Michelle Narang cried when she first saw a sticker of what appears to be a drawing of teen activist Greta Thunberg being sexually assaulted and the name of an oilfield company printed boldly across the bottom of the decal. Narang, who lives in Rocky Mountain House in west-central Alberta, is a proud supporter of Canadian energy. Her relatives earn a living in the oil industry, which also supports the non-profit she works for. She calls the investment that oil and gas companies make in communities, like her town, “beautiful.” “This is an industry Alberta is fighting for so desperately. This sticker is not something Alberta or Albertans need,” Narang told HuffPost Canada in an interview Thursday. Narang decided she couldn’t stay silent. As someone who knows survivors of sexual assault, she never wants her 13-year-old son to see the sticker, or be OK with violence against women. So, she posted the image to Facebook as a way to call it out: “This company represents everything that the [oil and gas] industry needs to fight against.” The sticker shows a drawing of the back of a nude female and two hands pulling from behind on her braided hair. The word “Greta” is written across her lower back. This image has been censored.

“Silence never creates change,” Narang said. “It’s sad to me (the sticker) went through a supply chain of people, who thought about it, printed it and distributed it. It blows my mind anyone would think it’s funny.” A friend who works in the oil industry sent an image of the sticker to Narang. They spoke to HuffPost Canada on a condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions at their job. The sticker, reading “X-Site Energy Services,” was handed out recently as promotional material at job sites to be worn on hard hats, the worker said. Although the actual stickers weren’t distributed at their workplace, they said the graphic image was circulating among their colleagues on Wednesday. The worker said the company was asked if it would be interested in a similar sticker. “It was completely disgusting and wrong,” the worker said. Narang said she called the general manager of X-Site, Doug Sparrow, asking him if he knew about the sticker that appears to depict the rape of a minor. He said he was aware of it, according to Narang, and his response was, “She’s not a child, she’s 17.” Under the Criminal Code, child pornography is any visual representation of a person under the age of 18 engaged or depicted to be engaged in a sexual activity.

Alberta oil and gas industry apparently needs to be reminded of the definition of child pornography in Canadian law. Making and disseminating child pornography is an indictable offence. #ablegpic.twitter.com/v55HfopK3a — Lise Gotell (@LiseGot) February 27, 2020

UPDATE - Feb. 28, 2020: RCMP have investigated the image, and determined it is not considered child pornography. “According to our experts, the image does not meet the criteria for it to constitute a criminal offence,” an officer from the Red Deer detachment told HuffPost. Sparrow did not respond to HuffPost’s repeated requests for comment, but he told City News Edmonton Thursday that neither X-Site, nor any X-Site employee, was involved in making the sticker. “Someone has done this. That’s all I know,” Sparrow said. He told Global News that he was shutting down his company’s social media pages because of online “attacks.” Velocity, a printing company in Red Deer, has been accused of printing the stickers. A representative told HuffPost that while X-Site was a previous client, its work history shows Velocity did not print this order. Thunberg, a Swedish activist, has become a symbol for climate change action, as the world faces significant global warming and only 10 years to curb catastrophe, according to the United Nations and other experts. Watch: Greta Thunberg calls out world leaders during a speech in Montreal. Story continues below.