Threats from Within and Threats from Without: Wet’suwet’en Protesters, Irregular Asylum Seekers and the On-Going Reproduction of Settler Colonialism in Canada

This essay seeks to address the ‘immigrant-Aboriginal parallax gap’ by considering the ways in which the popular media frames Indigenous protesters and irregular asylum seekers. Using the work of previous studies of Oka/Kanasatake, Ipperwash and Caledonia and the irregular boat arrivals of Fujian and Tamil asylum seekers, it identifies similarities in the ways that each group was racialized, criminalized, delegitimized and constructed as the ‘Other’ in the popular media. Employing the theoretical frameworks of settler colonialism and securitization theory, it goes on to examine whether the same frames persist in contemporary representations using the case studies of Wet’suwet’en protesters and irregular asylum seekers crossing the border at Roxham Road. A comparative discourse analysis finds that the media continues to frame Indigenous protesters and irregular asylum seekers as threats to the ‘rule of law’ and the ‘common good’, reconstituting acts that are fundamentally rights affirming – including the right to peaceful protest and the right to claim asylum – into threats to Canada’s sovereignty, thus necessitating state action. Keywords: Indigenous protest, irregular asylum seekers, Oka/Kanasatake, Ipperwash, Caledonia, boat people, Fujian, Tamil, discourse analysis, settler colonialism, securitization, Roxham Road, Safe Third Country Agreement