The Canadian government says it is urgently trying to end the forced sterilization of Indigenous women, describing the practice as a human rights violation and a prosecutable offense. Yet police say they will not pursue a criminal investigation into a recent case in which a doctor apologized for his “unprofessional conduct” in sterilizing an Inuit woman.

In July, The Associated Press reported on the case of an Inuit woman in Yellowknife who had surgery in 2019 aimed at relieving her abdominal pain. The obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr. Andrew Kotaska, did not have the woman’s consent to sterilize her, and he did so over the objections of other medical personnel in the operating room. She is now suing him.

“This is a pivotal case for Canada because it shows that forced sterilization is still happening,” said Dr. Unjali Malhotra, of the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia. “It’s time that it be treated as a crime.”

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    9 months ago

    Could you explain or provide an example?

    AFAIK the malicious genocides happened in the 18th century with forced integration and relocations happening in the 19th and 20th century.

    There was the settler genocide of the Beothuk peoples from loss of access to food and foreign illness in the 19th century though. Although that wasn’t trying to kill them.

    There was the culture genocides of the residential schools but again, that isn’t an example of trying to kill them all off.