The author touches a bit upon the environmental impact of the oil sands, but her focus is predominantly on the human impact of living in isolation and being expendable. The artwork is all in shades of grey, which adds to the dreary effect. Others were even less lucky- killed in fatal accidents brushed under the carpet by the bosses. Harassment is considered normal sexual assault all too common.īeaton worked there two years in the freezing cold loneliness and it left the kind of scars that cannot be seen. Beaton creates a world apart from ours in which the loneliness drives many men to behaviours they wouldn't even consider in their 'real lives'. Beaton paints a very bleak picture.Ĭut off from the rest of civilisation, oil sands workers are portrayed as an insular community, lonely, a misogynistic old boys' club, often depressed but unable to talk about mental health. Truth be told, I know very little about Canada in general and hadn't even heard of the oil sands. I knew absolutely nothing about Canada's oil sands before reading this graphic memoir. Her first full-length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.

Her wounds may never heal.īeaton’s natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, Northern Lights, and Rocky Mountains. She encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet never discussed.

It does not hit home until she moves to a spartan, isolated worksite for higher pay. Being one of the few women among thousands of men, the culture shock is palpable. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, what the journey will actually cost Beaton will be far more than she anticipates.Īrriving in Fort McMurray, Beaton finds work in the lucrative camps owned and operated by the world’s largest oil companies. After university, Beaton heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush, part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in the homeland they love so much. Celebrated cartoonist Kate Beaton vividly presents the untold story of Canada.īefore there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark A Vagrant fame, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs.

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