'Incomprehensible' that forced sterilizations still happen in Canada, says survivor
Senate report details 'long history' of forced sterilization, calls for criminalization
A survivor of forced sterilization in Canada says she was "over the moon" to hear a recent Senate report call for the practice to be criminalized, but added that it's "incomprehensible" to think the practice is still happening today.
"In July of 2022, undoubtedly somewhere in Canada, there is a woman that is being subjected to forced or coerced sterilization," said Morningstar Mercredi, an activist and author of Sacred Bundles Unborn, a 2021 book about the practice.
"It's not past tense," she told The Current's guest host Duncan McCue.
Last week, a report from the Senate human rights committee called on the federal government to outlaw forced or coerced sterilization, as well as apologize to those affected by the practice, which the report said persists in Canada today.
The report said some women and girls were manipulated or directly threatened, while others were sterilized without their knowledge. It cites a long history of the practice in Canada, "including as a strategy to subjugate and eliminate First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples," but said it has also disproportionately affected other vulnerable groups, including Black and racialized women, and persons with disabilities.
WATCH | Senate report calls for criminalization of forced or coerced sterilization
Mercredi was 14 years old and in her seventh month of pregnancy when she had a C-section in a Saskatoon hospital. Without her knowledge, the surgeon also performed a tubal ligation, removing her left ovary and fallopian tube.
Now in her 50s, she only found out about the procedure decades later, when she was in a relationship and wanted to have children.
"We're talking our babies, we're talking our children, we're talking women who have been sterilized. That is … the end of their lineage, if they haven't already had children," she said.
"Who dare thinks they have the right to make that decision for any woman?"
Sending a 'strong message'
The Senate committee wants the practice criminalized and punishable with up to 14 years in prison through Bill S-250, introduced by Sen. Yvonne Boyer in June.
Sen. Michèle Audette, who also sits on the Senate human rights committee, said the push for criminalization helps to raise the voices of survivors.
"Finally, their voices will vibrate across Canada, for the many generations that passed away, who were forced," she told McCue.
"It will send a strong message also for the next generation of 'I didn't know,' or 'I trusted the doctor,' or 'I didn't have a say,'" she said.
In a statement, Justice Minister David Lametti told The Current that his department will "seriously consider" the senate committee's "important report recommendations, in conjunction with Senator Boyer's Bill S-250 for potential for law reform."
"Our government will have more to say in due course," the statement said.
Audette said the federal, provincial and territorial governments share the responsibility with medical practitioners and their professional bodies.
She said women's organizations and advocates also have a role to play in holding officials to account, and ensuring the needed changes are brought about.
"It's not only the legislation, but it's also how we educate, how we denounce and how we support the family and the person who were forced or coerced," she said.
'There is no closure'
Lawyer Alisa Lombard is part of a class action lawsuit on behalf of women in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, who say they were subjected to forced or coerced sterilization.
Other class action lawsuits are underway in Alberta, B.C., and Quebec.
Lombard hopes whatever next steps the federal government takes, they will include "some thoughtfulness," centre the experiences of survivors, and ultimately see "the sense in criminalizing the process."
"Simply the fact of criminalizing the process, I think, will have a deterrent effect," she told McCue.
Mercredi, who is one of the plaintiffs in Lombard's class action lawsuit, says she's spent a lifetime processing what happened to her, and thinks "there is no closure."
"This is not something that I will ever recover from. This is something that I've learned to live with. This is certainly something that I've grieved," she said.
Written by Padraig Moran. Produced by Ben Jamieson and Brianna Gosse.
