Environmental justice

This thesis explores environmental justice in Peterborough/Nogojiwanong, Ontario, focusing on how marginalized communities—including Indigenous peoples, people of colour, and low-income groups—experience and respond to environmental harm. Using Participatory Action Research and Photovoice, 22 co-researchers shared their lived experiences shaped by colonialism, systemic racism, and other intersecting forms of oppression. The study reveals widespread environmental injustices, including unequal exposure to harm, exclusion from decision-making, and limited remediation. Participants highlighted how race, gender, class, and (dis)ability compound these injustices, while also framing environmental harm as deeply connected to housing instability, economic precarity, and mental health. Although participatory methods fostered community dialogue and empowerment, institutional barriers continue to hinder transformative change. The findings underscore the need for long-term, community-driven strategies that center lived experience and promote distributive, procedural, and restorative justice. This research demonstrates how participatory approaches can support marginalized voices in advocating for more equitable environmental policies and outcomes.

Author Keywords: Environmental justice, Marginalized communities, PAR, Peterborough, Photovoice

This thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the extractive industry operating out of the Alberta tar sands region to determine how environmental violence is enacted against Indigenous women, girls, and queer or Two-Spirit peoples in the Lubicon Lake Cree Nation and beyond. Through an analysis of existing literature in the field, a case study on the Lubicon Lake Nation and a policy analysis of the Calls for Justice from the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, this thesis draws links between industrialization, capitalism, the heteropatriarchy, and colonialism. Finally, this thesis offers a pathway to resurgence, through the subversion of colonial gender and sexual norms, and collective action to reclaim Indigenous territory as an alternative to state-sponsored solutions and policies.

Author Keywords: Colonial heteropatriarchy, Environmental violence, Land Back, Lubicon Lake, Tar sands, Violence against Indigenous women