Decades after many other rich countries stopped forcibly sterilizing Indigenous women, numerous activists, doctors, politicians, and at least five class-action lawsuits say the practice has not ended in Canada.
A Senate report last year concluded “this horrific practice is not confined to the past, but clearly is continuing today.” In May, a doctor was penalized for forcibly sterilizing an Indigenous woman in 2019.
Indigenous leaders say the country has yet to fully reckon with its troubled colonial past—or put a stop to a decades-long practice that is considered a type of genocide.
There are no solid estimates on how many women are still being sterilized against their will or without their knowledge. Senator Yvonne Boyer, whose office is collecting the limited data available, says at least 12,000 women have been affected since the 1970s.
The Geneva Conventions describe forced sterilization as a type of genocide and crime against humanity, and the Canadian government has condemned reports of forced sterilization elsewhere, including among Uyghur women in China.
The Senate report on forced sterilization made 13 recommendations, including compensating victims, measures to address systemic racism in health care, and a formal apology.
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