Sensitising Green Criminology to Procedural Environmental Justice: A Case Study of First Nation Consultation in the Canadian Oil Sands

Abstract

Procedural environmental justice refers to fairness in processes of decision-making. It recognises that environmental victimisation, while an injustice in and of itself, is usually underpinned by unjust deliberation procedures. Although green criminology tends to focus on the former—distributional dimension of environmental justice—this article draws attention to its procedural counterpart. In doing so, it demonstrates how the notions of justice-as-recognition and justice-as-participation are jointly manifested within its conceptual boundaries. This is done by using the consultation process that occurs with indigenous peoples on proposed oil sands projects in Northern Alberta, Canada, as a case study. Drawing from ‘elite’ interviews, the article illustrates how indigenous voices have been marginalised and their Treaty rights misrecognised within this consultation process. As such, in seeking to understand the procedural determinants of distributional injustice, the article aims to encourage broader green criminological scholarship to do the same.

Farming Intensification and Environmental Justice in Northern Ireland

“…As discussed above, for an environmental decision-making procedure to be just, participants' perspectives and views need to be recognized; they should be given an opportunity for the provision of input toward decisions that are likely to affect their environment and to have that input respected and taken into consideration in decision-making process (George and Reed 2017;Heydon 2018). My research revealed that the ideas categorized by the opposition to farming intensification in the area were largely ignored.…”

“…Much like research on distributional injustice, studies of procedural injustice have examined socially and culturally marginalized groups (Heydon 2018;Holifield 2012). Bustos and colleagues (2017) suggest, however, that explorations of procedural environmental justice should extend beyond marginalized groups and this article continues their line of thinking.…”

“…The innovative contribution of this article is to consider public participation in decision-making regarding this phenomenon. In so doing, it calls attention to the need for more research on procedural environmental justice in green criminology and expands on the insufficiently discussed concept of capabilities in it (Heydon 2018). Moreover, this article forwards the argument that non-marginalized populations can also face environmental injustice, thus expanding existing green criminological research on the topic.…”

“…It refers to dignity accorded to all despite the differences in ways of living that might exist (Sikor and Newell 2014), and for environmental justice scholarship, it entails the recognition of the diversity of participants from affected communities and recognition of their experiences (Schlosberg 2004). As a result, misrecognition might take forms of domination, complete non-recognition, or disrespect (Fraser 1998) which, in turn, is unjust insofar as it creates a scenario in which individuals are not treated equally (Heydon 2018). Instead, decision-making processes should reflect inclusivity, respectfulness, and equality (Heydon 2018).…”

“…As a result, misrecognition might take forms of domination, complete non-recognition, or disrespect (Fraser 1998) which, in turn, is unjust insofar as it creates a scenario in which individuals are not treated equally (Heydon 2018). Instead, decision-making processes should reflect inclusivity, respectfulness, and equality (Heydon 2018).…”