Update:(Updates with comment from Indigenous Services minister) (BR-Lewis-Nunavut-TB) – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Sep 11, 2017

Canada’s new minister of Indigenous services says the government is committed to correcting the wrongs done to Inuit people who were taken from their homes for tuberculosis treatment in the 1950s and ’60s.

Many never returned and their relatives don’t even know where they are buried _ something Jane Philpott acknowledges is still affecting modern attempts to treat TB in Arctic communities.

Philpott says current high infection rates are her priority but adds she has discussed the historic issues with Inuit leadership as well.

Stephen Lewis, one of Canada’s strongest international voices in the fight against AIDS, has said the federal government should release all the information it has on Inuit people taken south for TB treatment.

Lewis says tuberculosis is present in 17 of Nunavut’s 25 communities.

(The Canadian Press)

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