Now the women demand that doctors and hospitals be fined and hope to receive compensation.
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A judge in the Canadian province of Quebec has given the green light to a class action lawsuit over the forced sterilization of indigenous women.
Two Atikamek Indian women, known only by their initials UT and MX, have filed a lawsuit against three doctors they accuse of performing or coercing women into sterilization in a small rural town in northern Quebec.
The suit also includes a municipal medical agency and a hospital. The women accuse the organizations of systematically targeting Atikamek patients, who, according to the plaintiffs, allowed doctors to perform sterilizations without prior consent. Now the women are demanding that the doctors and hospital be fined and hope to receive compensation.
According to the file, when UT and MX gave birth at a local hospital five times, and in the last delivery they had their fallopian tubes tied, which in both cases was done by C-section.
UT claims that it did not consent to this procedure and was not even informed that it had undergone such an operation.
MX claimed that during childbirth she was forced to indulge in a tubal ligation and in doing so “did not give her free and informed consent.”
The judge who considered this case agreed with the arguments of the Indians. In his decision, he stated that “the sterilization of a woman without her free and informed consent constitutes a civil wrong, ethical misconduct, a felony, and a violation of the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms of Québec”.
As a result, the judge ruled that all Atikamek women who had been forcibly sterilized in Quebec since 1980 could be included in the lawsuit and thus receive compensation. In addition, on behalf of the affected women, their partners, guardians, children, grandchildren and other legal heirs may participate in the lawsuit.
Canada has a long history of forced sterilization of indigenous peoples. Karen Stout, a leading local expert on the issue, stated: “The forced sterilization of indigenous women is linked to the broader context of colonialism. This is one of the many forms of violence perpetrated against indigenous women in Canada.”
Stout has identified hundreds of cases of coercive or forced sterilization, including in recent years.
The story of the forced sterilization of Indians in Canada began a long time ago, and it was not just about the Atikamek. For example, in 2018, during the investigation of such crimes, it turned out that doctors refused to discharge indigenous women from maternity hospitals or give them newborn babies without signing consent for sterilization. Then 60 Indian women from the province of Saskatchewan filed a lawsuit against the doctors.
Looking deeper into history, in 1928 Alberta passed the Sexual Sterilization Act and created the Eugenics Board, which was responsible for the sterilization policy of “inferior” citizens. In addition, it was introduced with comments from the Ministry of Health that taxpayers bear too high costs due to immigrants and people with mental illness.
For sterilization it was necessary to obtain the consent of the Eugenics Council and the consent of the patient, although in case of recognition of incapacity, permission could be granted by the spouse or guardian. In 1937, the law was changed, because at that time it was believed that sterilization was carried out for the benefit of all humanity (and its gene pool), therefore the patient’s consent was not required. Between 1928 and 1972, 2,832 people were sterilized in the province of Alberta.
