Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s report into systemic racism in B.C.’s health-care system will have national ramifications that will likely push other provinces and territories to examine discrimination in their own health practices, says the head of Métis Nation B.C.
“I think it’s absolutely one of the most significant reports to come out in this country,” said Daniel Fontaine, CEO of the Métis Nation B.C., which represents nearly 90,000 Métis people in the province. “It will provide a bit of a framework for other jurisdictions [across Canada] to ask themselves these questions.” Turpel-Lafond said she was unaware of such a comprehensive review of medical racism in Canada.
It was Fontaine who first became aware in June of allegations that emergency-room physicians, nurses and other staff regularly tried to guess the blood-alcohol level of Indigenous patients.
The allegations were made by a health-care worker who was participating in San’yas Indigenous cultural safety training, an online program aimed at building positive partnerships between service providers and Indigenous people. That information was brought to the First Nations Health Authority, which alerted the Health Ministry, prompting Minister Adrian Dix to appoint Turpel-Lafond to conduct an investigation.
While Turpel-Lafond found no evidence to suggest such a game was occurring, she did find that anti-Indigenous racism permeates the entire health care system, negatively impacting the health of Indigenous people.
Fontaine thanked the thousands of individuals who were brave enough to share their difficult experiences with racism in health care that shaped Turpel-Lafond’s investigation. “They’re our heroes,” he said. “They’re the ones who came forward, and without their personal stories, we would not have the report we have today.”
People who responded to the review detailed racism in other sectors such as education, justice and the child-welfare systems. Turpel-Lafond said while these areas were outside the scope of her investigation, she urged the provincial government to commission reviews into Indigenous-specific racism in other areas of the public sector.
B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau said this is why the legislature should immediately convene an all-party committee on anti-racism that focuses on systemic racism in government institutions.
Furstenau would like to see the creation of an Indigenous ombudsperson that would give Indigenous people an opportunity to share their experiences of systemic racism in a way that will be heard, understood and acted upon.