Aboriginal Health

Inquest told of racism in ERs

Posted on Wed, Jun 11, 2014 - 12:00am

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One of Canada's top aboriginal public-health experts says native people face racism and discrimination in the country's emergency departments.

Janet Smylie told an inquest into the death of an aboriginal man during a 34-hour wait in a Winnipeg hospital's ER that Canada's health care wasn't set up to include aboriginals.

Smylie, a Métis physician at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, suggested the health system is a loose extension of colonialism because it is founded on the belief that one set of people are superior to another.

Chinta Puxley Reports