Indigenous author and activist Morningstar Mercredi calls for forced or forced sterilization to be made criminal, in the hope that women – especially Indigenous, Métis and Inuit women – never experience physical and the mental trauma it caused him.
I know it is important and vital to make my voice heard and share my experience as a survivor. Not just for my own healing process, but also to let other survivors know that they can move forward. They are not alonehe said in an interview on the show White coat Black Arton CBC radio.
In the late 1970s, when she was 14 and in her seventh month of pregnancy, Ms Mercredi went to a hospital in Saskatoon with cramps and bleeding. She went home for a caesarean section.
What she didn’t know, however, the surgeon also performed tubal ligation, which removed her left ovary and fallopian tube, all without her consent or even knowing.
She only found out about it decades later, on a visit to a gynecologist, when she was in a relationship and wanted to have children.
” The trauma was such that I went into a catatonic state and had a nervous breakdown. “
The actress, now 58, tells her story in the book Sacred Bundles of the Unborn published in November.
How do I feel now about it? At my age and stage of life, when I remember the 14-year-old I was then, I was a little beyond anger.
More recent cases
Last year, a report released by the Senate Human Rights Committee declared that this work was still valid.
The committee actually found cases of forced or forced sterilization reported recently in 2019, and pointed out that the prevalence of this practice is both unreported and underestimated.
Earlier this month, the same committee heard directly from survivors of forced sterilization.
A representative for Independent Senator Yvonne Boyer, who in 2019 called on the federal government to act on these reports, said it is likely that many women are too afraid to tell the public their stories or have not yet realized them. that they have been sterilized. .
The Senate committee plans to release a report that will include recommendations and questions for the federal government and expects the federal government’s responses to be public.
Class actions across the country
Mi’kmaw’s attorney Alisa Lombard represented Indigenous women in two class actions filed in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Nearly a hundred women said they underwent forced or forced sterilization there. One of the complainants was Morningstar Wednesday.
Other class actions are pending in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec, in addition to an individual lawsuit filed last year in the Northwest Territories.
In a CBC interview, Lombard said most of the women who approached her were Indigenous, although she had also heard similar stories from other people, mostly women of color.
Some women were described as being forcibly sterilized, until tied up during the operation, because they vigorously protested, the lawyer said.
Others describe forced sterilization, with surgeons asking them during childbirth, or during another procedure, if they want tubal ligation.
Dr. said. Unjali Malhotra, medical director of women’s health at the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia, that free and informed consent cannot be given in this setting, due to high levels of stress, trauma or because the person is sedated .
When a woman gives birth, a lot happens during that time, physically, mentally and emotionally.he says.
” Now is not the best time to talk to someone about their future reproductive health. “
He added that usually the forms signed to consent to such a procedure are very complex and very difficult to understandand they will be more in the context of childbirth or if the person is not fluent in the language used in the form.
Barriers to reporting
According to Me Lombard, forced or compulsory sterilization can be considered an aggravated attack under the current Criminal Code. He mentioned the section about cutting the vagina.
” Just add a few anatomical body parts to this section and you can specifically criminalize unconventional sterilization very effectively. “
Naming such an act in the Criminal Code could further deter offensive practitioners, Morningstar added on Wednesday.
Erin Nelson, a law professor and Katz Group Chair in Health Law at the University of Alberta, said she was not aware of any cases of women reporting their experiences of forced or coerced sterilization to police on purpose. of persecution.
If you look at how the police handle sexual assault allegations, for example, very few people are willing to start such a process.he says.
Why is it still not a crime?
According to Dr. Malhotra, subjecting a woman to forced or forced sterilization resonates throughout her community who, in fear, may avoid going to the same health facility.
He also points out that older sterilization laws, such as those that existed in British Columbia until the 1970s, allow doctors to sterilize people without their knowledge or consent. This is one of the reasons why some people have little faith in the health care system, even today.
In a statement, the Saskatchewan Health Authority said the show White coat, Black Art that he had established a new policy regarding tubal ligation. It is intended for recognize the importance for women to choose their preferred method of contraception in a timely manner, with the necessary support, and before the onset of childbirth..
For Morningstar Wednesday, these changes are welcome. But she still calls for forced or coercive sterilization to be explicitly criminalized, in the hope that in the future, Indigenous, Métis and Inuit women will no longer have to suffer as much as she did.
Why in 2022 is it still not a crime? What is Canada’s interest behind it […] It’s just shocking, that’s really it.
According to the text of Jonathan Ore, CBC
Source: Radio-Canada
