How many Canadian women and children must endure rape and or physical abuse and sexually transmitted diseases to keep the oil patch rolling?

Influx of 4,500 workers raises fears of violence against women in B.C.’s northwest, Women’s shelters in Kitimat, Terrace already operate above capacity while concerns about ‘man camps’ persist by Michelle Ghoussoub, CBC News, Mar 06, 2020

At 26, Jessica McCallum-Miller is the youngest and first Indigenous councillor in Terrace, B.C. She’s worried an influx of people is making the community dangerous for women and has experienced stalking and harassment first-hand. (Michelle Ghoussoub/CBC)

This story is part of Stopping Domestic Violence, a CBC News series looking at the crisis of intimate partner violence in Canada and what can be done to end it.   

Kitimat, B.C., feels like a town of men.

In fast food joints and corporate buses shuttling workers around the North Coast town, employees of the LNG Canada project stand out with their uniformity. Most sport the obligatory heavy duty boots and coats worn by workers throughout B.C.’s north as they cope with a waning winter.

The $40-billion dollar liquefied natural gas project will employ about 7,000 workers at the peak of construction, flying 4,500 people into town for rotating two-week shifts. Around 80 per cent of workers are men, swelling the size of Kitimat, whose population is normally just over 8,000.

The influx of people into town has mixed consequences, providing a boon to local businesses and raising environmental questions. But there’s another, more worrying, trend.

Over the past two years, Kitimat and nearby Terrace’s shelters for women fleeing violence have frequently been overwhelmed while concerns about harassment from incoming workers grows.

“We have been at or over capacity most nights of the year for the past two or three years,” said Michelle Martin, who works at the Tamitik Status of Women.

Jessica McCallum-Miller, Terrace’s 26-year-old, first Indigenous city councillor, says she’s worried the influx of people into town is also increasing instances of violence outside of intimate relationships.

She says she’s felt threatened by men who are strangers.

“As a young Indigenous woman, I’m actually facing some stalking, violence in my community, I’ve been harassed by unknown men, not from this community,” she said, adding she and others have been followed by men in cars.

“I don’t know if they work for industry, I don’t know who they are,” she said, her shock of blue hair in contrast to Terrace city council’s stark chambers

LNG Canada has brought prosperity to the town which has already experienced several cycles of boom and bust that accompany natural resource projects.

Martin says the project has also “unintentionally affected” women fleeing violence by driving up the price of housing. Other community members say the project has sparked fears that “man camps” — temporary housing for predominantly male workers — will make the area dangerous for women.

LNG Canada says it knows major natural resource projects can put a strain on small towns, and that it takes the safety of women and Indigenous people seriously. Susannah Pierce, LNG Canada’s director of corporate affairs, says it’s not true that workers pose a threat to women. If so, then LNG Canada is lying when it claims “it takes the safety of women and Indigenous people seriously.”

“The view that these are just cauldrons of testosterone and these men are out to get the women is wrong,” she said.

Turned away

Kitimat is a hilly cluster of faded pastel homes and newer, low-rise apartments tucked at the head of B.C.’s Douglas Channel, in the traditional territory of the Haisla Nation. In late February, the snow banks are several feet high and covered in a layer of winter grime.

A public work road snakes out of town toward the project site, past a dozen orange hydraulic cranes known as cherry pickers, and a collection of blue and white temporary housing units where workers will live come April. 

Michelle Martin is the director of services for the Tamitik Status of Women, a non-profit that runs Kitimat’s shelter for women fleeing violence. The shelter has been so full that is has turned away dozens of women and their children over the past two years. (Michelle Ghoussoub/CBC)

Somewhere in town, at a secret location, is Kitimat’s women’s shelter. It’s funded for eight beds but squeezes in a ninth, and is officially over capacity when that last bed is full. The shelter has had to turn away dozens of women and their children over the past two years.

Its director Martin says that’s an alarming number, considering many women facing abuse from a partner can’t or don’t leave, immediately or ever.

“There’s this assumption that when violence occurs people want the relationship to stop or want to leave when in fact, more often than not, women want the relationship to continue — they want the violence, the behaviour, the abuse to end,” she said, adding it’s even less likely women will leave in a town as small as Kitimat, where it’s near impossible to stay anonymous.

Leah Levac, an associate professor at the University of Guelph who studies the experiences of women in towns hosting natural resource projects, says research shows domestic violence rates in the north are “related to resource] extraction.”

She said locals who can’t work in industry come under pressure when workers with higher incomes flood the town, driving up the cost of housing. While nationally the average median total income for women is about 68 per cent of that earned by men, in Kitimat it’s 49 per cent, making it difficult for women to strike out on their own.

Martin said natural resource project work is inherently precarious, and those who do land jobs suffer mentally when projects wrap up.

