‘A big injustice’: Research group collecting testimonies of forced sterilization of Indigenous women

Indigenous researchers, women’s groups and health-care workers in Quebec are looking into the practice of forced sterilization of Indigenous women in the province.

The collaborative initiative has been centered on collecting testimonies from First Nations and Inuit women. The group says there isn’t enough relevant data on the situation.

“They say, ‘well this happened out west, happened in this province, mostly in B.C. and others.’ But it also happened in Quebec and we need to find out to what level,” said Mary Hannaburg, the former vice-president of Quebec Native Women.

“How many? What are the numbers? The stats need to be exposed because it’s only then that the Canadian population will understand.

“It was another way of assimilation, another way of regulating populations.”

Forced sterilization refers to the practice of sterilizing someone without their consent (or informed consent), often when going in for another procedure.

“When these women would come forward and say, ‘you know what, I think there was a procedure that was done on me and I can no longer have children, or they’re told, ‘sorry you can no longer reproduce.’ That is a big injustice,” said Hannaburg.

The research group has been collecting testimonies since May, and at least 20 Indigenous women have already come forward saying it happened to them. And more are expected to do so.

The deadline for submitting testimonials is Dec. 31.

“It’s something that was not necessarily known by the population. Sometimes the practices that are there, and that we don’t know about,” said Marjolaine Sioui, the executive director of the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission.

The group plans to make recommendations in a report with the information from the testimonies.

“It’s really about giving a voice to the women who long have been hidden,” said Sioui. “Something that is secret for us, as women, as people. It’s a matter of justice also. It’s a matter of telling those stories so that in the future this doesn’t happen again.”

A proposed multi-province class-action lawsuit has been launched in connection with several documented cases. Those behind the Quebec study say they could join the class action or launch their own once testimonies are investigated.

“I would like to see it acknowledged,” said Hannaburg. “I would hope the women would be given a chance, and not some apology written on a paper from an institution.”

Some say justice is needed for the trauma and loss some of these women have faced.

“When you lose one life, you lose many,” said Hannaburg. “You lose the lives of those that were to come, the generations to come.”