Feds can use spending power to fight anti-Indigenous racism in health care
OTTAWA
The federal government is ready to use its financial leverage over the health system to fight anti-Indigenous racism in health care, Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says.
He says that includes promoting Indigenous health workers and calling out racism wherever it’s seen.
“The federal power to spend with conditions, it’s clear, it is a constitutional right. It exists within health,” he said Thursday. “The question then is how best to do it.”
Miller said the treatment of Joyce Echaquan, who used her phone to livestream hospital staff using racist slurs against her as she lay dying in a Quebec hospital, is more evidence of the ways the system has failed Indigenous people for generations.
Miller said he doesn’t think it’s helpful to try to punish provinces for inadequate action on racism, especially in the middle of a pandemic, but the federal government has a moral duty to set and maintain standards.
The provinces are seeking billions more dollars in health transfers from the federal government, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promising a first-ministers conference on the subject soon.
“Putting more money into a system which is beset by systemic issues with prospective systemic racism can’t be the only solution nor the only reply,” Miller said.
Miller said he and CrownIndigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett are holding an emergency meeting on the problem Friday with as many as 200 participants, including Indigenous leaders.
The goal is to hear from Indigenous people, including health professionals, who have lived through racist treatment in the health system while politicians like Miller and Bennett listen.
Rebecca Kudloo, the president of Pauktuutit Women of Canada, said in a statement Thursday she will participate in the meeting to highlight how the Canada Health Act is failing Inuit women and girls.
“The bottom line is that racism experienced before an Inuit woman even seeks health care impacts her socioeconomic status which, in turn, negatively impacts the quality of health care she receives and her health outcomes,” said Kudloo.