Forced, coerced sterilization of women in Canada continues

TRENTON, Canada

Forcing women to undergo sterilization to prevent future births is an ongoing practice in Canada, most often affecting Indigenous, Black and females with disabilities, according to a report made public Thursday by the Canadian Senate.

The report, “The Scars that We Carry: Forced and Coerced Sterilization of Persons in Canada,” contains 13 recommendations, including that the "horrific practise" should be made a criminal offense and an apology and compensation to victims.

"Forced and coerced sterilization has a long history in Canada, including as a strategy to subjugate and eliminate First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples," said the report.

"The committee heard that other vulnerable groups have also been disproportionately subjected to these procedures, including Black and racialized women, persons with disabilities, intersex children and institutionalized persons," it said.

The committee spent three years preparing the report, including talking to victims.

The report defines forced or coerced sterilization as a procedure to forever end conception and is done without consent. Sometimes victims did not understand the medical language used to explain the procedure but it was done anyway.

It said girls as young as 14 have been "coerced through confinement, manipulation or threats (and) others were simply not consulted before the procedure."

Sometimes the women are in a medical facility to deliver a baby, then the sterilization procedure was performed immediately afterward.

"I believe there's sterilization happening today as we speak," committee member Senator Yvonne Boyer said Wednesday before the report's release.

"Forced and coerced sterilization is unfortunately an inhumane practice rooted in racism and conscious or unconscious biases," said Senator Michele Audette, formerly a member of the committee. "It demonstrates, once again, the perception of a superior colonial view according to a preconceived way of life, which continues to devalue the life of Indigenous peoples."