Congratulations Emmaleigh Dew!
CSN Best Canadian Studies Undergraduate Essay/Thesis Prize winner

This excellent essay discusses aspects of the troubled history of Indigenous protests in Canada and examines their potential as a threat to Canadian security and sovereignty. Through a careful case study of the pipeline protest staged by Wet’suwet’en people in 2020, it argues convincingly that the Canadian state has responded to this threat to Canadian security and the colonial order by systematically trying to neutralize Indigenous dissent. The essay is written in clear and compelling prose and is based upon extensive research in secondary scholarly sources, including social science theory, law, and political history. Fresh in perspective, the essay’s conclusions pose important questions about the capacity for the Canadian state to recognize indigenous rights, abide by its commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and at the same time secure its sovereignty.