Extending Extractivism: Analysing Canadian Telecommunication Corporations’ Reconciliation Rhetoric

Abstract Similar to pipelines used in oil and gas development, telecommunications networks of cable, satellite, fibre optic and wireless infrastructure extend deep into Indigenous territories as a form of “extractivism” (Greer, 2019). These developments raise barriers to substantive reconciliation between settler states, corporations and Indigenous peoples. Yet despite important analyses of corporate policy discourses regarding how natural resource extraction impacts reconciliation, there are few studies of such rhetoric in the context of telecommunications. In this article we analyse publicly available “reconciliation” policies of four commercial telecommunications providers. Drawing from theories of reconciliation and extractivism, we find these policies strategically constrain symbolic and material understandings of reconciliation in ways that support the status quo and prioritize profit accumulation and symbolic partnerships over substantive reconciliation. Existing corporate reconciliation frameworks fail to recognize the desires of Indigenous peoples for self-determination over digital infrastructures in ways that might improve—and ideally, transform—their relationships with telecommunications providers.