She was sterilized without her consent at 14. Now she wants the practice made a crime | CBC Radio

Yes why isn’t this illegal?

This is still happening today and yet people are forever being told that it isn’t. There’s a misconception that natives get everything they have no reason to gripe. But people also don’t read this or remember the article about the child that for want of a few thousand in orthodontics would be in pain until they finished growing and could have an operation. Because medical reasons for orthodontist take an act of god to prove. Or the ever popular if the reserves are so bad why don’t they leave. But no one answered the and go where question. Sometimes staying with the devil you know is less scary than going into the unknown without support.

It's horrible that so many women have had to go through this. No way that sterilization should take place without consent under any circumstances.

I can't even imagine how the doctors justify doing this. What possible explanation could they have for sterilizing someone like that without their consent, much less taking the time to make an informed decision?



You (housewife) probably know these things already, but I'll repeat a few salient points for my fellow non-Natives:

-Band councils have to deal with more red tape than any non-Native government, and federal bureaucrats can override a lot of their decisions or even put them under third-party management. And they're a lot likelier to do it than provinces are to municipalities.

-A lot of Natives leave the reserves and come to the cities. Life in those cities can be just as dangerous and racist as anything they might have faced on the reserves.

-Non-Native people get hot under the collar at claims of band council corruption and demand extra oversight...but when non-Native politicians hide things, do pork barrel spending or engage in shady accounting practices, we either make excusess or fall silent (if they're for "our" team), or simply grumble but don't make more of a fuss than that.