Canadian HR Committee: Coerced Sterilization of Indigenous Women Ongoing Today

A recent report from Canada’s Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights began a study on the extent and scope of forced and coerced sterilization of persons in Canada on 20 February 2019.

A recent report says that practice is not confined to the past but clearly is continuing today.

A class action law suit filed in Saskatchewan in October 2017 began with two Indigenous women who report being sterilized without their consent. Waves of media coverage of the issue in the fall of 2018 led to over 100 more Indigenous women from five provincescoming forward with allegations that they too were sterilized without their free, prior, and informed consent.

The committee’s preliminary hearings on forced and coerced sterilization confirmed its concerns that this horrific practice is not confined to the past but clearly is continuing today. Its prevalence is underreported and underestimated.

The committee is deeply concerned that along with Indigenous women, other vulnerable and marginalized groups in Canada are affected, the report reads. The committee further believes this issue is much more prevalent than reported and that it merits further study by a committee such as the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights.