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“Lawyers known for their representation of Indigenous northerners are preparing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Inuit who have faced discrimination in Canada’s health-care system.
If the lawsuit proceeds, it is expected to seek hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
The civil suit would represent Inuit discriminated against while in care in southern facilities outside Nunavut, and in some cases the Northwest Territories. The suit may expand to include discrimination in the Qikiqtani General Hospital in Iqaluit, and could include First Nations and Métis claimants.
“Racism is alive and well and always was in Canada,” said lawyer Steven Cooper in a CBC interview.
“It may be a little less obvious and a little less frequent than we see in places like the United States.”
But Cooper said this treatment of Inuit by government and health-care representatives “is nothing new.”
Cooper Regal lawyers, members of Masuch Law LLP, have won high-profile cases in the North. Most recently, they were legal counsel for Nunavut Ahiarmiut, who won a cash settlement and apology from the federal government over their forced relocation decades ago.
But Cooper said this lawsuit is inspired by accounts of contemporary discrimination.
“We’re talking right now, right here,” he said.
Examples of discrimination collected include the horrific. In one case, Cooper described a five-month-old aborted fetus being “cut up and thrown away in sight of the mother.”
“The fact that is happening now in Canada is a problem and it screams for legal attention,” Cooper said.”
– CBC, Inuit class-action lawsuit to allege racism in Canada’s health-care system
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country. Follow the series: Indian Country 52
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