Indigenous civil servants are seeking Federal Court certification for a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging systemic racism and chronic toxicity at the Canadian government’s on-reserve oil and gas agency.
The plaintiffs filed a batch of affidavits last month, detailing allegations of pervasive bullying, discrimination, harassment and intimidation at Indian Oil and Gas Canada (IOGC), located in Tsuut’ina Nation west of Calgary.
Employees allege the agency’s workplace was tarnished by sexual improprieties, unchecked abuses of power and widespread fear of reprisal, causing stalled careers, diminished self-worth and serious harm.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
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“Their place of employment, particularly in the government of Canada, should be a haven of safety, a place to be respected, honoured and to thrive,” said Casey R. Churko, with Napoli Shkolnik Canada.
“And at Indian Oil and Gas, it was not.”
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Joan Jack, who is Anishinaabe from Berens River First Nation in Manitoba and part of the Napoli Shkolnik legal team working on the file, explained the theory this way.
“How do you eat a moose? One bite at a time,” she said.
“We’ve got to start somewhere to achieve real justice for our people who want to serve this country within the bureaucracies this country has created — because we need them there.”
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