Canada’s oil boom myth obscures energy transition’s systemic job displacement crisis and Indigenous land rights violations

The framing ignores the **legal and moral authority** of Indigenous nations over their lands, as affirmed in treaties and international law (e.g., UNDRIP). Pipelines like Trans Mountain violate **free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC)**, a principle upheld in cases like *Haida Nation v. British Columbia* (2004), where courts recognized Indigenous title as a veto over resource projects. The **Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs’ 2020 blockade** of the Coastal GasLink pipeline exposed the violent enforcement mechanisms used to override Indigenous sovereignty, yet these acts of resistance are framed as obstacles rather than legitimate defenses of land and water. Without centering Indigenous governance, discussions of energy policy remain extractive by design.