Canadaโs genocidal history of racism and systemic discriminationย against First Nations peoples is not a mere embarrassing figment of the not-so-distant past. Indeed, as individuals and as a country, weโd like to believe the darkest hour is behind us. However, one bi-jural First Nations lawyer is calling out in warning. Alisa Lombard, a modern-day beacon of Indigenous access to justice, is telling First Nations women’s stories of coerced sterilization, something that persists to this day.
Coerced Sterilization in the Limelight: Itโs Still Happening
Alisa R. Lombard, partner at Semaganis Worme Lombard, Canadaโs first national Indigenous-owned law firm, and lead counsel in a Saskatchewan class action lawsuit brought by women who have been forcibly or coercively sterilized, has extensive experience in complex legal and policy issues relating to Indigenous-Crown relations.
Lombard has been working relentlessly, representing First Nations interests in what she calls โthe Mississippi of the North,โ her comically astute description of Saskatchewan.
Coerced sterilization of Indigenous women has not exactly been on mainstream mediaโs priority list throughout this practice’s decades-long life. Lombard notes that itโs interesting to see how mainstreamโs heightened awareness and empathy raises discussions about systemic racism, โsomething that has not been spoken about before.โ
In April 2019, Lombard testified at the Standing Senate Committee onย Human Rights, representing First Nations women and being their voice before the Senate. She told their stories, focusing on the womenโs lived experience of human rights violations.
The coerced sterilization instances Lombard described occurred between 2000 and 2010.ย “In some instances, there was no disclosure of risks, consequences and options, and no consent form was signed. It was, โThis is going to happen to you whether you like it or not.โ In other circumstances itโs a matter of โYou have to do this. Itโs whatโs best for you;โ or, โThe doctor doesnโt want you to leave before you do it.โ โYou have had enough children. Donโt you think you should consider this?โ [โฆ] ย Thatโs one thing Iโve heard, as though itโs a negotiation, which it is not.โ
From Givers of Life to Second Class Citizens: Genocide and Gender Roles
The extent of the travesty of coerced sterilization shakes the foundation of our human rights centered conscience when we contrast the role women had in traditional Indigenous cultures and their place in society today.
The External Review on Tubal Ligation describes Indigenous womenโs role in their societies as holding โthe highest degree of respect within their communities as the givers of life and family anchors.โ
โIndigenous gender roles did not mirror European gender roles,โ notes Lombard. The First Nations rights advocate adds that there is a major caveat to this assertion: โThis depends on the Nation, but my understanding is that women are the givers of life, the ones who carry the water medicine and are responsible for and have the great honour of giving that life, if we so choose.โ
In fact, Lombard highlights that there were First Nations whose leadership was female.
โWe didnโt live in perfect little societies, but we lived in perfect little societies for us, based on our values, they were perfect.โ
First Nations societies began falling apart as government intervention intended to erode First Nations culture and womenโs place in their communities, notes the External Review.
According to Lombard, the residential and Federal Indian Day School policies, mental health laws and the Sixties Scoop, โachieved in some part what they were intended to achieve, and that was a softly termed genocide, but a genocide nonetheless.โ
She explains that the federal government had a stated policy with the objective of assimilating or exterminating First Nations peoples.
โOne thing the former Prime Minister said when he apologized,โ Lombard says referring to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, โis that the attitudes that inspired the residential schools have no place in Canada ever again. But no action was taken to rid legislation of those attitudes. Theyโre still there. They are very much systemic.โ
Although the residential schools and the Sixties Scoop are dark figments of the past, Lombard underscores that systemic racism has taken on a new form: โNow we have overrepresentation in CFS, over-apprehension [โฆ] it continues to manifest using different mechanisms. None of those problems are truly historic. Just the methods have changed. We need to correct the attitudes in regulation and legislation. If we donโt remove this attitude, itโll continue. Itโs not an Indian problem, itโs a State problem.โ
Lombard poignantly testifies to the current genocide and its devastating consequences on First Nations women. โI know a person who is the first, I believe, in three or four generations to have custody of her children. What does that say about a lot of things? Itโs real deal genocide.โ
What is Coerced Sterilization?
โItโs important to understand coerced sterilization in a context,โ Lombard begins, embarking on the task of defining coercion. โOne party is essentially replacing the other personโs free will, bodily autonomy, with their own. This can manifest in many ways. This brings us back to the doctrine of consent,โ which she prides herself for being fluent in. โEnlightened consent requires the absence of coercion.โ
The champion of First Nations rights testified before the Senate, explaining the importance of informed consent in the context of sterilization. โFrom my perspective, and I believe the lawโs perspective, proper and informed consent contains four pillars. The first is capacity. The person involved in this transaction, if you will, must have the capacity to consent. There canโt be too many stressors. This person cannot be under the effects of medication, for example. Childbirth, post-administration of an epidural and active labour โ even a few weeks leading into active labour โ we might say that things arenโt the way that they usually are.โ
Lombard told Top Class Actions that many women who experienced coerced sterilization lacked capacity to consent to the procedure because they were in labour or heavily medicated.
Another major issue, there is no explaining to women what their rights are in this process.
