Evidence of meeting #128 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was health.
A video is available from Parliament.
10:15 a.m.
Winnipeg Centre, Lib.
Mr. Kennedy, I have another question. I have only about one minute left.
10:15 a.m.
Winnipeg Centre, Lib.
It's about indigenous women and forced sterilization. Are you going to be passing along information to the RCMP? It is absolutely unacceptable that this occurred in our country. I hope the RCMP and the prosecutor of Canada actually prosecute those who are violating the natural-born human rights of individuals in our country, violating our charter and our basic laws.
10:15 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
We have already had one conversation at the level of senior officials with our colleagues in the provinces and territories about this. The minister spoke a little bit about the government's view on this. My understanding is that there is going to be further follow-up at the level of FPT governments.
Obviously, the delivery of a lot of these health services across the country is in the hands of our colleagues in the provincial and territorial governments, so this will be something we'll be—
10:15 a.m.
Winnipeg Centre, Lib.
But I think a lot of the issue is that indigenous women keep falling through the cracks because it seems that people just push it around here so that it's someone else's responsibility. What people want, I think, is basic justice. It should be sent to someone to prosecute this, to make sure that people's rights are upheld and that people are held accountable so that it never happens again, so that people will look at indigenous women and say, “We should actually take good care of them and protect them, and not believe they are less valued because no one is going to care.” This is what's happened with the murdered and missing indigenous women. The RCMP for a long time..... No one cared. It took massive amounts of protest.
I wear moosehide for a reason. It's because I want to make sure we're all on board, and I hope that the health department will actually pass along this information.
Time's up, and—
10:15 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Health
Mr. Chair, to reassure the member and all the committee, as a senior official I would echo the views of the minister. This is an absolutely abhorrent practice. If we were aware of these sorts of instances, I can assure you we would be passing that information to the appropriate authorities immediately.
Because it is about the delivery of health care on the ground, it is an intergovernmental issue on which we will have to work with our colleagues at the provincial and territorial level to try to make progress on it. We're committed to supporting the government any way we can to make progress.
We share the views about the problematic practice being absolutely unacceptable. We'll do what we can to be supportive in dealing with it.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Okay.
That completes our time—eight minutes and 22 seconds.
We still have a little bit of time. Is it the committee's wish to carry on for a few more minutes, or should we—?
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Marilyn Gladu Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
In light of the fact that we didn't get our drafting instructions done last time—
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Marilyn Gladu Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
We have to do drafting instructions for diabetes and rare diseases, so I would suggest that we suspend, clear the room, and get to that.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Thank you very much for coming. Thanks for your answers and for helping us to understand some of these issues.
We will suspend for a couple of minutes.
[Proceedings continue in camera]