Performative Policies: A Critique of Greenwashing (Bill-C59) and Environmental Racism (Bill C-226) on Turtle Island
On paper, so-called Canada is making leaps and bounds in terms of advancing towards Environmental Justice.
Environmental Justice is a concept that centers both the biological health of the environment and the wellbeing of a community. The community should be able to work, play, and thrive in the environment they live in without concerns of pollution or possible contaminants impacting their way of life.
All Eyes on Parliament for Wet'suwet'en, 2020.
Bill C-226: Environmental Racism
On June 21st 2024, it was announced by the Government of Canada that Bill C-226 – “An Act Respecting the Development of a National Strategy to Assess, Prevent and Address Environmental Racism and to Advance Environmental Justice'' introduced by Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich, Gulf Islands, British Columbia – was successfully passed. The Hon. Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change expressed his admiration for the Bill being passed, stating, “I heard first-hand from communities who have lived and felt the impacts of pollution on their daily lives for generations. It is time to break the cycle. The adoption of Bill C-226 is a monumental step in Canada’s continued efforts to advance environmental justice” (Environment Canada, 2024).
While many colonial politicians view this bill as a step in the right direction, Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island aren’t quite ready to celebrate this as a true victory. Many Indigenous groups are critiquing this bill as yet another performative policy imposed on stolen land. There are a number of outstanding calls to action from our Nations - Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), and Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIW) - that remain ignored or only partially upheld, while further colonial policy is enforced. One of the most problematic issues is that all victories or milestones towards justice are defined under colonial systems instead of uplifting existing traditional ecological knowledge and systems of governance that have been utilized by our Indigenous communities since time immemorial.
Bill C-59: Anti-Greenwashing
The tar sands upgrader plant at the Syncrude mine north of Fort McMurray, Alberta. Photo: Ashley Cooper / Corbis / Getty Images
Bill C-226 is not the first seemingly progressive bill that has been passed in Parliament, the Anti-Greenwashing Bill C-59 was passed in 2023. This bill has been critiqued by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Quebec Environmental Law Centre, and Ecojustice for its loose and subjective guidelines that fail to hold companies accountable for their deceptive practices. Collectively, CAPE, CODE and Ecojustice made a request to amend the bill in order to better combat Greenwashing. The organizations have proposed that companies should have “adequate and proper tests” prior to making claims about the environmental safety or benefits of their products. It has also been recommended that companies be required to disclose all material negative environmental impacts instead of just including the positives for the sake of marketing (Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, et al,. 2023). Though the proposed amendments are positive, it begs the question as to why these were not implemented and why the bill even existed in the first place if it was not appropriately addressing Greenwashing and allowing companies to slip through the cracks while being perceived as environmentally conscious. The risk of the Environmental Justice Bill (C-226) holding policies that can easily be dodged by multi million dollar extractivist companies, similar to the Greenwashing Bill, is extremely high.
Toxic Divide
“Indigenous peoples in particular, find themselves on the wrong side of a toxic divide, subject to conditions that would not be acceptable elsewhere in Canada”
Communities across Turtle Island have been exploited by companies and industries claiming to be safe or have minimal impact on the environment. In a 2020 United Nations Special Report on toxics and human rights, these remarks were made about Canada, “…many communities in Canada continue to face environmental injustice from toxic exposures….. Marginalized groups, and Indigenous peoples in particular, find themselves on the wrong side of a toxic divide, subject to conditions that would not be acceptable elsewhere in Canada” (UN, 2020). More times than we can count it has resulted in direct harm to the land, animals and people in the community.
Grassy Narrows First Nation serves as a textbook example of Environmental Racism and negligence at the hands of both the provincial and federal government. Grassy Narrows is still feeling the lasting effects of 10 tonnes of Mercury being dumped in the English-Wabigoon River system between the 60’s and 70’s by the Dryden Paper Mill. Almost fifty years later and 200 kilometers downstream, the residents of Grassy Narrows continue to struggle with mercury poisoning, skin rashes, and declining mental health as a result of the intentional dumping. The Dryden Mill has yet to be shut down and continues to leach sulphites in the watershed, a new issue still pending investigation (Alfa, 2024). The lack of action from the Federal government is appalling, failing to follow through on promises, like the Mercury Poisoning Treatment center that Justin Trudeau agreed to fund in 2017 is upsetting, however not surprising (Forester, 2024).
Photo: Courtesy of Grassy Narrows First Nation
The solution to the Climate Emergency is not another policy made by a colonial government who only has the best interests of the companies and corporations fuelling capitalism in mind. Colonization created the climate crisis, therefore we should not rely on colonial policies to solve it. Instead there needs to be a shift where climate policy is informed by Indigenous Knowledge and Cosmology. Indigenous-led solutions have the capacity to support sovereign nations and encourage the self determination of Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island (Deranger, 2022). Indigenous peoples were the first stewards of this land and deserve to have a decision making capacity that represents this long standing stewardship.
Grassy Narrows River Run
This September in Toronto ON, Grassy Narrows is inviting the public to a River Run to raise awareness surrounding the environmental racism they have experienced for over half a century. The River Run is intended to draw attention to the importance of Indigenous sovereignty, mercury justice and environmental justice as a whole. There are so many Indigenous led environmental justice movements across Turtle Island. We are all on this journey together and it is vital we support one another from movement to movement. Our liberation is all connected.
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About the Author
Maya was born and raised in Dryden, ON, in Treaty Three Territory. On her paternal side she is Métis and on her maternal side she is English and Irish, second generation Canadian. Maya’s roots and closest home lie in the Red River/Treaty One territory. Maya is currently a visitor on the Robinson Superior Treaty of 1850 in what is colonially known as Thunder Bay. Maya completed her undergraduate degree at Lakehead University in Outdoor Recreation with a focus is Land-based therapeutic recreation. She is in her second and final year of my Masters of Social Justice at Lakehead University where her studies focus primarily on how art and Indigenous Research Methodologies can be used both as a tool for resistance and to strengthen community kinship structures. Maya was recently brought on board at Indigenous Climate Action this past May, working in tandem with the Samuel Centre of Social Connectedness. Her main point of focus throughout the duration of her internship will be how to make Indigenous divestment strategies accessible to nations across Turtle Island by producing a deliverable. When she is not at work you can find Maya harvesting on the land, making art, spending time with friends and family and plunging into the icy waters of Lake Superior!