‘A step in the right direction’: Canadian Medical Association issues apology to Indigenous Peoples

Anasophie Vallee
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

When apologies are issued by organizations or governments for harms against Indigenous peoples in our country, we can be left wondering whether the words said will be followed by effective action.

“Yes, well, that’s the question, isn’t it?” said Glenn Wheeler, a lawyer, journalist, and Indigenous rights activist from the Mi’kmaq community of York Harbour on the West Coast of Newfoundland.

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) recently issued an apology for their role and the role of the medical profession in past and ongoing harms to Indigenous Peoples in our country via a live-streamed ceremony on Sept. 18.

“It’s a good thing,” said Wheeler. “A lot of Indigenous people worked on getting this apology and it’s useful for the conversation because it’s a conversation starter.

“I can see that this apology will be. It’ll be referred to in medical school hopefully as doctors are trained so they’ll have a better understanding when dealing with Indigenous patients.”

‘A step in the right direction’

Catharyn Andersen, Memorial University’s vice-president (Indigenous), attended the ceremony where the public apology was delivered in Victoria, B.C.

“I think this is not just a really important step, a step in the right direction, but the way that it has just really been inclusive of Indigenous peoples and done in a really good way,” she said.

“Sometimes governments and organizations have fallen short, but that’s where we need to constantly look to see what’s happening and what we’ve been doing.”

The importance of apologies

Apologies have been issued previously by both the federal and provincial governments surrounding residential schools and colonial policies.

“In particular, when Stephen Harper made that apology to residential school survivors back with Jack Layton and the House of Commons, that was a profound moment,” said Wheeler.

“We don’t want to minimize the importance of these apologies.”

He added that concerns surrounding a lack of action are always raised because once the apology is made, they want to see real change happen.

Not much has changed

Since the date of the federal apology for residential schools, the indicators of health for Indigenous people have not improved to any significant extent, he explained.

“If you look outside the health-care sector, the number of prisoners who are Indigenous are outside the percentage of Indigenous people in the population,” he added.

“So we’ve had all these apologies, but if you look at the indicators, really things for individual Indigenous people out in the world, you know, really, life is still pretty much the same.”

Ongoing harms

Jude Benoit, a two-spirit Mi’kmaq artist from the Kitpu clan, said that as a First Nation person in their early thirties, you would expect that when they speak about harmful experiences, they would be speaking about their ancestors.

“Although I carry their painful experiences and the intergenerational trauma of Canada’s harmful medical practices on my nation as a whole, I do, in fact, have my own experiences with medical harm,” they said.

Ttwo years ago, Benoit came across the story of a young Innu boy who had a traumatizing and painful dental experience at the Janeway while his mother watched and advocated for him.

“It is a known statistic that people in the medical field often believe that Indigenous children and children of colour experience less pain than that of white children,” they said.

“As a child, I too had an extremely traumatic experience with a dentist while my own mother watched in fear and had to step in and intervene on my behalf.”

That experience shaped Benoit into an adult who still fears going to the dentist to the point where they neglect their own health.

‘A bit skeptical’

Wheeler added that for the Innu of Nitassinan and Inuit of Nunatsiavut in Labrador, there are still many challenges.

“The level of racism is actually quite intense when people from the North Shore are in Goose Bay,” he said.

“The Newfoundland government has spent a lot of money on rate mitigation, but people in those communities are still on diesel even though their land was taken to produce hydropower that they are not availing themselves of.“

These apologies from the provincial government, while they were a long time coming, felt somewhat pro forma, he added.

“The Innu Nation, for example, was shut out of negotiations between the Newfoundland government and the government of Quebec, even though these discussions were about hydro development on Innu territory,” explained Wheeler.

“They were completely shut out of the proceedings. So I’m a bit skeptical and perhaps even cynical about some of these government apologies.”

‘Still fighting’

“In 2024, here I am as the MHA for Torngat Mountains and one of the MHAs for Labrador, and I’m still fighting for access for health care.”

Evans explained that in Makkovik, they didn’t even have a doctor.

“We had a doctor in name that was supposed to come into our community every so often to see some of the patients,” she said.

“Every other community had a doctor that was coming in every three or four months, it didn’t meet the needs of access to a doctor for treatment, but it was a step in helping us.”

In Makkovik, however, it had been two or three years where the doctor only came maybe once, she explained.

“We’ve had people in Makkovik who were diagnosed at the later stages of cancer only to die, but had been going to the clinic and had been asking for access to health care.”

Emphasizing the barriers

On Sept. 17, the day before CMA delivered their apology, Evans voiced her concerns in a release stating that Northern Labrador residents continue to be bumped off medical flights, depriving them of essential health care access.

Evans said she plans to write a letter to the Canadian Medical Association thanking them for their apology, while also emphasizing the barriers her people continue to face – to ask them to ensure action is taken in this province to address the barriers for all of Labrador and those specific to her district.

Nearing Truth and Reconciliation

As a two-spirit person, Benoit said they constantly have to take homophobia and transphobia into consideration when they have to see a doctor or dentist.

“I have been denied painkillers as a child but also recently as an adult due to the harmful stereotypes that Indigenous people misuse drugs,” they said.

“Out of all the calls to action to address these life-threatening and traumatic medical practices, how many have actually been answered?

“As we near Truth and Reconciliation Day on the 30th, we will likely see many apologies, but apologies without action are meaningless.”

Anasophie Vallee
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Telegram