How B.C. health authorities are undermining Indigenous governments – The Globe and Mail
Roxanne Robinson is Chief Councillor of Kitasoo/Xai’xais Nation.
Danielle Shaw is Chief Councillor of Wuikinuxv Nation.
Marilyn Slett is Chief Councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council.
Wally Webber is Chief Councillor of Nuxalk Nation.
As governments around the world grapple with the COVID-19 crisis, the critical importance of testing, contact tracing, information sharing and co-ordinated community response right now and as we move ahead is clear. Countries have experienced different results with different approaches, and as Canadian provincial governments begin to announce their plans to re-open, experts have been focused on the best way to deploy those tools using the information they have, so that the safest approach is taken.
And yet, here in British Columbia, the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), which operates under Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), continues to not disclose to Indigenous governments where COVID-19 cases are occurring, citing the potential social harm to patients. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry has stated that this non-disclosure is intended to ensure that people who are infected are protected from stigma that could keep them from reporting it. That’s in the spirit of the federal government’s even vaguer approach: Indigenous Services Canada reports only the cumulative number of positive cases, rather than deaths and recoveries.
