Human rights groups are calling on Canada to end the coerced sterilisation of indigenous women.
“The issue of forced sterilisation of vulnerable people, including indigenous women, is a very serious violation of human rights,” said Jane Philpott, Canadian minister of indigenous services.
At least 60 women have joined a pending class action lawsuit against doctors and health officials in the province of Saskatchewan, seeking compensation for the violation of their rights. They allege their fallopian tubes were tied, burned or cut in public hospitals when the women were unable to give sufficient consent – which would be a breach of both medical ethics and the law.
“Ultimately, this is about women who are supposed to have the right to make decisions about their bodies, having that right taken away from them,” said Amnesty International’s Jacqueline Hansen.
“These women and their communities have suffered. They have suffered. And they are entitled to restitution as they essentially re-live their trauma,” said Alisa Lombard, the lawyer representing the women.
As reported by the Guardian, the continued use of coerced sterilisation was exposed 2015, when four women spoke about their experiences in the province of Saskatchewan. An investigation was launched, and the province’s healthy authority issued an apology and new criteria for tubal ligations.
But the pending lawsuit suggests that some cases occurred as recently as 2017.
“If it’s happened in Saskatoon, it has happened in Regina, it’s happened in Winnipeg, it’s happened where there’s a high population of indigenous women,” Senator Yvonne Boyer, an indigenous lawyer who co-authored an independent report on the experiences of women in Saskatchewan, told the Canadian Press. “I’ve had many women contact me from across the country and ask me for help.”
Jane Philpott, minister of indigenous services, described the practice as “horrifying” in an interview with the Canadian Press.
“The issue of forced sterilization of vulnerable people, including indigenous women, is a very serious violation of human rights,” she said.
Indigenous leaders have also expressed outrage: Perry Bellegarde, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, joined calls for an immediate investigation by the federal government.
“It is wrong, it is immoral, it is a gross violation of human rights, and this dehumanizing practice must stop,” he told the Canadian Press.
