Feds refuse to outlaw forced sterilization
First Nations chiefs’ proposal to change Criminal Code rejected by government
OTTAWA The Liberal government does not plan to change the Criminal Code to explicitly outlaw coerced sterilization, rejecting a resolution passed by First Nations chiefs on Thursday.
Heather Bear, the vice-chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations that includes 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, said Thursday that Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould — a former Assembly of First Nations regional chief herself in British Columbia — must “do the right thing.”
“The prime minister of Canada has made all these statements on the national stage about truth and reconciliation,” Bear said in an interview. “We know the justice system doesn’t work for us but this is one way we can put an end to this. I’m really surprised.”
Dozens of Indigenous women say they’ve been pressured into sterilization procedures they didn’t want, or had them carried out without being asked when they were seeing doctors for other reasons. Coerced sterilization must be criminalized to ensure legal accountability, Bear said, adding the issue is connected to the issue of violence against Indigenous women, the subject of a national inquiry underway in Canada.
Wilson-Raybould’s office said in a statement to The Canadian Press that it’s taking a public-health approach to the issue.
“Our government believes that everyone must receive culturally safe health services no matter where they live,” said the minister’s spokesman, David Taylor. “The coerced sterilization of some Indigenous women is a serious violation of human rights and is completely unacceptable.”
But he pointed to existing provisions within the Criminal Code meant to forbid “a range of criminal behaviour” including forced sterilizations.
Alisa Lombard, a lawyer leading a proposed class action by Indigenous women who allege they endured coerced sterilizations in Saskatchewan, said Thursday that changing the Criminal Code is the most concrete thing the government can do about them.
Lombard’s firm, Maurice Law, has listed the Saskatoon Health Authority, the provincial government, the federal government and a handful of medical professionals as defendants in its statement of claim. About 100 women have now come forward.
Human-rights groups — the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Amnesty International Canada, and Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights — are expected to respond to recommendations to be released on Friday.