Jennifer Brazeau says an apology means little without a plan for meaningful action to drive change.
That’s her sentiment ahead of a public apology from Canada’s largest association of medical doctors for past and ongoing harms the medical profession has caused First Nations, Inuit and Métis people.
“An apology isn’t a panacea for change, they actually have to have concrete actions that follow,” said Brazeau, the executive director of the Native Friendship Centre of Lanaudière in Joliette, Que., which is about 75 kilometres north of Montreal.
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is holding a ceremony in Victoria, B.C. Wednesday afternoon to publicly acknowledge the “unacceptable health disparities” experienced by Indigenous people due to the legacy of colonialism, residential schools and systemic racism in Canada.
The CMA, which was founded 157 years ago and advocates for medical standards and care, will also share what it has learned about how its actions — and inaction — have contributed to harming Indigenous people in the health system.
That includes the use of outdated and racist terms, forced sterilization and medical experimentation as well as the ongoing challenges around birth alerts and child apprehension.
“There’s a lot of different harms that they have done or that they’ve contributed to for Indigenous people that have created a system where we don’t feel safe to go receive medical services,” said Brazeau.
One of the most recent examples is the death of Joyce Echaquan. The Atikamekw mother of seven died at the Joliette hospital in September 2020 shortly after recording herself as health-care staff in a hospital north of Montreal hurled racist remarks at her.
A Quebec coroner’s inquiry concluded racism and prejudice contributed to Echaquan’s death and recommended for the province to acknowledge that systemic racism exists and commit to helping eliminate it.
“This is not history. The presence [of discrimination] is still there, and we have to deal with this problem,” said Stanley Vollant, an Innu surgeon at Montreal’s Notre-Dame Hospital and chief medical officer for the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission.
A mobile clinic in Joliette, Que., aims to improve access to the health-care system for Indigenous patients in the region. It comes nearly four years after the death of Joyce Echaquan, an Attikamekw woman who filmed health-care workers spewing insults at her in hospital before she died.
Late but ‘never too late’
Vollant, who has been a member of the CMA since 1984, says he’s proud of the association for choosing to apologize, calling it “the first step in the healing process.”
“We have waited 150 years. It’s a little late, but it’s never too late,” he said.
Now, he says he wants to see health departments and associations in every province take similar action to help build “the path of cultural safety” with Indigenous people.
In 2023, the college that regulates Manitoba’s physicians apologized for its current and historical failure to respond to Indigenous-specific racism in the medical profession.
Brazeau, for her part, would like the CMA to present a plan to ensure Indigenous people feel welcome and doctors are educated on Indigenous culture and identity.
To do that, she said doctors could be encouraged to participate in community activities, such as powwows, or attend any number of events to connect with Indigenous people and help rebuild the relationship and trust with those in the medical profession.
“We recognize that doctors have gone through a lot of education to get to where they’re at, but they might still have some learning to do,” she said.
CBC will livestream the ceremony beginning at 4 p.m. ET on the traditional territory of the lək̓ʷəŋiʔnəŋ-speaking people of Songhees and Xwsepsum Nations in this story.