“For somebody who has low coping mechanisms or emotional regulation, if they feel bad about themselves and see others prospering, certainly that can translate to violence,” she said.

‘Man camps’ and misconceptions

Domestic violence is one, but not the only, concern.

The National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s report released in June 2019 explicitly warned “increased crime levels, including drug- and alcohol-related offences, sexual offences, and domestic and ‘gang’ violence, have been linked to ‘boom town’ and other resource development contexts,” and urged companies to consider the safety of Indigenous women in all stages of project planning.

LNG Canada said it’s working to mitigate impacts on Kitimat by housing workers at a camp — referred to as the lodge — near its work site outside of town. It was also the first company to undergo, as part of its environmental assessment, another process examining social impacts on the community.

Company spokesperson Pierce says there’s a zero-tolerance policy for violence, harassment, and bullying both “inside and outside the fence,” in reference to behaviour both on and off the work site.

“The view that you have all these men sort of coming in to huddle together and [do] bad things, I think that’s a misconception. The kinds of folks that come in to work on these jobs, they have families too, and daughters too,” she said. Since when does being married or having children stop rapists and pedophiles? The men that raped/sexually assaulted me when I was a child were married Christians with children.

Still, in a small town where the ratio of women to men is warped, it can be difficult to dispel a sense of unease.

“When we speak with both Haisla and settler women in this community, they will flag that their perception of increased instances of feeling unsafe […] are connected to this influx of people,” said Levac, who has travelled to Kitimat several times to interview women.

‘Swept under the rug’

Before running for city councillor, McCallum-Miller worked in the donation room of Terrace’s shelter for women. Still in her early 20s and not formally trained as a social worker, she’d often find herself counselling women fleeing violence, as the shelter struggled to keep up with the demand for services. 

It’s a memory she’s carried with her as she ran for office, and as she reads about how projects have put pressure on other towns.

“I know that there’s domestic violence, I know that there’s sexual violence and I know that we’re being extremely impacted by this, especially Indigenous women. And a lot of time it’s swept under the rug,” she said. Of course it’s covered-up, with the RCMP looking the other way, perhaps raping along with the oil patch men. Can’t let rape of women and children in Canadian boom towns interfere with the profits of (mostly foreign) rich!

Despite her reservations, McCallum-Miller says she’s still undecided about how the project will affect her community. Kitimat and Terrace have already been through multiple cycles of boom or bust, and longtime residents know other hardships come when well-paying jobs dry up.

Pierce’s voice swells over the phone as she emphasizes that she wants Kitimat’s experience with LNG Canada to be different.

“We want people to be safe. We want women to be safe. And Indigenous people to be safe,” she said.

If you need help and are in immediate danger, call 911. To find assistance in your area, visit sheltersafe.ca or http://endingviolencecanada.org/getting-help.

Refer also to:

2020 03 05: Frac’ers rape the rule of law and gag Canadian First Nations under the guise of “Benefit Agreements”

2019 10 14: The Darkest Side of Fossil-Fuel Extraction, It leads to violence against, and the trafficking of, Native women by Barbara Clabots, Scientific American

CRIME Child-sex tourism continues to rise in Canada and abroad: two year study. “In Canada, indigenous women and children are especially vulnerable and are often moved around to be exploited near oil rigs”

Unlawful arrest near Houston of Unist’ot’en guest: “Today the RCMP have arrested the person complying with the injunction and not those breaking it.” Meanwhile, 800-900 man camp, to last 3-4 years, approved in residential area on Wet’suwet’en territory south of Houston, by Board of Regional District of Buckley-Nechako (previously denied, partly because of TC Energy’s lousy communication with the public)

“When judges don’t know the meaning of rape, there is little hope of justice” never mind that some (one is too many) are racist misogynistic bigoted troglodytes in society’s “Upside Down of Patriarchy.”

Time to Boycott Rape Culture Alberta! X-Site (‘Excite’) Energy Ltd. decal depicting rape of Greta Thunberg printed, distributed *without her consent,* posted to X-Site’s Facebook, Instagram; denied after public outrage; next a feeble apology. Canada’s oil patch collared RCMP, as expected, say the decal is acceptable. Gotta let the oil boys satisfy their penis’ wants, no matter how abusive or violent, to keep profits rolling in for the rich.

EnCana donates $200 to transition home for women and children in Dawson Creek IMAGINE ENCANA/OVINTIV’S PHENOMENAL GENEROUSITY! 200 DOLLARS! IF OIL PATCH WORKERS PAID APPROPRIATE PROSTITUTE FEES TO THE LOCAL WOMEN AND CHILDREN THEY RAPE, I EXPECT THE TALLY WOULD BE IN THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

Canada’s Corrupt Cops Invade Wet’suwet’en: RCMP & snipers drunk on abusing power; Video captures officer pointing gun at unarmed Denzel Sutherland-Wilson and Anne Spice (RCMP stupidly deny it). Julie Ali: “Absolutely disgusting. Stop threatening them.”

