JB Gerald / Nightslantern.ca / #Canada update #Indigenous Peoples

3.11.17

October 19, 2017


Canada, Indigenous updates: fighting a tuberculosis rate 270 times the national average for people born in Canada who aren't Aboriginal (statistics from 2015 - and since this is an emergency it is unclear why the statistics aren't more up to date), the federal government and Inuit leadership have finally started a program to deal with the disease. Inuit sources say this is the first time Canada has worked with their people to eliminate tuberculosis. There are current TB control programs in some Inuit areas but they weren't set up to eradicate the disease. In 2013 the Inuit tuberculosis rate was only a disastrous 186 times that of the native born non-Aboriginal so the TB rate among the Inuit has become substantially worse (see previous). In 2012 the Harper government shut down the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) which kept 60 million dollars worthy of records and research on Aboriginal health issues. Tuberculosis remains a disproportionate threat to all Canadian First peoples (see previous). Then in Saskatchewan a group of doctors working with HIV and AIDS patients called for a state of emergency. That was in 2016. They wanted the province, the federal government and the Indigenous leaders to counter HIV and AIDS together and they asked for antiretroviral treatment for all those infected in the province. The HIV rate in Saskatchewan is reported as triple the national average. CBC reporting notes nearly twenty times as many cases per year as a decade ago. Among 170 newly reported cases in the province, 79% are among those who consider themselves Indigenous. On reserves the rate is 11 times the national rate. The current rate of HIV positive at Ahtahkakoop (3.5%) is slightly under the HIV rates for Guinea-Bissau (3.74%) or Central African Republic (3.82%). Canada's administrative medical officer for Aboriginal people in Saskatchewan blames the high rates on increased testing. However, HIV is spreading through increasing use of intravenous drugs with shared needles, a problem that could be partly resolved by dispensing free needles. The CBC reports that there are also reserves where the chiefs don't allow HIV testing and treatment. The costs are a problem which hold back rational government funding and treatment. The doctors' group in Saskatchewan estimated cost of medication for a case of HIV is $450,000 with lifetime expenses reaching $1.4 million. This may explain why the government is responding much too slowly. But within a perspective of the Convention on Genocide medical statistics may indicate a prolonged wish by one Canadian government after another to do with fewer Aboriginal people. This repressed awareness is made clear in the recent suit of two Indigenous women against the government, the province, the health region and specific doctors, for forced sterilisation. One of the women was tricked into sterilisation, the other sterilised after refusing consent. The case may develop into a large class action to represent at least twenty Aboriginal women forcibly sterilised through racial profiling. The Saskatoon Health Region has apologized and the region's policy on sterilisation is no longer in effect but the women have lost a sacred right and Canada's government is reluctant to learn what that means. Genocide warning.   Partial sources online: "Inuit, Ottawa launch task force to fight tuberculosis in the North," Nick Murray, Oct 8, 2017, CBC News; "Saskatchewan's HIV rate highest in Canada, up 800% in 1 region,"  Alex Soloducha, Oct 12, 2017, CBC News; "HIV rates on Sask. reserves higher than some African nations," Geoff Lee, June 3, 2015, CBC News; "Sask. doctors call for state of emergency over HIV rates," Courtney Markewich, Sept. 19, 2016, CBC News; "Sask. Indigenous women file lawsuit claiming coerced sterilization," Alex Soloducha, Oct.10, 2017, CBC News; "Canada: why aren’t conditions of life for First Peoples a national emergency?" J. B. Gerald, March 28, 2016, nightslantern.ca.