Nearly four years after the discovery of at least 22 Indigenous women subjected to forced sterilization in Quebec, a team of researchers now reveals a higher number and urges the government to take their findings seriously.
In 2022, researchers at Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscaminque (UQAT) gathered testimonies from 35 First Nation and Inuit women as part of the initial phase of a study examining obstetric and gynecological violence, including forced sterilizations, faced by Indigenous women. The documented cases of forced sterilizations from 1980 to 2019 totaled 22 in the first phase.
The study expanded its scope in the second phase, covering the period from 1956 to 2023, resulting in a total of 132 testimonies. The total number of confirmed forced sterilization cases now stands at 77. Lead author Suzy Basile, an Atikamekw scholar holding a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous women’s issues, spearheaded the study.
The report identifies victims from the Innu/Naskapi, Eeyu, Atikamekw, and Anishinaabe communities and categorizes obstetric and gynecological violence into verbal, emotional, and psychological; physical and sexual; and ethnic-based discriminatory violence. The research participants varied in age at the time of their interviews, with the youngest victim being 15 and the oldest 40, while one woman was 90 during the interview.
Interview excerpts revealed instances where women unknowingly underwent sterilization procedures or were coerced into decisions against their will. Some only discovered the procedures years later. Last year, around 30 Atikamekw women revealed forced sterilizations in a class-action lawsuit targeting doctors and the regional health authority in Lanaudière.
The report offers 17 recommendations for First Nations organizations, governments, and the Quebec college of physicians. It calls for increased awareness among women about their rights to report mistreatment, the establishment of monitoring systems for documenting cases, and recognition of systemic discrimination in healthcare. Governments are urged to issue formal apologies to affected women and halt the destruction of medical records belonging to Indigenous peoples.
The authors acknowledge limitations in reaching all First Nations in Quebec and the inability to access medical records during the second phase. The primary goal of the research was to validate the existence of obstetric and gynecological violence and forced sterilizations in Quebec by amplifying the voices of Indigenous women.
