'The process is not complete': Métis physician calls CMA apology a step toward reconciliation
N.W.T. physician highlights ongoing struggle for medical access across many Indigenous communities
A Métis physician who works in the Northwest Territories says change must follow the Canadian Medical Association's apology to Indigenous people.
"It's important … that they [the CMA] are involved with trying to right some of those past harms. It [the apology] is a step along that process. But the process is not complete," said Dr. Thomsen D'Hont.
The CMA said Wednesday it regrets its role in the decades of harm inflicted on First Nations, Inuit and Métis people within the Canadian health-care system.
"As an association, our purpose is to support the medical profession and create a more sustainable, accessible and equitable health system for all patients and providers. In failing to address systemic anti-Indigenous racism in health care, we have failed to fulfil this purpose," said CMA president Dr. Joss Reimer, who presented the association's official apology during a ceremony in Victoria.
In anticipation of the ceremony, the CMA said it has reviewed 150 years of archives, chronicling systemic and overt racism; disparities in treatments; segregated "Indian Hospitals"; child apprehensions; forced sterilizations; and medical experimentation, all of which it is now acknowledging led to devastating harm to Indigenous peoples.
"We take ownership of the CMA's history. We know there is nothing we can do to take back what has been done. We can only move forward, beginning with our commitment to work in partnership and in reciprocity with Indigenous peoples to advance reconciliation in health care," Reimer said.
D'Hont works primarily with Indigenous patients as a family physician in the Behchokò and the Tłı̨chǫ region in the N.W.T., as well as at the Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife. While he said he welcomed the CMA's apology, he emphasized the ongoing and dire need to address problems Indigenous people face in accessing healthcare, especially in remote and underserved areas of the country.
"A lot of those fly-in communities will get a doctor every six weeks and sometimes go months in a row without [one]. And that's kind of the accepted status quo of what health care is in the communities," he said.
"There are a lot of ongoing issues with access and equity, and the communities that need the access to a doctor most are the ones that don't have [it] …These are real, real challenges that don't have an easy fix."
Moving forward, together
The CMA has developed a "ReconciliACTION plan" that "outlines how the association will advance health and well-being for Indigenous peoples, support the medical profession's journey toward truth and reconciliation, and promote internal reconciliation as an organization."
D'Hont said he feels aligned with what the association has identified as its next steps, particularly around amplifying Indigenous voices.
"I think if they're engaging adequately with Indigenous groups, that's a path forward," he said.
D'Hont said that implementing community-based solutions as well as the use of technology in remote health care delivery could be part of addressing Canada's ongoing struggle to deliver quality health care to Indigenous peoples across the country.
"There's all this other work that has to be done in terms of anti-racism training and cultural safety training for non-Indigenous physicians, but I think the power in getting more Indigenous doctors providing services to Indigenous people, as was recommended in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission … that's a very important step that the CMA has highlighted," he said.
Former CMA president Dr. Alika Lafontaine, who is also the association's first and only Indigenous president, said he believes promoting and maintaining a two-sided relationship between non-Indigenous and Indigenous communities is integral to the CMA's future.
"There are parts of history that Indigenous people must leave for settlers to carry. But there are many places where it is appropriate and needed for us to share the weight of change. We are lifting together so that the CMA can keep moving forward," he said.
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