“Shocked” and “overthrown” by the revelations contained in a study published last week on the forced sterilization of 22 Aboriginal and Inuit women since 1980 in the province, the Collège des médecins du Québec invites caregivers who witness such practices to denounce them .
“People who witness this, please report this to us at the College. […] I hope we will have names. That we can investigate. […] It takes names to do an investigation, ”said in an interview the president of the College of Physicians, Dr.r Mauril Gaudreault, who is once again committed to educating his members on the notion of informed consent.
In a letter sent to The Pressthe Dr Gaudreault said he was surprised “at the silence of the nursing staff on these cases”. “I therefore invite all those who have witnessed these inappropriate gestures or who know something about these situations to contact the College of Physicians,” he wrote.
In a study published last week, a team of researchers from the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue presented the testimonies of Aboriginal and Inuit women who were allegedly sterilized against their will. Some also reported having had an abortion without their consent.
The report contains, in particular, excerpts from testimonies in which “discriminatory remarks related to Aboriginal identity” are reported. In one case, a doctor reportedly offered a tubal ligation to a patient and told her, “All the children you have brought into the world are all going to live in misery,” it reads. Women have also reported being asked for consent to sterilization while in labour. A gesture that is “absolutely odious”, according to the Dr Gaudreault.
Quebec is not the only territory to see cases of forced sterilization of Aboriginal women arise. Saskatchewan was the first province to document the situation in the country in 2013. Greenland also saw this year several women denounce a massive sterilization campaign that occurred in the 1970s, as reported The Press Monday.
According to the Dr Gaudreault, the situation in Quebec is possibly “even more important than what is reported to us”. “I’m not saying it happens frequently. But we have to come to the conclusion that it is done. And probably it still exists in 2022. We have to raise awareness among our members, ”he says.
A “non-negotiable” consent
For the Dr Gaudreault, “we may invoke the barrier of language or culture, the fact remains that the fundamental principle of informed consent” seems to have been obscured. And for him, this consent is “non-negotiable”.
It recognizes that certain emergencies may arise, where the consent of a woman giving birth, for example, must be obtained in a less than optimal context. “But it’s very infrequent,” he says.
A follow-up must, according to him, be given to research. The Dr Gaudreault will soon meet with its authors, among other things, and physicians in the province will once again be made aware of the issue of informed consent to care.
Are aboriginal women the only ones to have been victims of forced sterilization or obstetrical violence in Quebec? “It would take another study to tell,” says Dr.r Gaudreault. But the latter indicates that the cases involving Aboriginal women are well documented in the study, which is “another demonstration” of the systemic racism that affects the health sector of the province.
For its part, the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ) says it has taken note of the research. “If this is true, it is obviously surprising and shocking that it could have happened in Quebec over the past 30 years, and it is odious and unacceptable. Point. And the Federation will of course collaborate with the College of Physicians if the latter intends to adopt specific measures following its reading and analysis of the recommendations of the report,” indicated the Director of Communications of the FMOQ, Jean-Pierre Dion.