Inuk actor alleges discrimination at hospital
Inuk actor and author Maika Harper wants an apology after an emergency trip with her two-year-old daughter to Michael Garron Hospital Tuesday night left her feeling discriminated against by staff.
Harper, who is a single mother and immunocompromised, said she and her daughter were both sick with COVID-19 and took an ambulance to the hospital around 5 p.m. because they were both having trouble breathing and her daughter had a fever.
Harper, who has appeared on the popular TV series “Kim’s Convenience” and APTN’s TV series “Mohawk Girls,” is visibly Inuk with traditional tattoos.
She told the Star she was called a “liar” when her daughter was choking and she sought help. After the incident, she said she received poor treatment from a nurse and doctor and had security called on her twice, including while she was being discharged and asked for wheelchair assistance.
“I felt extremely, extremely discriminated against,” said Harper.
Michael Garron’s vice-president of program support Wolf Klassen said the hospital cannot “comment on the specifics of any particular patient case due to privacy legislation,” in an emailed statement to the Star.
But he said generally, “When an incident related to patient care is filed, our teams work directly with patients, families and the hospital team members involved to conduct a fulsome investigation of the matter.”
“Excellent patient care and safety are our top priorities,” he said, adding that they are committed to creating “an environment that is physically and psychologically safe” where everyone is “treated with respect and compassion.”
Harper said she has spoken with a lawyer and been in contact with the hospital to remedy the situation and said she would like an apology.
She said the treatment took a turn after a nurse arrived to draw some blood. Harper, 36, joked, “Good luck finding a vein, I had a bit of a past,” referring to past drug abuse that ended when she was 19 years old. “Her attitude changed dramatically. It was immediate,” Harper told the Star.
Soon after, she noticed her daughter start to gasp for air and choke on her saliva, so Harper called out for help. By the time the same nurse returned, the two-year-old was able to breathe again and smiled and waved at her. Harper says the nurse said “you’re lying, you’re a liar” without examining her daughter.
“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” Harper said.
She requested another nurse, who she says treated her daughter “with the utmost care,” and determined it was just another COVID-19 symptom.
But due to the altercation with the previous nurse, security was called and further treatment from a doctor was also “cold” and “rude.” Harper said she confronted the doctor after overhearing them say to other staff members to “get her out of here.”
Discrimination against Indigenous peoples in health-care settings has been documented in provinces and territories across the country. Indigenous peoples also experience lower health outcomes compared to others in Canada due to a number of inequities.
The issue was widely spoken about recently when in 2020, Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman, died in a Quebec hospital shortly after live streaming health-care workers hurling racial slurs. A coroner’s report the following year named systemic racism as a factor in her death.
“I don’t care if you’re nice or if you’re angry, as long as you do the job,” Harper said. “I’m not sure if it’s because I have piercings and tattoos. I’m not sure if it’s because I dress a certain way and I’m 36. I’m not sure if she was just having a bad day because it seemed like she was. But all I can say was that the amount of negligence that happened was uncalled for.”
Reflecting on her own actions, Harper said: “(At that point) yes, I was quite angry with everybody. Yeah, I wasn’t the nicest. But I think anybody in that situation wouldn’t be. Because at that point, I was just focused on my daughter and getting her help.”