B.C. Health Experts confront racism against Indigenous populations – Columbia Valley Pioneer
Oct 7, 2021
The B.C. government has established a new In Plain Sight Task Team to combat systemic racism against Indigenous peoples. The team was created because of the recommendations that independent reviewer, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, found that Indigenous peoples in B.C. do not have the same ease of access to health care as non-indigenous peoples. Her review, In Plain Sight, details the injustices faced right under our noses, including the evident “health disparity, poor health outcomes, inequitable access to health care, infringement of rights, stigma and harm, and a lack of dignity and respect for First Nations, Métis and Inuit people.”
Out of the 185,000 First Nations and Métis patient’s data studied by Turpel-Lafond back in 2020, “more than two-thirds of Indigenous respondents said they had experienced discrimination based on their ancestry.” Indigenous women feel this discrimination much stronger, especially given the current stresses on Canada’s health system, including both the pandemic and the overdose crisis.
