Content warning: This article discusses anti-Indigenous racism and violence, and mentions forced sterilization. 

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) exists with one primary purpose: to improve Canada’s healthcare system and provide adequate support for health workers. 

On their website, the CMA states, “Our goal is a more sustainable, accessible health system — more urgently needed than ever — and a new culture of medicine that champions equity, diversity and inclusion.” However, given the Canadian healthcare system’s medical neglect of the Indigenous community, I question the sincerity of these claims. 

On September 18, the CMA issued a formal “apology to Indigenous peoples.” CMA President Joss Reimer expressed deep shame for the Canadian healthcare system’s “deplorable” racism, including the “discrimination and physical and psychological harms Indigenous people have faced as a result of [both] the actions and inactions of physicians both historically and today.”

Time and time again, I have seen organizations set goals to address problems that the public is dissatisfied with. However, behind closed doors, they often do nothing. I have seen the Canadian government apologize for the legacy of residential schools, yet fail to follow up with adequate support for the other issues that Indigenous communities continue to fight against, such as violence against Indigenous women. 

As with the government’s repeated failures to enact practical change, I believe the CMA is simply presenting a performative apology that holds no real action in sight.

Persistent medical injustices

Indigenous children and adults have suffered greatly at the hands of the CMA. History reveals numerous incidents, such as those at Indian Hospitals that operated in Canada from the 1940s to the 1980s. Indigenous patients received poor and unsafe care and were subjected to abuse, forced experiments, and sterilization. Driven by non-Indigenous peoples’ fear of contamination from Indigenous patients, these hospitals were created as a form of segregation.

The CMA acknowledged that Indian Hospitals’ health workers referred to Indigenous patients with derogatory racial slurs. Many health care workers were also involved in abducting children during the Sixties Scoop. Canadian government child welfare workers removed Indigenous children from their families en masse based on the harmful belief that Indigenous people were unfit to parent.

Today, many Indigenous people continue to be denied the urgent health care they need due to stereotypes of them being intoxicated or homeless. These systemic biases and racism contribute to Indigenous women experiencing pregnancy related deaths at twice the rate of non-Indigenous women, along with higher rates of poor birth outcomes. 

I find it hard not to feel angry at the many injustices faced by Indigenous children and adults. Illnesses and diseases were neglected, and lives were destroyed. But when leaders of the Indigenous community have accepted the CMA’s apology, how can a non-Indigenous person like me not?

Métis elder and former President of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan Jimmy Durocher said the CMA’s apology and acknowledgement of historical wrongs is a “first step” to real reconciliation, much like Canada’s statement of apology for its crimes and wrongdoings during the residential school system. 

Durocher added, “It’s going to take a long time because there was a lot of damage and harm done to our people.” 

Moving forward

Now, what matters are the CMA’s actions. They can follow in the footsteps of the federal government and continue to neglect the needs and safety of Indigenous communities, who were promised adequate housing support to improve their infrastructure but never received it. Or, the CMA can make a tangible change. 

I believe a solution is to make it compulsory to train healthcare workers to respect everyone, regardless of their race, colour, or ethnicity through courses in medical and nursing schools that address Indigenous health issues. As of 2023 many schools provide the courses, but not all, which is why I believe the government should mandate their inclusion. 

Both the CMA and the government need to allocate proper funding to ensure Indigenous health support. Despite allocating $200 million annually into Indigenous health, Canadian leaders use rural Indigenous communities’ geographical distance from urban areas to justify the lack of proper health facilities and professionals. 

Distance should not be an excuse. Of the $372 billion the Canadian government spent on healthcare this year, only two billion dollars were allocated to the Indigenous community and to be distributed over a 10-year period. 

Hospitals and physicians must be properly allocated in Indigenous communities to ensure that Indigenous patients are treated in a timely manner, and with respect. While some Indigenous patients may opt for traditional methods of healing, others may choose Western medical practices In times of need, when professional care is required, these facilities should be readily available.

Organizations are capable of change, as much as some people may not believe that to be true. Therefore, it’s never too late for the CMA to change.

Maram Qarmout is a fourth-year student studying digital enterprise management and professional writing communications. She is a lead copy-editor for The Varsity.