Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  This is what we are also committed to doing. It was something that even the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights recommended that Canada do, which was to provide specific public awareness materials for indigenous women with respect to forced sterilization. We will be working with the indigenous women's organizations to develop those materials, taking into consideration the distinctions among indigenous nations so that they are very relevant to their local reality.

Health committee  They had it. They've repealed it because it was for individuals who had mental incapacity as it was discussed at that time. It doesn't exist at this time.

Health committee  Do you want to start that off?

Health committee  I can speak to that from an indigenous individual's context. There are many hospitals across Canada that do have indigenous navigators or interpreters, particularly in areas where a significant amount of the population are indigenous patients. There are also community workers that are there as health representatives who can help interpret and support women.

Health committee  Good question. The statistics on what's happening in hospitals aren't the only source that will provide the answer. That data shows only how many sterilizations have taken place, and not whether the sterilizations were forced. When the government was asked in the 1970s about the hospitals in the territories still under its responsibility, it looked at the statistics and it didn't necessarily conclude that there was an issue.

Health committee  Possibly, but they feared the repercussions. The health care system involves a power imbalance between the doctor and the patient. Most people feel this imbalance, in a way. The phenomenon is even more pronounced when it concerns an Indigenous, marginalized or vulnerable woman.

Health committee  We definitely need the co-operation of the provinces and territories. They have access to more detailed information on what's happening in the hospitals, which all fall under provincial and territorial jurisdiction.

Health committee  Yes, definitely. That's why a working group will focus specifically on this issue.

Health committee  The information in the external review is the information that we have. It's not by individual-by-individual circumstance. It was not a homogeneous situation, so it was at different stages. I also think there were lots of comments about how women felt there would potentially be an interaction with the child and family services system, which is why they felt coerced into sterilization.

Health committee  Prior to budget 2017, our policy was that unless women were minors or had a medical recommendation, such as a prescription from a physician to have an escort to accompany them at birth, they would not get paid for the escort's travel. It doesn't mean that they couldn't have an escort.

Health committee  There's a chance, because we don't have information about the magnitude of the problem at this stage. We are trying to raise public awareness and work with indigenous women's organizations and communities to put the information up front in communities. We have maternal child health programs and other programs in which there are community-based workers who would be able to provide that information more proactively and discuss the possibility or the issue proactively.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  I don't have any knowledge of that.

Health committee  No, absolutely not, but we would pay for medical transportation, potentially, for the individual.