarnia, Ontario. The company called the omissions a “concern,” but have no concrete plans to terminate or rectify their operations. Such acts of environmental racism treat Indigenous spaces as worthless and a waste of lucrative land, thus devaluing Indigenous culture itself.
Eco-racism against Indigenous communities in Canada exposes the true extent of the climate crisis, which manifests as cultural and psychological crises in addition to purely environmental ones for the groups who are most affected. The dispossession of land, inability to honour ancestral history, and restrictions from essential natural resources are factors of the environmental crisis felt exclusively by Indigenous communities. However, the colonial attitude that deems Indigenous land and life as expendable also systematically excludes the acute environmental crises experienced by Indigenous peoples from the concept of the “climate emergency.”
Both McGill and Canada boast progressive efforts towards sustainability. However, no system of “sustainability” is—per McGill’s statement—“benefitting all of humanity” if it ignores the foundational ties that Indigenous peoples have to their land and resources, much of which is unceded and occupied by others.
The history of eco-violence and racism against Indigenous peoples at the hands of both McGill and Canada are insurmountable, and thus there are innumerable steps to be taken towards eco-justice. The federal government must aid in relocating Indigenous people who have experienced adverse effects from infrastructure, chemical poisoning, and other pollutants on their land. All projects and initiatives must be conducted hand-in-hand with Indigenous peoples and in line with their priorities. Indigenous sovereignty must be acknowledged and codified. There must be a pervasive awareness that these eco-violences are not just events in a racist, colonial past, but palpable and ongoing today.
