Canada’s Hidden History of Medical Violence: An Intersectional Feminist Perspective

Abstract

Medical violence in the Canadian historical narrative is often overlooked in favour of progress and current advancements. Yet, to deliver compassionate care to all patients requires an understanding and acknowledgement of the medical community’s past and persisting transgressions. The legalization and forced sterilization of Indigenous women is not only an example of blatant disregard for informed consent, but an egregious and continued trauma highlighting the medical community’s policing of marginalized female bodies. In the 1900s and deeply rooted in eugenic theory, sexual sterilization in Canada was framed as the solution for vast disparities in economic classes and social inequities. Indigenous women were disproportionately targeted and vilified by both the Canadian government and the practicing medical body. Such measures nearly halved birth rates in Indigenous populations in as little as two decades. The sociocultural effects of Canada’s medical violence are clear today; laws have yet to pass banning forced sterilization in Indigenous communities, and stereotypes of the ‘promiscuous’ Indigenous woman are cited in current clinical cases with devastating consequences. This article aims to contribute to discourse regarding the violent history of forced sterilization of Indigenous women and describe its institutionalization by the Canadian government as a public health measure with ongoing implications in perpetuating structural racism.