Canadian Energy Company Under Fire For Explicit Greta Thunberg Cartoon

Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old climate justice activist, has made few friends in the fossil fuel industry. However, the animosity between Thunberg and the energy industry boiled over this past weekend, when a cartoon bearing the name of Canadian energy services company X-Site depicted a woman resembling Greta Thunberg being sexually assaulted.

The cartoon first came to the attention of Michelle Narang, an Alberta resident and Canadian energy advocate, who posted the cartoon on Facebook. The image has the name "Greta" written on the woman's back and the name of the company underneath the illustration.

"This company represents everything that the O&G industry needs to fight against," Narang wrote on Facebook. "I’m absolutely sickened that X-Site Energy Services would think that the hard-working men and women in the Energy Industry would condone this representation of child clearly being raped. I phoned the GM, Doug…he is aware of and supportive of the message. His response was, ‘she’s not a child, she’s 17.’"

X-Site has denied involvement with the decal. Speaking with CityNews, General Manager of X-Site Doug Sparrow told the Canadian publication, "It’s not from X-Site or any employee, someone has done this. That’s all I know."

The attempt at distancing the company from the image had little effect on the ongoing backlash. In the days since the image went viral, a Change.org petition urging "X-Site executives responsible" for the drawing to step down. The campaign has received more than 13,000 signatures of its 15,000 signature goal.

Canada's House of Commons condemned the image on Friday. Alexandre Boulerice, a Member of Parliament representing Rosemont--La Petite-Patrie district in Quebec, denounced the sticker. According to reports, he said:

I think you will find unanimous consent to adopt the following notion that the House condemn the sticker that appeared in the media today encouraging a violent sexual assault on a young environmental activist, and all other racist and intolerant [imagery] that that image might lead us to.

In a more detailed statement, the company wrote, "We have let our employees, our families and our customers down with this careless action but, just as we are committed to help reduce our industry's environmental footprint, we are committed to learn from and correct our mistake."

Thunberg called the use of the decal "desperate" in a tweet, finding usage of the image as a sign that her side was "winning."

They are starting to get more and more desperate…
This shows that we’re winning. https://t.co/NLOZL331X9

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) February 29, 2020

Meanwhile, the original artist of the image has denied any involvement in its appropriation. In an Instagram Story post, Argentinian tattoo artist German Gabriel Canalla, who originally drew the cartoon in 2016, wrote, "That sticker X-Site made was originally a tattoo design made by me. Of course it was never meant to be used for that purpose. X-site not only stole my tattoo design and made it a logo/sticker, but also used it for that disgusting purpose … It sucks."