Canada has to stop the “extensive forced or coerced sterilization” of Indigenous women and girls in Canada, the United Nations Committee Against Torture told the country on Friday, a finding that prompted calls for federal action by human-rights groups and the federal NDP.
All such allegations, incuding recent ones in Saskatchewan, must be impartially investigated and that those responsible are held to account, the Geneva-based committee said, and the state needs to take legislative and policy measures to stop women from being sterilized against their will.
The conclusions confirm Canada is torturing Indigenous women through forced sterilization, NDP MP Rachel Blaney said in the House of Commons.
“Do the Liberals not understand that this is a stain on our country, a stain on every one of us in this House?” she said during question period. “Why are the Liberals tolerating forced sterilization of Indigenous women?”
Prior to the release of the report, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s office said the government is taking a “public-health approach” to the issue, though the government believes everyone must receive culturally safe health services no matter where they live.
Wilson-Raybould’s parliamentary secretary Arif Virani reiterated that message as he answered Blaney’s question.
“The coerced sterilization of Indigenous women is a serious violation of human rights and it is completely unacceptable,” he said.
Outside the Commons, Amnesty International Canada’s gender-rights campaigner Jackie Hansen insisted that the federal government needs to take more concrete steps than condemnation.
“I think what everyone wants to see is this practice ended,” she told a news conference on Parliament Hill. “What we want to see is a firm commitment from government to demonstrate how that is going to happen.”
Hansen’s organization has called on the federal government to appoint a special representative to hear from Indigenous women coerced into being sterilized to learn what justice would look like for survivors.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/can.../+Media&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links
All such allegations, incuding recent ones in Saskatchewan, must be impartially investigated and that those responsible are held to account, the Geneva-based committee said, and the state needs to take legislative and policy measures to stop women from being sterilized against their will.
The conclusions confirm Canada is torturing Indigenous women through forced sterilization, NDP MP Rachel Blaney said in the House of Commons.
“Do the Liberals not understand that this is a stain on our country, a stain on every one of us in this House?” she said during question period. “Why are the Liberals tolerating forced sterilization of Indigenous women?”
Prior to the release of the report, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s office said the government is taking a “public-health approach” to the issue, though the government believes everyone must receive culturally safe health services no matter where they live.
Wilson-Raybould’s parliamentary secretary Arif Virani reiterated that message as he answered Blaney’s question.
“The coerced sterilization of Indigenous women is a serious violation of human rights and it is completely unacceptable,” he said.
Outside the Commons, Amnesty International Canada’s gender-rights campaigner Jackie Hansen insisted that the federal government needs to take more concrete steps than condemnation.
“I think what everyone wants to see is this practice ended,” she told a news conference on Parliament Hill. “What we want to see is a firm commitment from government to demonstrate how that is going to happen.”
Hansen’s organization has called on the federal government to appoint a special representative to hear from Indigenous women coerced into being sterilized to learn what justice would look like for survivors.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/can.../+Media&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links