Victim blaming and shaming must stop. So many rapists and pedophiles; too many judges enabling them. ‘Un Violador en Tu Camino, The rapist is you!’ Why a Chilean protest chant is being sung around the world

Gidimt’en spokesperson Sleydo’, a.k.a. Molly Wickham, accuses RCMP of acting as mercenaries for industry, “We are still being threatened with violence, death, and the removal of our children for simply existing on our lands and following our laws”

Why wasn’t Nova Scotia legal profession’s most infamous sexual predator and Premier, Gerald Regan, disbarred? Simple: 1) He was a man in Caveman Canada; 2) He was a lawyer in Caveman Canada; 3) He was in a position of power in Caveman Canada; 4) “Justice” is not available for raped women (or the environment) in Caveman Canada, just expensive lawyers.

Bullying Canadian Caveman seeks judicial review to stay on the bench. Ex-Alberta-judge, Donald Norheim, appointed to the bench 27 years ago, seeks judicial review of losing his job because of his “completely inappropriate” beliefs, behaviours involving his views on Indigenous people and women, notably victims of domestic and sexual assault.

“It’s the judges!” enabling rape and murder of women. No kidding. In Canada too.

Oh Canada! RCMP as vile and demented as our legal industry? ‘Creepy and unsettling’: Activist voices concerns over her RCMP profile

Oh Racist Misogynistic Colonial Canada: As vile under Trudeau as Harper! Police prepared to shoot Wet’suwet’en land defenders; Documents show Commanders argued “lethal overwatch is req’d” – a term for deploying snipers – like in Elsipotog in 2013. RCMP commanders also instructed officers to “use as much violence toward the gate as you want.” PS Merry Christmas.

Canadian misogynistic “justice” ensures rapist paradise. Accused serial rapist Paul Batchelor, let off by Justice Beaudoin (elevated to the bench by Harper gov’t), arrested after three new rape charges; now awaits trials involving nine women who don’t know one another.

Do you want fairness, equality, diversity, inclusion in Canada’s legal profession? In 2019, 85% of the legal profession in USA is white and mostly male. No wonder so many sexual assault victims are re-victimized in court by judges and known convicted pedophiles are granted licence to practice law! No wonder our environment is underrepresented and unjustly served with vile demented gag orders.

“Unconscionably Unjust!” “Beyond the Pale!” Legal gag at it’s most vile: Protecting known multimillionaire pedophile Epstein and entire network, aided & abetted by? Lawyers! “Non-prosecution deal” gave Epstein and his pedophile ring immunity from all federal charges. How many churches & law societies? Will lawyers & judges hammer out another humdinger of a gag to make sure the world never finds out?

All the world’s not a stage, it’s a pedophile ring! Is Rod MacLeod’s ungagged legal victory against basilian pedophile priest why catholic/extreme right white lawyers took over Ontario’s law society a year later? To keep vatican’s Pedophile Ring & “Silent Shuffle” busy? Jury was blunt: “Put children in harm’s way – grossly negligent. … Betrayal of trust with the community.” Meanwhile in Australia, the ultimate court-ordered gag order betrays the public’s trust

“Law Society of Ontario taken over by ‘right-wing, fundamentalist religious zealots?’” Taken over by the catholic church to better protect and feed its sex-crazed, child-abusing “celibate” priests? Do white privileged people think loading up on religious self-righteousness and the church will hide the law society’s pedophilia? It’s not working.

“Unf*ck the system.” Alberta’s Neanderthal “Justice” system assaults sexual assault victims. “The judge in this troubling case was none other than former Deputy Justice Minister Ray Bodnarek, a PC loyalist appointed as a judge by former PC Justice Minister Jonathan Denis who himself resigned under troubling allegations of domestic violence.” Commenter: “So who exactly is the crown protecting by blocking the publication of the victim’s name?” Another commenter: “My guess…..the ‘system’. It stinks and it’s all because of the judges & lawyers.”

Law Society of Ontario a Pedophile Ring? Racism, misogyny *and* enabling sexual abuse of children? Ottawa lawyer, John David Coon, in custody for sex crimes against four-year old daughter of one of his clients. Law Society documents reveal they gave Coon licence to practise law despite knowing of his prior criminal conviction for sexually assaulting another child. HOW MANY CANADIAN JUDGES ARE PEDOPHILES AND OR RAPISTS?

Imagine if law-violating, polluting, community, family, health and home harming oil and gas companies were persecuted the same way women are! The “Rule of Law” is a misogynistic caveman’s ass.

MUST WATCH! ‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ Sketch: “Judges: a danger to Canadian women”

New Study: Again, frac’ing linked to increased sexually transmitted disease

This entry was posted in Global Frac News. Bookmark the permalink.