Federal NDP leadership candidate Avi Lewis has ignited a debate by aligning with anti-pipeline advocates, asserting that major resource projects promoted by the Mark Carney government pose a significant threat to the safety of Indigenous women and girls.
Debate Comments Echo Longstanding Concerns
During the English portion of the NDP Bilingual Leadership Debate in Montreal on November 27, 2025, Lewis, one of five candidates vying to replace former leader Jagmeet Singh, framed the issue in stark terms. "All of this talk of nation-building projects that has consumed the oxygen of our political conversation in Canada, they're big, manly things with huge work camps entailed in remote areas," Lewis stated.
He directly connected these industrial camps to community impacts, adding, "The impacts on Indigenous women and girls are intense, are horrifying." Lewis pointed to NDP MPs Lori Idlout and Leah Gazan as leaders within the party who emphasize funding for shelters and frontline services in Indigenous communities as a critical response.
Activist Foundations and the MMIWG Inquiry
Lewis's remarks reflect well-documented concerns from Indigenous activists and human rights organizations. These groups have long argued that temporary housing camps—often called "man camps"—for workers on remote resource extraction sites are linked to increased violence against Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people.
This argument was central to the legal challenge launched in 2020 by the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs against the Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia. The organization Raven, which supports Indigenous legal challenges, has consistently highlighted this link, stating, "At this point, it is well known that man camps... are linked to violence against Indigenous women."
The backdrop to this issue is the landmark 2019 National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), which labeled the crisis a "Canadian genocide." Activists have criticized governments and corporations for failing to fully implement the inquiry's calls to action, which include addressing the specific threats posed by resource development.
International Attention and the Path Forward
Global human rights watchdog Amnesty International has also documented the dangers. In a March 2024 statement regarding land defenders, the organization wrote, "These 'man camps' are associated with high rates of sexual and gender-based violence and trafficking experienced by Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ people."
By bringing this perspective into the NDP leadership race, Avi Lewis has placed the intersection of resource development, Indigenous rights, and public safety firmly on the party's internal agenda. His comments suggest that, if successful, his leadership would prioritize these concerns in federal policy debates, challenging the narrative of economic development at any cost.
