The Canadian government says it is urgently trying to end the forced sterilization of Indigenous women, describing the practice as a human rights violation and a prosecutable offense. Yet police say they will not pursue a criminal investigation into a recent case in which a doctor apologized for his “unprofessional conduct” in sterilizing an Inuit woman.
In July, The Associated Press reported on the case of an Inuit woman in Yellowknife who had surgery in 2019 aimed at relieving her abdominal pain. The obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr. Andrew Kotaska, did not have the woman’s consent to sterilize her, and he did so over the objections of other medical personnel in the operating room. She is now suing him.
“This is a pivotal case for Canada because it shows that forced sterilization is still happening,” said Dr. Unjali Malhotra, of the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia. “It’s time that it be treated as a crime.”
Yeah people act like America soaked the continent in blood and Canada just showed up friendly like. Like no, Ontario could’ve easily been one of the founding colonies in the US. There is no nation in the western hemisphere that’s existence is not in some way the result of violent colonialism. And where the majority of citizens don’t have significant native heritage that colonialism included significant attempts to exterminate the people who were already here.
We can be better. But if we pretend that the way our countries treat our indigenous population is anything other than what it is, then we’re going to really struggle to improve.
I agree with everything you say here, but I’m curious why you don’t think it applies to most of the eastern hemisphere, as well. This isn’t unique behavior for some small region or point in time.