Today is Red Dress Day. It is a day when we honour missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls & gender diverse people. We remember & uplift them. We support their families. We recognize this disproportionate violence as a national tragedy. We advocate for change.
#MMIWG2S
In 1995, Dudley George was killed by a police sniper after three days of occupying land near his traditional territory that had been taken by theย federal government. I have been thinking about him a lot these daysโespecially when I see photos of protesters in hot tubs.
Iโm fortunate to be spending the weekend with a very experienced human rights lawyer who outlined how vaccine requirements in schools and other institutions do not infringe on human rights but actually enable those who are vulnerable to participate fully/be included.
Text from a friend just now:
โWatching the news and I canโt believe it. The police are not even in riot gear. They always wear riot gear for Indigenous protestsโeven if there are only 10 people around.โ
Not recognizing or valuing oral history is a form of racism called epistemic racismโwhere certain forms of knowledge are considered superior to others.
My beautiful sis, Sara Richardson Roque, died today at sunrise.
Her generosity, creativity, fierceness, brilliance and laughter inspired so many in the arts and beyondโฆMay her vision live on and may her journey be peaceful.
Grateful for the compassionate care provided by
Snapshot from the frontline:
I am covering for a colleague with covid. There are residents off with covid. We are admitting patients with covid. Have encountered many with long covid.
This virus continues to cause major disruption in our healthcare system.
#MaskUp
The fact that several elected political leaders in Canada are openly supporting a movement whose alleged leader uses phrases like โdepopulation of the Caucasian raceโ and the need for the โprocreation of Anglo-Saxonsโ is haunting me.
I held up my hospital badge a few times to get through the convoy crowd on my way to work and must have seemed pretty no-nonsense in my mask and my mukluks because people literally moved out of the way.
My loved one is immunosuppressed and just left the cancer centre after receiving treatment. The idea that they may have been cared for by a person who is not vaccinated--IV insertion, physical examination, close monitoring during infusion--is distressing.
Being an Indigenous woman, girl or gender-diverse person is not a risk factor for experiencing violence. The risk factors are misogyny and colonialism and their complex intersections.
Next time you hear a land acknowledgement, please remember that acknowledging the land where one is standing does not make up for the history that it was taken from Indigenous people.
Imagine if Indigenous people got to take a day off on Sept 30 and allies spent the day at work creating policies to hire and support more Indigenous people, create environments where they are valued and hold organizations and individuals accountable for anti-Indigenous racism.
For those who are tweeting at me that residential schools existed decades ago, a reminder that there are people who are now 30 years old who were there.
There is a huge amount of collective trauma and grief today across the country due to this discovery.
May the families, their nations and all survivors of residential schools be surrounded by love and support.
#AllOurRelations
I learned a new concept in a meeting today called โsanctuary traumaโ. It refers to when people enter an institution where they expect healing and instead experience trauma and hurt.
It is frustrating to be told to discharge patients more quicklyโas though we are inefficient and hold patients in hospital longer than necessaryโby leaders and administrators who have no clinical background.
Kind of tired of people who do not work in the hospital describing what is happening here and debating how to categorize covid admissions.
Is there such a thing as a hospital-embedded position for politicians and policymakers? Happy to have them join me on rounds.
I try not to be a relativist but the inquest of
#joyce
, the stories of IUDs being inserted into young Indigenous girls and the unearthing of the remains of 215 children at a residential schoolโone who was only 3 years oldโshould bring reconciliation into focus for everyone.
Here is a way to ask about a personโs cultural background during a medical history (from Diane Longboat)โwith a. specific purpose rather than as just data-gathering:
โAre there any practices from your culture or background that will help with your healing right now?โ
I am no longer going to participate in โadvisoryโ committees (vs. decision-making ones.) You can advise and advise and advise and see no change or accountability to the input, ideas, expertise, guidance, feedback and time spent.
I heard a new term yesterday that describes a common form of racism experienced by Indigenous people in the healthcare system: acts of omission. It is when basic elements of care like history-taking, physical examinations, testing, referrals and consultations are not done.
I went down a Twitter rabbit hole and came upon some very problematic comments about my friend and colleague,
@BogochIsaac
. Isaac is a phenomenal leader and educator, and I want to acknowledge all of the work that he has done and continues to do during this pandemic.
Today is Red Dress Day. It is a day when we honour missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls & gender diverse people. We remember & uplift them. We support their loved ones. We recognize this disproportionate violence as a national tragedy. We advocate for change.
#MMIWG2S
In the 1960s, the Ministry of Natural Resources burned the homes of Anishinaabe families in order to expand Killarney Provincial Park.
There should be a reconciliation plaque at every entrance to acknowledge this story.
Many other parks in Canada have similar histories.
For healthcare workers who ask themselves why they are so tired at the end of the week, I would reframe the question to: what is wrong with the system that leads to this kind of exhaustion and burnout?
