Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

The Dangers of Isolation, Transience, and Loneliness can be seen in this section through Katie’s male coworkers, Hatim and Ryan. Hatim, who initially presents as a chauvinist and makes women uncomfortable, uses this persona to hide his feelings of isolation and loneliness. This shines through when Hatim receives a call from one of his children, revealing his fatherly side in front of his colleagues. His male colleagues shame him for this, forcing him to adhere to a sexist view of how men should behave; his feelings are considered unmasculine. This shows another side of how Patriarchal Violence Thrives in Isolated Environments and reinforces how patriarchy harms men and women alike by constraining their self-expression. Similarly, Ryan, who is initially a gruff boss with a cynical sense of humor, has a mental health crisis because of his divorce. With no one to confide in due to gendered expectations, he becomes increasingly transient and inaccessible to his employees, eventually disappearing entirely with no conclusions given (399). His decline and disappearance include similar visual motifs as Katie’s sexual assault scenes, including panels depicting closed doors. Like many oil sands stories, his sudden disappearance is neither new nor surprising.

Despite returning to the oil sands from Alberta, Katie is less affected by her colleagues’ misogyny in the final chapters. While she can’t escape male chauvinism, she is more prepared to combat it. For example, she leaves her tampons in full view to “make men uncomfortable” and kicks Doug when he makes inappropriate comments and pinches her cheek (305). Her female friendships with Becky, Lindsay, and now Emily all boost her sense of safety, emphasizing The Value of Home and Camaraderie. This contrasts with Katie’s discomfort when upper management snaps a photo of her during a visit for promotional material, showing that inclusivity must be based on genuine understanding rather than simply ticking boxes. Katie is also less personally affected by alcohol in these chapters, though it remains a specter of danger. It is mentioned as an abused substance among oil sands workers, especially as a symptom of isolation and loneliness.

The memoir’s discussion of home takes on new nuances here. For the Fort McKay First Nations people, their home is being poisoned by oil companies, and they must fight to protect it. The oil companies don’t view the oil sands land with the same degree of importance or respect—similar to how they view their workers. For Katie, while the oil sands are not home, she is now inextricably connected with the place and has a hard time understanding her role in the environmental scandal or the displacement of First Nations people. In this way, the world expands for her as she is forced to consider other perspectives and how things that benefit her—like her high salary at the oil sands—come at the expense of others. This deepens her alienation; while she wants to share her story with others, she is wary of the lack of empathy from those who have never experienced the oil sands. All these feelings coalesce within her, but even when she finally returns to Cape Breton, she is forever changed. The concepts of home and camaraderie are no longer a simple, blanket concept the way they were when she first left for Alberta. Home is now defined by shared experiences rather than just a shared homeland. This perspective shift situates the memoir as a coming-of-age story.

The titular symbol is presented here, and the poisoned and dead ducks symbolize the oil sands workers. When the news breaks that hundreds of ducks and migratory birds have been found poisoned and dead in the oil sands tailing pools, upper management’s solution is simply to erect ineffective scarecrows and gunshot speakers to deter waterfowl. Katie, along with many oil sands workers, realizes the strategy is less about protecting the birds as it is about protecting the companies from lawsuits. Similarly, very little is done to protect the health of oil sands workers. Leon is working while he has cancer, Katie suffers from a cough and welts from air pollution, and many employees use alcohol and cocaine to ease their stress. Ryan only receives a mental health services brochure during his crisis, and there is no sign that it helps him. This culminates in a man dying from a heart attack on the job site. The support and protections provided by upper management are surface-level only—safety videos and instructions meant to protect the companies from lawsuits and flimsy safety gear that doesn’t protect them. When Katie reports her experiences of harassment, she is told first to “suck it up” and later offered money she should have received anyway as compensation (416). In essence, the blue-collar migrant workers are like migratory birds: They travel from afar and face poor conditions, little support, and potential fatalities.

Clothes continue to symbolize class discrepancies in this section. Katie moves into administration work and observes more of the discrepancies between classes at the oil sands. While Damian—who wears an earring—is never fully accepted by his older colleagues, he is still more “one of the boys” than upper management, who wear white safety helmets and fancy expensive safety vests for a five-minute visit to the work area. In contrast, the grunt workers have colored hard hats and flimsy reflective gear, and when Damian tries to request upper management’s castoffs, he is told that they were all taken as souvenirs. This highlights the class and wealth resource disparity: Those who need and use resources are barred from them, while those who don’t need those resources acquire higher-quality versions. This frustrates the blue-collar workers and is part of the reason Katie faces animosity from former tool crib colleagues when she switches to an office job. Though Katie doesn’t consider herself white-collar, she is viewed as such. At the same time, blue-collar men wear their site ID tags to pick up women, believing that their tags indicate their lucrative salaries. In this way, they use their accessories to elevate themselves to acquire social status.

Nature continues to symbolize hope and resilience in these final chapters. While its presence is subtle, it is nonetheless a continuous thread in the book. When Katie is stressed or frustrated, she continually turns to nature to regain her equilibrium. When she is frustrated that Ryan isn’t taking care of his work, her colleague shows her photos of the Northern Lights, which calms her down. Similarly, when she is leaving Alberta to return to Cape Breton, that same colleague gives her a photograph of Long Lake under a rainbow. This reflects that while the oil sands can be horrible, there are positive experiences there as well, and Katie is facing a bright future. Finally, when Katie returns to Mabou and once again walks along the coastline, she learns that the landowner wants to keep it in the family, hoping that their community can survive despite economic struggles. In this way, nature, with its cycles of renewal and rejuvenation, is a positive symbol for those struggling through hard times.