Global Friday Presents
Co-sponsored with Inspiring Women Among Us (IWAU) and the Office of Research
Dr. Leah Levac
Associate Professor, Political Science
University of Guelp

ABSTRACT:

In this talk, I draw on two multi-year community engaged research projects (including one based in the Haisla Nation and Kitimat, BC) and three research reports to explore several questions, including:

• What do we know about the gendered and intersectional implications of resource extraction?
• How are (or can) northern and Indigenous women’s experiences be better reflected in assessing the impacts of resource projects?
• What sorts of strategies are northern Indigenous and settler women using to ensure that their experiences are included in policy development, including related to resource extraction?

These are pressing questions for two key reasons. First, while we know quite a lot about the often significant and negative consequences of resource extraction for northern and Indigenous women, there has been very little attention paid to the impacts of resource extraction using an intersectional lens. Second, the federal government has recently adopted a new Impact Assessment Act, which, among other things, calls for nearly two dozen mandatory factors to be taken into account during an impact assessment, including “(c) the impact that the designated project may have on any Indigenous group…; (g) Indigenous knowledge provided with respect to the designated project”; and (s) the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors”.[1] This presents an important opportunity to shift how the state frames and engages with northern Indigenous and settler women as meaningful policy actors.

[1] https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-2.75/page-4.html#h-1160335

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Global Friday gratefully acknowledges funding from the Dean of CASHS.