The Canadian government says it is urgently trying to end the forced sterilization of Indigenous women, describing the practice as a human rights violation and a prosecutable offense. Yet police say they will not pursue a criminal investigation into a recent case in which a doctor apologized for his “unprofessional conduct” in sterilizing an Inuit woman.
In July, The Associated Press reported on the case of an Inuit woman in Yellowknife who had surgery in 2019 aimed at relieving her abdominal pain. The obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr. Andrew Kotaska, did not have the woman’s consent to sterilize her, and he did so over the objections of other medical personnel in the operating room. She is now suing him.
“This is a pivotal case for Canada because it shows that forced sterilization is still happening,” said Dr. Unjali Malhotra, of the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia. “It’s time that it be treated as a crime.”
I don’t want to be controversial here, but if someone is forcibly destroying the internal organs of someone else without their knowledge or consent then maybe we should, and again I don’t wanna overstep my bounds on this nuanced and multifaceted issue here but my instinct is that maybe we should, I don’t know, maybe make them stop doing that. If that makes me a “no secretly wrecking someone else’s innards” extremist then I guess I’ll have to live with that.
I mean, what’s the context here? I doubt doctors are sterilizing people because of some evil agenda. If she was already undergoing explorative abdominal surgery, I’d wager they found a pathology that requires her reproductive organs to be removed.
If they didn’t get her consent during the preoperative information, then that’s malpractice and a part I don’t understand. However, I’d assume the surgeons wanted to spare her from having to undergo sedation and surgery again at a later point in time, just to get her consent.
The obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr. Andrew Kotaska, did not have the woman’s consent to sterilize her, and he did so over the objections of other medical personnel in the operating room.
So, no. There wasn’t consent and the other doctors said it was a bad idea, but he did it anyway.
Among its findings, the board noted that it was likely the patient did say she did not intend to have more children, however, there was no written evidence that she had consented to sterilization.
The board also heard testimony from an anesthesiologist who was present during the surgery, and who reported Kotaska making the comment: “Let’s see if I can find a reason to take the left tube.”
Kotaska admitted to making the comment, describing it as part of his clinical reasoning. The board found the comment was not made “maliciously” and did not represent unprofessional conduct.
The complaint also alleged that Kotaska ignored comments from colleagues present during the surgery. The board found inconsistent evidence on this point, and found that this, too, was not unprofessional conduct.
And I appreciate your optimism about doctors but this isn’t an isolated incident.
Did you even read the post? The context is he didn’t have consent and other medical professionals in the room told him not to do it.
I doubt
I’d wager
I’d assume
You have a news article linked here which clearly spells out an example of this happening yet you still lean on assumptions that it couldn’t possibly happen
Afaik some countries treat female urinary infections with what they call female circumcision. here it’s called genital mutilation (at least when the victim is female)
This is why I don’t assume they had an actual medical reason to sterilize her.
Canada had paedophile and state-run genocide camps masquerading as schools for Indiginous children well into the 70s!!! This is clearly an extension of that mindset. The Canadian government is sick.
well into the 70s
The last Canadian “residential school” closed in 1996
https://www2.uregina.ca/education/saskindianresidentialschools/gordons-indian-residential-school/
Trying to end forced sterilization? Why has it not ended already?
But the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they would not be investigating Kotaska, because the woman hasn’t filed a criminal complaint.
As if there aren’t ample reasons for an indigenous woman to not trust the RCMP to protect her.
Exactly my thoughts! WTF?!
Because the Canadian federal government is just three resource companies in a trench coat.
On its way to the business factory?
Shocking. Same level of the Boys of St Vincent and it seems it still hasn’t changed all these years later. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_of_St._Vincent
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Check out Starlight Tours, and that the last Residential School was closed in 1996.
Canadians also coined both the term Final Solution (“_to the Indian Question _”) and gave the Nazis ideas on how to achieve such a thing.
