In 99% of cases, yes.
Evidence of meeting #153 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was medical.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #153 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was medical.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
So it's possible to know who the doctors were who were present, isn't it?
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
I imagine that a person does not need to report a medical procedure performed without consent to the police, but that there is a process in the health care community that allows them to file such a complaint against a doctor.
If consent has been given, it's different. Generally, when a person has surgery, he or she signs a consent form for the medical team to save their life or perform certain medical procedures in the event of a problem. Obviously, childbirth is not the same as this type of operation. No prior consent is given for sterilization.
4:35 p.m.
Lawyer, Semaganis Worme Lombard, As an Individual
The consent form for a caesarean section is normally signed before the operation. It can also be signed at the time of the operation, if the caesarean section is urgent because the baby or mother is at serious medical risk. It is at these times that sterilization by tubal ligation is sometimes added.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
You say that this is done systematically; it is not "sometimes".
4:35 p.m.
Lawyer, Semaganis Worme Lombard, As an Individual
This is done in a very similar way across the country.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Thank you very much.
That completes our seven-minute round. Now we'll go to our five-minute round, starting with Mr. Webber.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Len Webber Conservative Calgary Confederation, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, all, for being here today and presenting this testimony which is upsetting, absolutely.
I want to go along the same lines as Mr. Ayoub with regard to doctors and hospital records and access to hospital records.
Ms. Stote, you mentioned in your presentation near the end that you were asking the government where those hospital records are. Obviously then, you do not have access to those records in order to go after a medical doctor who performed this procedure.
4:35 p.m.
Assistant Professor, Women and Gender Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, As an Individual
The majority of my work has been historical. The historical documents that I've looked at show that in those cases, the federal government was able to query those hospital records. I don't have access.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Len Webber Conservative Calgary Confederation, AB
Ms. Lombard, with regard to your class action lawsuit in Saskatchewan, did the incidents involving your clients all take place at one facility or were they throughout the province? Do you have any thoughts on that? Can you say?
4:35 p.m.
Lawyer, Semaganis Worme Lombard, As an Individual
Were they throughout the province?
4:35 p.m.
Lawyer, Semaganis Worme Lombard, As an Individual
The Saskatchewan Health Authority is a defendant, as are some named physicians, those physicians who we know about. That would have been disclosed in the medical documentation. We also have Jane and John Does, those who we don't know about.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
4:35 p.m.
Lawyer, Semaganis Worme Lombard, As an Individual
For those in the last eight years, yes we do. After that, the province has a policy of record destruction. The ones that we can have we do have.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Len Webber Conservative Calgary Confederation, AB
I think those would go a long way even to getting the RCMP to investigate these as possible criminal acts as well. Would that not be the case? Why then would your clients in the last eight years not have gone to the RCMP to file a complaint?
4:35 p.m.
Lawyer, Semaganis Worme Lombard, As an Individual
I guess I'm at pains to describe the relationship between indigenous women in Saskatchewan and the police. Particularly when you're talking about injuries of such an intimate and personal nature, it's not the first place they think of going. It's not always a safe place for them to go, particularly in Saskatoon, where we have heard about things like starlight tours, etc. The trust is not there, so let's call the umbrella issue what it is. It's a trust issue. There is not a whole lot of trust.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Len Webber Conservative Calgary Confederation, AB
That's a shame. It's a shame. There should be somewhere they can go. That's something that does have to change and it's possibly something we can put in the recommendation as well on that issue.
4:35 p.m.
President, Women of the Métis Nation / Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak
Can I also add something to that?
Many of these indigenous women who are being taken advantage of in these ways are disadvantaged. They may have had issues within the medical institutions in the past. They may have had behavioural issues that have been targeted. We know of many instances where women are red-flagged, so when they come into the hospitals for procedures ,they're treated in a certain way.
When people are made vulnerable like that in those institutions, they don't have access to.... I am grateful to our friend who is leading the lawsuit, but many of them don't have access to legal counsel or to the kinds of supports they would need to take on the medical profession. Many of them don't understand they should be going to the police.
I could tell you stories about women who almost bled to death because of issues as they were miscarrying and what happened to them after they miscarried and how they were sterilized and didn't understand how all these things happened.
We have stories of women who have died in hospital because of how they were treated. There were inquiries into some of these things, so they are on public record, but there is no resolution.
You have to remember that a lot of these women who are coming forward and have these kinds of stories to tell us now are women who were disadvantaged and didn't know how to protect their rights or didn't know how to fight for themselves within these systems, and didn't have the resources to do it.