Considered in a โnerdy, legalist, lawyer way,โ Lombardโs own words, we can compare the rights and duties involved in sterilization with those involved with a s. 8 caution for a search, as per the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
โIf a police officer doesnโt have reasonable and probable cause to search your vehicle, he has to obtain your consent. And to obtain your consent he has to tell you what your rights are under s. 8 and what the consequences of foregoing your rights are,โ Lombard explains. โI see no reason why we canโt do this with s. 7 and bodily autonomy. Itโs your right, itโs your body.โ
Indeed, s. 7 provides the right to life liberty and security of the person. Courts have held that security of the person includes an individual’s right to control their bodily integrity.
โThis needs to be explained to women, because they donโt know that. They often just go along with what the doctors and nurses say,โ Lombard stresses. โThis is deeply compounded by the state of labour and delivery- itโs not the time to be talking about [sterilization].โ
โWhen I was at the Senate, I had just given birth to my daughter five weeks prior, and they were discussing this issue and whether you have capacity to consent when youโre in labour, and in my opinion you do not have capacity.โ
At the Senate Standing Committee, Lombard asked the senators to put the lived experiences of Indigenous women who were coerced into sterilization at the centre of their study.
โWealth is life, children, family and culture for my clients. The decision on whether to gain in this wealth was stolen from them [โฆ]. Many of the women who have reached out did not know they had rights or that they had the choice.โ
Lombard explains there is a common feature in the coerced sterilization cases: โWe have many women, all Indigenous, all pregnant, who went to the hospital, were admitted, gave birth, came home and never got pregnant again, because they were all sterilized when they were there.โ
The Colonial Hangover and the Disproportionality Matrix
First Nations women are overrepresented among sterilized women, mentally incapable women and incarcerated women. Lombard blames much of the overrepresentation on Canadaโs discriminatory past and current systemic issues.
Another reason, in Lombardโs experience, is due to different cultural norms that are misinterpreted or misunderstood. โIn some of our families, women have children with different men, and sometimes have many children, and this would be interpreted as โflouty social normsโ which was an indicator of feeble mindedness. But in our societies it wasnโt at all. The children belonged to the women. Thatโs how it was seen.โ
Lombard believes eugenics and racism constitute the bedrock for the โdisproportionality matrix in mental health,โ stemming from inconsistencies between Eurocentric social norms and Indigenous social norms. Importantly, mentally incapable Indigenous women were more likely to be sterilized.
The First Nations womenโs rights advocate calls coerced sterilization โa colonial hangover.โ
In her opinion, Canada needs a national standard for consent, to prevent coerced sterilization, โbecause the patchwork we have now doesnโt seem to prevent unwanted sterilization.โ Lombard also advocates for punitive measures, accountability and much-needed reparation.
Since the proposed class action lawsuit has been filed, over 100 women have come forward with personal accounts of coerced sterilization.
โWe canโt accept this. Our ancestors wouldnโt have accepted it, and we owe it to our future generations. We canโt normalize this kind of human rights violation.โ
Lombard believes the class action regime is the best way โby far to get this done.โ For her, itโs all about empowerment.
โIt is time for Indigenous people to be able to rely and feel comfortable in the protections afforded by the law that everybody else benefits from except for us.โ
Have you or someone you know gone through a coerced sterilization? Share your story with us in the comment section below.ย
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12 thoughts onEXCLUSIVE: Coerced Sterilization of Indigenous Women | Alisa Lombard Exposes Canada’s ‘Colonial Hangover’
During my last and final pregnancy with my second set of twins ,Galway during the pregnancy my initial doctor went on maternity leave herself and was replaced by another doctor who instantly tried to pressure me into tubal litigation. Saying your young and don’t u think u had enough kids ,he then sent me out of town to a city which I thought was in regards to my twins instead I was told all the options of tubal surgery which I never agreed to having done and the checkup had nothing to do with my twins .when I had my twins I wasn’t in labour except for cramps the doctor decided I needed to have this csection and treated it like a emergency butchering my stomach instead of following the previous csection cut instead I was cut so savagely and it resulted in uneven skin around cute and ragged scarring tissue .after the csection which took longer then my first csection I was taken from room to be switched to the birthing room. During this time in between the rooms a nurse had me sign some papers while I was in and out of concisious then I was placed in room ….three years later I went to family doctor explained to him my concerns had him request my files from that hospital multiple times and had nothing sent messages the doctor who performed the surgery and got no reply in regards to my last birth …..I found out at a pop up clinic where I seen my original doctor assigned as my prenatal doctor the one that left half way through three almost four years later after a few clicks of the computer that felt like a eternity to me that during my last delivery during that csection that the second doctor decided to play god with my body and decided to tie my tubes with out my consent and not only that but instead of at least asking me how to do it he decicedx to laser them he made that choice and it greatly impacted my life who I am because from that moment on something inside me felt different I knew deep down inside something had changed and when I finally got the answers I knew what the issue was I was not complete when he severed my tubes he severed who I was and took my womanly power from me
I had a tubal ligation in 1992. I was 20 and had 2 kids then, the doctor did convince me. It was in Manitoba.