Indigenous pipeline-resisters in Canada point out that the courts almost always side with the pipeline and against them. This author has no doubt that the pattern is racism at work.

Is that pattern due to racism? It could be so. Or it could be due to plutocracy. Or it could be due to a combination of both causes.

It isn't valid to presume a priori that the cause is mostly racism, when we know how far the Canadian government will go to support pipeline construction and tar sands oil.

We could tell how significant racism is as a factor if we could contrast these statistics with comparable statistics about non-indigenous Canadians. The article doesn't give any.

Perhaps there are no comparable statistics. Perhaps non-indigenous landowners don't oppose pipelines. Perhaps the government routs pipelines through indigenous land to spare the white Canadians' land. If so, that choice could be directly because of racism, or because the whites have more political clout to resist with, or both.

It could be the case that the indigenous pipeline resisters in Canada have special opportunities to sue, based on the rights of their tribes, which no one else has. If so, I appreciate their exercising those opportunities to defend the climate. They are fighting for all of us.

Alas, that would mean this gives no opportunity to measure to what extent the Canadian courts are racist in enforcing Canadian law.