Forced sterilization lawsuit moves forward

Two women from Manawan have been authorized to file a collective action against a government health centre concerning acts of obstetric violence carried out against them without their consent.

“I think it’s the start of something,” said Marjolaine Etienne, president of Quebec Native Women (QNW), which has supported the women throughout the legal process.

The two women first filed their request for a class action on behalf of “all women of Atikamekw origin who underwent surgery without having given their free and confirmed consent” at the Integrated Health and Social Services Centre (CISSS) of Lanaudiere since December 1971.

In 2023, their class action request was approved against three doctors specifically mentioned as having carried out the procedures, but not against the CISSS Lanaudiere where the acts allegedly took place.

The claimants say they each experienced harm after giving birth at the hospital, with one alleging that she was sterilized without her knowledge or consent after the birth of her fifth child. She said that she didn’t find out that she had been sterilized via a procedure known as a tubal ligation until more than a year after she had given birth.

The other claimant said that she underwent a tubal ligation without free and informed consent, having been pressured by a doctor at the hospital after her fifth pregnancy. She was followed by the same doctor throughout her pregnancies, who she alleges had repeatedly insisted that she undergo sterilization surgery since her third pregnancy, because she had enough children.

That claimant alleges that “his tone was threatening and he often made racist or derogatory remarks about Indigenous people,” and that he made degrading comments such as “You Indigenous people all have alcohol problems.”

Though their class action request against three doctors (one of whom passed away in 2019 and is therefore being represented by his estate) was approved in 2023, the women appealed the decision that the Quebec Superior Court made to reject the class action request that was also made against the CISSS. The doctors also appealed the decision that the court made to allow the class action against them.

But a Quebec Court of Appeal decision that was handed down at the end of February has rejected the doctors’ appeal and allowed the complainants’ appeal that the CISSS should be included in the class action.

“For us, it’s a strong act of denouncing the injustice that First Nations women have experienced, and today it’s clear that there’s zero tolerance,” Etienne said. “It’s time for governments and institutions to take responsibility and implement concrete measures to ensure that acts of forced sterilization never happen again.”

The CISSS de Lanaudiere told The Eastern Door that since the matter is in front of the courts, they would not be commenting on the decision at this time.

The news comes after a 2022 report published by the Universite du Quebec en Abitibi-Temiscamingue (UQAT), Canada Research Chairs, and the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission (FNQLHSSC), which included the testimonies of 35 people who had experienced or witnessed imposed sterilization and/or obstetric violence towards Indigenous women in Quebec.

The primary author of the report, Suzy Basile, told The Eastern Door that a second report on the subject will be ready soon.

With the class action request approved, the legal process will continue to move through Quebec’s courts.

“I think it’s a step and it can lead to other actions too,” Etienne said.

“Recognizing it’s an issue, and working on it, we think can lead to concrete measures.”

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