(I am Canadian and I think it’s important the world sees us for our flaws as well as our strengths).
A true patriot of your nation. Accepting the good and bad of your country and showing the bad parts with light is good for a country. I do the same for the US. I will always bring in the bad and good of the US. No reason to hide it but instead to learn from it.
The process of loving an institution or a country or an idea is fundamentally different from the process of loving a person.
To love a person is to accept them on every level of their being.
To love an institution is to be its harshest critic, in the hopes that we can better direct the strokes from our hammer and our chisel to reveal the sculpture within. Nobody has ever created anything beautiful by loudly claiming their block of marble is better than the rest.
Same boat here bud, there are more than a few of us. I love my countrymen, our heritage, and the people who come to help us build a great new world for all. Canada and the US are the same this way, we both have amazing people, but our governments are a bit shit.
Yeah people act like America soaked the continent in blood and Canada just showed up friendly like. Like no, Ontario could’ve easily been one of the founding colonies in the US. There is no nation in the western hemisphere that’s existence is not in some way the result of violent colonialism. And where the majority of citizens don’t have significant native heritage that colonialism included significant attempts to exterminate the people who were already here.
We can be better. But if we pretend that the way our countries treat our indigenous population is anything other than what it is, then we’re going to really struggle to improve.
I agree with everything you say here, but I’m curious why you don’t think it applies to most of the eastern hemisphere, as well. This isn’t unique behavior for some small region or point in time.
It does apply to most of the eastern hemisphere, but I didn’t feel like listing off exceptions and instead chose to focus on the wave of colonialism that is the American continent cluster
Sadly there’s a big asterisk on that statement when it comes to Indigenous women.
Like the little brother that wants to copy everything their big brother does
Canada WTF
I know the word nazi gets thrown around a lot these days but this is some actual nazi type shit trying to stamp out an entire race. WTF indeed.
There’s a long history of the RCMP not caring (at best) about Indigenous people
Canada go one day without being racist to indigenous people challenge.
Over 400 years and still never managed to unlock this achievement.
The primary reason for our horsey police is to detain and control the indigenous population. They fill the rest of their working hours writing speeding tickets, arresting addicts, and pretending to fulfill the social contract.
Police declined to investigate the forced sterilization of a native? Color me surprised
The police are 100% useless in Canada they exist just to harrass the public . Any real crimes they dont bother showing up .
Sounds familiar.
Police declined to investigate because there was no criminal complaint filed by the victim.
The victim won’t file a complaint because of the history of the indigenous peoples history with the RMCP.
AFAIK in the US, the police usually reach out to victims and ask if they would like to press charges. Does this not happen in Canada? It would probably make victims more motivated to file reports.
Probably not . Definitely not indigenous people because the police don’t give a fuck about them . I know people that where attacked by anti LGBTQ people at a recent protest and the police did nothing.
Yes they do reach out.
You fail to see the full history of RCMP and the indigenous peoples.
Canada created the North-West Mounted Police shortly after the west was bought specifically to displace natives and force them into reserves, seperate children from families.
The North-West Mounted Police would later become the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. So now you have this same paramilitary group that harmed you as the main Police force.
So the natives tend to not speak with Police on matters and when they do their issues tend to be ignored, especially in the west where first nation hatred is very strong.
There’s also all those missing indigenous women that police barely look into . There’s probably a serial killer but nothing is being done .
Most of them are indigenous against indigenous violence. RCMP are basically unable to investigate if they wanted to, but it’s Alberta so they probably don’t want to.
Unfortunately, reserves and First Nation culture is extreamly patriarchal where abuses towards women are very common. My family originally left the reserves because of that exact reason.
Oof, and with Truth and Reconciliation Day tomorrow.
Wearing an orange shirt is the type of change we need
Newsflash: Canada doesn’t give 2 flying fucks about its Indigenous population. We tried to kill them all off in the 20th century remember?
And Trudeau had the neck to say that Canada isn’t institutionally racist.
