TORONTO – Governmental announcements highlight the harm experienced by Indigenous communities in North America from acts of forced sterilization.
In Canada, a senate report released last year wrote, “Canada has a long history of forced and coerced sterilization. For much of the 20th century, laws and government policies explicitly sought to reduce births in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, Black communities, and among people with intersecting vulnerabilities relating to poverty, race and disability.” It highlighted that while these eugenics laws have been repealed, the harm has not ceased.
The most destructive sterilization program in Canadian history was authorized via the passing of the Sexual Sterilization Act of 1928. In the nearly 50 years from 1928 to 1972, sterilizations, both compulsory and optional, were performed on nearly 3000 individuals of varying ages and ethnicities. In total, over 2800 procedures were recorded. But this number may be incomplete.
Targeted sterilization continued using a variety of tools including intelligence testing to determine if a woman was “mentally deficient.” A separate report noted that at a now-closed hospital in British Columbia, social services would recommend sterilization using a variety of language. In one case, the commentary was,
Patient is a mentally defective Indian girl who has always been incorrigible, wild, undisciplined and promiscuous… Sterilization is, therefore, strongly recommended to prevent patient from having illegitimate children which the community would have to care for and for whom it would be very difficult to find foster homes.
“This horrific practice is not confined to the past, but clearly is continuing today,” the Canadian Senate report noted.
The report added that doctors and nurses “insistently questioning whether a First Nations or Inuit mother wants to (be sterilized) after the birth of her first child seems to be an existing practice in Quebec.”
In November 2019, Dr. Andrew Kotaska, allegedly performed surgery to relieve an Indigenous woman’s abdominal pain. The physician had her written consent to remove her right fallopian tube, but the patient never agreed to have both tubes removed.
The assisting medical staff reportedly objected to the removal of both tubes during surgery. Nevertheless, Kotaska removed both fallopian tubes.
Documents obtained by the Associated Press did not suggest that Kotaska’s actions were racially motivated. But the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services said it was the first time a “non-consensual medical procedure” had been referred for investigation.
Medical authorities in Canada’s Northwest Territories conclude that Kotaska’s “severe error in surgical judgment” was unethical and there was no medical justification for the sterilization.
Kotaska’s patient learned of the procedure and what happened but the Senate report suggests that some women were unaware they had been sterilized.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Northwest Territories said there is no criminal investigation into Kotaska.
Kotaska’s former patient is suing him and hospital authorities for CDN$ 6 million (USD$ 4.38 million).
The office of Senator Yvonne Boyer is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario with her ancestral roots in the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan and the Red River. “Whenever I speak to an Indigenous community, I am swamped with women telling me that forced sterilization happened to them,” Senator Boyer told The Associated Press.
Senator Boyer’s office is attempting to collect data on the practice of forced sterilization and the limited data suggests 12,000 women have been affected in the last 50 years.
Dr. Ewan Affleck made a 2021 film, “The Unforgotten“ that features the stories of Inuit, Métis, and First Nations peoples who have been forcibly sterilized, abused in hospitals, forced from their homes and land, and left dying in emergency waiting rooms. The film highlights the pervasive racism against Canada’s Indigenous communities.
Affleck noted that the way forced sterilization happens now is more subtle than in the past because of a “power imbalance in the country’s health system.” He said, “if you have a white doctor saying to an Indigenous woman, ‘You should be sterilized,’ it may very likely happen.”
Forced sterilization is listed in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It is also illegal and prosecutable under Canadian criminal law.
Forced sterilization is by no means confined to Canada. The atrocity continues to the present day in countries like India and China. As recently as 2012, evidence of forced sterilization was reported in Europe where more than 90,000 Roma women were subjected to the practices in countries such as Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia resulting in both court rulings and apologies from governments. The practice of forced sterilization has also been unleashed on other communities including Blacks, Jews, Okinawans, and Native Americans in Latin America.
In 1976, One report in the United States found that forced sterilizations were carried out in at least one-third of the regions where the government provided health services to Native Americans.
Outside of Europe states such as California, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and – earlier this year and tepidly – Utah has apologized to their citizens for their practice of forced sterilization, as has the Province of Alberta and nations such as Japan, Chile, and Peru.
Neither the U.S. government nor the government of Canada has formally apologized nor offered compensation. However, the report recommends, “That the Government of Canada issue a formal apology on behalf of all Canadians to all persons who have been subjected to forced and coerced sterilization in Canada.”
The Canadian Senate committee is expected to submit its final report before June 12, 2025.
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