April 10th, 2022
“Justice demands integrity. It’s to have a moral universe—not only know what is right or wrong but to put things in perspective, weigh things. Justice is different from violence and retribution; it requires complex accounting.”
– bell hooks
Two toxic workplaces, almost a decade apart. Same person affected—a racialized woman physician but at different stages of her career. Two different provinces, two different institutions, two different chains of command, two different policies and procedures to navigate. Two different decisions about whether to submit a formal complaint for gendered racism (and ageism) for harmful behaviour by different white male physicians. Two different decisions and experiences once initial informal complaints made. Same outcome: no justice, no acknowledgement of the harm endured, no accountability. While I may have made the decisions to leave both of these workplaces, they were not actual choices I had due to the great harm that I endured. I still suffer from the trauma, and physical and psychological ramifications of ongoing injustice that I endured in both of these workplaces. My family has also endured the effects alongside me.