LOCAL SURGEON FEATURED IN MANSBRIDGE BOOK
It was ultimately her own self-respect that led Nadine Caron to act as she did. The young medic, a member of the Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, was taking a break in the surgery lounge of a Canadian hospital when an older doctor sat down at her table, exhausted after completing a lengthy surgery.
“If I never operate on another Indian, it will be too soon,” he announced.
He wasn’t addressing anyone in particular but Caron, a medical school graduate in final training to become a surgeon, couldn’t let the remark pass. It wasn’t the first time she had encountered a racist comment, but she was angered to hear it from a doctor.
She spoke out: “If you don’t want to operate on an Indian and get paid, then you certainly don’t want to eat with an Indian for free.”
And with that, she rose and walked with her tray to an empty table across the room. Others at her table followed, leaving the offending surgeon sitting alone.
It’s an extraordinary moment in Peter Mansbridge’s new book, Extraordinary Canadians. But it’s only one of many to emerge in this remarkable collection of personal stories about Canadians, many of them unknown to the wider national community, who have helped make this country a better place for all.
“We obviously wanted a book that would represent the country - geographically, genderwise, background-wise, culture-wise, profession-wise,” says Mansbridge, who retired in 2017 after 30 years as anchor of CBC television’s The National.
Mansbridge and his co-author, former CBC producer Mark Bulgutch, wanted to be surprised as they scoured the country in search of 17 Canadians with incredible personal stories to tell. And surprised they were. One example was Caron, now a surgeon at University Hospital of Northern B.C., an associate professor of surgery in the UBC faculty of medicine and an eloquent advocate for Indigenous health.
“When I chose my path, there was not a single Indigenous general surgeon in Canada,” she tells readers of the book. “That fact made my decision different, even groundbreaking, but with it came sharp reminders about the divide that still exists within our country.”
For Mansbridge, this was exactly the kind of story he wanted to tell. And again, it made him feel glad to have undertaken this book and to have succeeded in delivering it to his publisher, Simon and Schuster, in time for release this autumn in the midst of a pandemic.
“It’s been a difficult time for everyone,” the 72-year-old Mansbridge sayt. “So it’s a time when we need to celebrate inspiring stories, and that’s what these are. These are people who have sometimes faced enormous personal challenges, but were dedicated to facing these challenges head on. Yet, they’re all very different ... all these extraordinary people who come from really different backgrounds and situations.”
And he returns to the example set by Caron.
“That moment in her life where she’s confronted with racism from a fellow doctor and the journey that both he and she went on before they met again - it signals what we need to do as a country. That requires more than just standing up in the House of Commons and apologizing.”