SNIWWOC responds to Turpel-Lafond’s report with calls for sweeping change to B.C. healthcare
MEDIA CONTACT
Dominique Jacobs
Communications & Resource Development Coordinator
Support Network for Indigenous Women and Women of Color
203-2722 Fifth Street
Victoria BC V8T 4B2
domi@sniwwoc.ca
250-277-2545
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SNIWWOC responds to Turpel-Lafond’s report with calls for sweeping change to B.C. healthcare.
Support Network for Indigenous Women and Women of Color (SNIWWOC) calls for immediate implementation of accountability practices and anti-racism training into B.C.’s healthcare system in response to Turpel-Lafond’s In Plain Sight report.
Victoria, B.C., Canada. December 1, 2020: Racism impacts the health of Indigenous people, as Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s report documents, and all racialized people in Canada. Harmful acts of racism in healthcare have been reported to SNIWWOC by BIPoC women since our inception in 2014. So, the findings of this In Plain Sight report come as no surprise to our organization.
SNIWWOC contacted the the Addressing Racism in Healthcare investigation for the first time on July 23, 2020 and continued to collaborate with the executive team over the next few months by providing them with information and recommendations, which include the following:
i) An overarching anti-racism policy across provincial health care systems, made distinct by each health region- to address their specific concerns. Infractions to this policy should be met with escalating fines. Continued offenses should result in losing license to practice. People are extremely vulnerable when it comes to their health care; facing racism in this regard, leads to lifelong harm, prolonged illness and early death. Racism in healthcare should not be tolerated.
ii) We ask that in-depth, cultural-sensitivity training should be made mandatory for ALL of the B.C. Ministry of Health workers and be embedded into the lifelong learning plans for each and every career health professional, especially agents who take regular calls from residents. Training should also be developed by paid BIPOC educators and consultants. We urge that protections extended to Indigenous victims as a result of this investigation be extended to all racialized minorities and should include whistleblowers who report incidents of racism committed by their co-workers.
iii) At our October 18th, All-Party Elections Town Hall on Systemic Racism, B.C.’s new Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation, Ravi Kahlon, noted that racism against both Indigenous and Black people is particularly insidious in nature adding that, “We need people of lived experiences at the table making decisions.” Which is echoed in Turpel-Lafond’s recommendations: “an urgent need to have Indigenous people at the table in healthcare authorities and political bodies making decisions about health.”
This is particularly critical now, as we’ve felt the greater impact of Covid-19 in racialized, minority communities than anywhere else in Canada. SNIWWOC, along with B.C. Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau, urge that a cross-party ministerial committee be created with a focus on anti-racism, specifically anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism to deal- in part, with the issues of health, specifically the impacts of Covid-19 on communities across British Columbia. Only then can the province truly begin to heal and recover.
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