Class-action lawsuit would target health care system’s treatment of Inuit
Civil suit could expand to be nation-wide, lawyers say
A view inside the Qikiqtani General Hospital in Iqaluit. Lawyers are working to prepare a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Inuit patients who say they faced discrimination within the health care system.(File photo)
Northern lawyers are working to prepare a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Inuit patients who say they suffered discrimination within the health-care system in Canada.
Plans for a lawsuit have already drawn dozens of potential claimants from across Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, and could seeks millions in damages should it proceed.
The Alberta-based law firm, Cooper Regal (Masuch Law LLP,) which has negotiated a number of settlements for Inuit clients, is leading those efforts.
“[We’re seeing] if we’re able to establish these facts, whether it’s on an individual or collective basis,” said lawyer Steven Cooper.
“The medical system is terribly flawed. But this is not about medical malpractice, but rather how they’re treating our clients because of their Indigenous origin.”
While the dozen or so potential claimants are all Nunavut- or Northwest Territories-based, Cooper expects the lawsuit would become nation-wide if it goes forward.
The accounts of discrimination Cooper has heard may stem from past cases, but they all speak to present-day experiences that Inuit have had navigating the health-care system, largely in southern institutions.
Cooper recounted the case of one Inuk man who ended up in Ottawa for medical care.
Doctors and nurses assessed the man as drunk when he arrived for care, Cooper said, although the man didn’t drink. Doctors later made an assumption that the patient was an alcoholic, which formed the basis for his diagnosis.
That kind of stereotyping is common among Inuit he hears from, Cooper said.
More recently, Cooper heard from a young Inuk mother who lost her baby due to complications five months into her pregnancy.
After an abortion procedure, the woman claims health-care staff mutilated the fetus in the room as she watched.
“This would not have happened to a young white female anywhere else in Canada,” Cooper said.
“They treated this fetus with such immoral disregard for what that fetus meant to the mother. And they refused her request to bring the fetus home for proper church ceremony and burial.”
Cooper has extensive experience working in Nunavut, including a role helping to negotiate the $5-billion national residential school settlement agreement.
More recently, he negotiated a settlement on behalf of the Ahiarmiut, a group of Kivalliq-based Inuit who were relocated by the federal government in the 1940s and 50s.
If Inuit would like get in touch with the law firm to make their own claims, they can call 1-800-994-7477 or email steve@cooperregel.ca.
I am a white man, my wife is Inuit. She is a smart lady, and has held a senior management-level position in the GN for nearly 20 years. However, when she or one of our kids needs better care at the HC, I am the one who steps in, and suddenly we get more answers than before. And it’s 2019. Sad but true. This is not all nurses, I will certainly add, but definitely is a systemic problem from where we sit.
See also: RCMP. retail stores, Hamlet Administration, airlines…
Inuit sure love supporting lawyers. Inuit need to become doctors and nurses. Once they do, they will realize it’s not actually racism when not everything goes perfectly in health care, because it never does. Bad outcomes and misunderstandings happen everywhere, with every race and ethnicity of patient, and every race and ethnicity of health care worker.
For us to build capacity instead of a revolving door of transient workers we first need a better education system in place, where Inuktut has a curriculum and proper resources and a more structured and standards used.
All these things that English speakers take for granted each day in their education.
When you have to say its not racism, it usually is. We need these lawyers to change things because currently. in 2019 things have not changed since the 1950s mindset, just a better way of brushing things under the rug.
“When you have to say its not racism, it usually is”
Not necessarily, though I agree with most of your comment.
I agree with you, it seems to be getting worse too and I don’t understand how that can be when its 2019, not only from white people but from Inuit also, hate for immigrants, hate for different people.
the intolerance towards people that are not the same as you seems to be growing.
But this part in our health system has been like that since the beginning and it is not improving. See also: RCMP. retail stores, Hamlet Administration, airlines
Even in politics, there is so much hate being used its sickening.
About four ,five years ago I have talk to family lawyer about an incident that I have ask for their help but I have NOT heard from them since. It is about my late father.If you have any question pls call me at this number; I am looking forward for your assistance it is importance matter..my phone number is included here 867 226 1287.