Very Macron-like of him.
The only reason people favourably view Canada is because USA’s social and political climate is a dumpster fire in comparison. It’s legit depressing to live there.
Could you explain or provide an example?
AFAIK the malicious genocides happened in the 18th century with forced integration and relocations happening in the 19th and 20th century.
There was the settler genocide of the Beothuk peoples from loss of access to food and foreign illness in the 19th century though. Although that wasn’t trying to kill them.
There was the culture genocides of the residential schools but again, that isn’t an example of trying to kill them all off.
Between this and the euthanasia laws being deliberately abused by doctors pushing it onto patients, can we declare Canada genocidal yet?
Can you provide an example of MAID being abused?
I absolutely can. Lemme give you an article about it, and not Fox News either.
https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-toronto-7c631558a457188d2bd2b5cfd360a867
It’s actually a giant problem where doctors and hopsitals are actively pushing this onto the poor in order to “Free up a few beds”, even going far as to shame people who refuse for being “selfish”
Nothing wrong with offering end of life care, I’m all for it, but when you’re actively pushing it onto patients and even making commercials talking about “How glamorous suicide is!” (which they did, and it aired on Youtube, but it got pulled due to massive dislikes and violating Youtube’s policies which forbid advocating self-harm)… It leaves me with the impression that you’ve got a problem you’re looking for a “Final Solution” to.
Honestly more people need to know about this and just how… well… blatantly genocidal Canada is acting.
While I agree that assistance in dying should not be used to offset a lack of other necessary care, like mental health, addictions (which I believe are disqualifiers for MAID), or disability, the article provided only examples of health care professionals offering the service to people who had severly diminished quality of life as an option of part of their care. I think it’s a stretch to say these were examples of coersion. The decision is left solely to the patient, and I think their family’s account can often cloud any reporting of what the patient’s wishes actually are.
Anecdotally, the health professionals I know say there are far too many families, and ocassionally doctors who think they’re superheros, who wish to prolong their relative’s/patient’s life for the sole purpose of delaying death. People, like Mr. Nichols’ family, will say he’s got a great quality of life, but picture yourself in his shoes. Deaf for most of your life, now vision loss, seizures, your body essentially withering away. He was suffering, and clearly, he wanted to end it. Several inquiries noted he fully qualified for and received MAID as he wished, even though it may not have been the wish of his family.
I do think it would be useful to have a review panel for more complex cases, like Dr Marmoreo suggests. But, I think the majority of cases where the family might raise concerns are cases where they are prioretizing their wishes above those of the patient actually seeking the care, rather than a professional wantonly pushing MAID for no particular reason.
I dunno, it’s a little sus that they had that one guy who claimed someone was sent to talk to him about “Seeing if he wanted to kill himself”, when he hadn’t said anything to staff about wanting it.
That’s precisely the job of a physician or health professional though. Ensure the patient is aware of the options they have available for care. They saw that he would likely meet the criteria and suggested it as an option. Them explaining the reasons of why they elected to suggest that option of care is not coersion in any sense.
The fact that they’re going to non-terminal patients and trying to talk them into suicide is a problem in and of itself. You MUST recognize that.
Again, they are not trying to talk them into anything, they are saying it’s an available option.
i’m not seeing the part of that article where there’s any evidence at all of health care workers pushing anybody to take MAiD.
So you missed this part then?
"In one recording obtained by the AP, the hospital’s director of ethics told Foley that for him to remain in the hospital, it would cost “north of $1,500 a day.” Foley replied that mentioning fees felt like coercion and asked what plan there was for his long-term care.
“Roger, this is not my show,” the ethicist responded. “My piece of this was to talk to you, (to see) if you had an interest in assisted dying.”
Foley said he had never previously mentioned euthanasia. The hospital says there is no prohibition on staff raising the issue.
Catherine Frazee, a professor emerita at Toronto’s Ryerson University, said cases like Foley’s were likely just the tip of the iceberg.
