Exploiting More Than the Land: Sex Violence Linked to Enbridge Line 3 Pipeliners
One toxic byproduct of pipeline construction has largely escaped public scrutiny: sexual assaults linked to Line 3 workers.
Jared Rodriguez / Truthout
As the national fight over Enbridge’s 337-mile Line 3 tar sands pipeline in Minnesota continues to intensify amid protests by Indigenous Water Protectors, one toxic byproduct of the pipeline’s construction has largely escaped public scrutiny: sexual assaults and harassment incidents linked to Line 3 workers.
The devastating trend has long plagued U.S. fossil fuel and extraction projects, especially those adjacent to tribal reservations, and helps fuel a much larger human rights crisis in which thousands of Indigenous women and girls are killed or disappeared at shocking rates each year, often after having been trafficked, sexually assaulted or harassed.