“It’s difficult to quantify it, because there is no easy way to track these cases, but I and other advocates are hearing regularly from disabled people every week who are considering (euthanasia),” she said.
Frazee cited the case of Candice Lewis, a 25-year-old woman who has cerebral palsy and spina bifida. Lewis’ mother, Sheila Elson, took her to an emergency room in Newfoundland five years ago. During her hospital stay, a doctor said Lewis was a candidate for euthanasia and that if her mother chose not to pursue it, that would be “selfish,” Elson told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "
That’s a far cry from “pushing” MAID.
Maid is an option, and should be an option. People need to know about it. However, there are always other options. Hospice is subsidized. Long term care is subsidized. Homecare nursing us subsidized. You just can’t stay in the hospital, because the hospital is for acute people in recovery.
There are absolutely illnesses that ruin your quality of life but don’t kill you, leaving you to suffer. Their medical system is NOT designed to care for all of everyone’s needs. It’s specifically designed to provide life saving care.
The stupid part is that if a person is so sick that they can’t care for themselves, and they get released home, they often just deteriorate and end up back in the hospital.
Their system beats our system, but it’s not perfect.
“If you get sick, we can just kill you, because if we don’t, you’re back in the hospital eventually”
This is terrible logic
You’re right, that is terrible logic.
Good thing nobody but you is saying that.
MAID being pushed on poor people, MAID being pushed on veterans asking for mental health
many Canadians will know examples of it being abused
You seem to have missed the part where I asked for an example. That means providing evidence for one’s claims.
Someone provided a good article and you guys just ignored what it said, soooooo.
you could just google?
https://globalnews.ca/news/9072857/canada-veterans-assisted-dying-investigation/
No.
This is an example of a bad Doctor. Not bad medical practices in Canada.
MAiD isn’t being forced on anyone. Don’t believe the far right smear champaign.
https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-toronto-7c631558a457188d2bd2b5cfd360a867 - It’s not a smear campaign, it’s a widely documented phenomenon that the poor are being denied disability payments and proper healthcare, and being pushing into the suicide option.
Hell they even made an ad encouraging people to kill themselves which ran on Youtube, but was pulled for massive dislikes.
You just linked a far right news source and expect me to take you seriously?
There have been two alleged cases where a disabled person was “suggested” MAiD. One of the was a lie and the other was done by veterans affairs who has no authority to prescribe such a procedure.
I’m not supporting or disputing OPs assertion but just wanted to point out that AP is nowhere close to being a far-right news source.
I’d take them and Reuters over anything else any day of the week.
The AP isn’t a “far right new source”.
Sure it isn’t.
When you make disingenuous claims based on your feelings only your side of any given argument loses power. Do with that what you will, but you’re helping no one.
Far right nutter.
Associated Press is a Far Right News Source? Since fucking when?
Is it being suggested to people who don’t have a terminal disease?
Hopefully eventually it will be.
And the mask comes off.
Everyone should have access to MAiD just like everyone has access to other means of Healthcare.
Honestly everything the Nazi’s did, the Commonwealth of the United Kingdom did first the Nazis just scaled it up big time. Modern concentration camps, British. The idea of The Final Solution, Canadian. Forced sterilization and eugenics, born in Europe but expanded upon by the United States. At least Canada is trying to find justice for the victims of it’s past. Even if it’s obviously failing. Is Canada genocidal now, no. We’re they, absolutely. Are they do enough to reconcile, not even close.
“…the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they would not be investigating Kotaska, because the woman hasn’t filed a criminal complaint”
Câlisse.
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White doing the right thing for once in their lives challenge: IMPOSSIBLE
I mean better than what they did before… In Retrospektive it was a pretty bad idea to burry indigenous children on school grounds wasn’t it?
/s
One can disagree to have a life-saving surgery based on religious beliefs, but sometimes, sometimes, it’s just right to castrate a person for no reason.