My day started today with a quiet ceremony to smudge 125 Moderna vaccines prior to administering them to Elders & community members at Wigwamen Terrace, an Indigenous retirement home in T.O. Huge congrats to
@anishnawbe
Mobile Healing Unit & collaborators from
@WCHospital
!
When 50 percent of a remote FN community gets
#covid
, itโs a reminder that structural factors like housing, heating, running water and healthcare access are critical social determinants of health.
The normalization of poor health outcomes and gaps in health for Indigenous peoples over decades in Canada is one of the most insidious forms of systemic racism that exists here.
The
#covid
mortality numbers are so abstract until you experience the loss of a loved one. And then they become so visceral and painful and you feel the cruelty of this virus in such a concrete way.
My family is mourning the loss of a giant in our lives today.
One of my heartbreaking observations during the past few months: I have diagnosed too many people of all ages with an advanced stage of cancer--likely due to screening delays, fears about accessing care during
#covid
, major life stressors during the pandemic...
At some point, we need to stop giving media and social attention to a very small group of people who are flying a flag of hate and sending hateful messages. Protesting is fine but hate speech is not.
Our whole organization just received an email message from the hospital CEO to cancel all non-essential meetings over the next two weeksโboth to help us focus on
#covid
care and also to protect our physical and mental health. Very appreciated.
Many physicians I know are experiencing burnout and there is an exodus of nurses from the profession. So hearing the shouts of anti-vaxx protesters outside the hospital over the last few days seems surreal.
If wave 1 for health care workers was fuelled by adrenaline and wave 2 by confidence (โwe got thisโ), wave 3 is underpinned by emotional, mental and physical exhaustion. We need to look after/out for one another more than ever.
Today and every day:
Honour the lives of those lost at residential school and the stories and experiences of survivors and their families.
Commit to ongoing learning about the truth and to advocacy for reconciliation and healing.
#EveryChildMatters
๐งก
Please ask yourself today what you will do to advance truth and reconciliation in Canada because if you are not acting for change, you are upholding colonialism.
In case people are wondering why I am tweeting while I am on call at the hospital, it is because I try to take a break every few hours, sit down in an empty room, take off my N95 mask and drink a lot of water. Itโs easy to forget this basic aspect of self-care.
Making false equivalencies โ like comparing hate speech and behaviours to the protests in support of Indigenous peoples and survivors of residential schools โ is a common tactic used to justify racism.
Manitoba MP Candice Bergen says focusing on Nazi flags at convoy protest is akin to honing in on the toppling of the Queen Victoria statue during the mostly peaceful Winnipeg march for residential-school reconciliation last Canada Day
You can send out beautiful messages of support and have everyone wear orange shirts tomorrow but it doesnโt really matter if your org is not committed to action for truth & reconciliation. And the heavy lifting & emotional labour should not be carried solely by Indigenous people.
What is the legal risk to school boards if they have not supported the needs of children with disabilities who are at risk of severe
#covid
infection? Have any been challenged on this yet?
The irony of the new stat federal holiday devoted to reconciliation is that civil servants with gov of Canada will get the day off but many Indigenous people working in other sectors will not.
I am going to remove the qualifier โmicroโ from the phrase micro-aggression because while the behaviour or language or act that it refers to may seem small, the impact usually is not.
Systemic racism is ignoring data that shows BIPOC communities have high rates of covid.
Epistemic racism is not listening to communities who know the solutions.
Structural racism is a lack of supports to vaccinate.
Interpersonal racism is hate towards those who speak up.
George Armstrong, who died today at age 90, was the first player of Indigenous descent to score in the NHL (back in 1951). He was also the longest-serving Leafs captain. Love this photo.
Today is Red Dress Day. It is a day when we honour missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls & gender diverse people. We remember & uplift them. We support their families. We recognize this disproportionate violence as a national tragedy. We advocate for change.
#MMIWG2S
I think that our whole team felt very emotional when we were each gifted a beautiful pair of moccasins from Sandy Lake FN.
The generosity of the community was overwhelming and their organization and commitment to the vaccine program are a model for health leaders everywhere.
Acknowledging the trauma experienced by so many after the weekendโwitnessing Nazi flags after the recent events in Texas, the Confederate flag as we begin Black History Month and the mocking of Indigenous ceremony after last weekโs discovery of more children lost in the IRSS.
I now use the โsend laterโ function on my email so that people do not feel obligated to respond outside of working hours for non-urgent matters. I am hoping this becomes a routine practice for those of us who happen to correspond at unconventional times.
I strongly dislike the phrase โspeaking up for a person or community who does not have a voice.โ Rather than speak for, what about creating structures where voices can be heard and guidance can be acted upon?
Many people have expressed solidarity with Indigenous people right now which is so important. But hard for me not to wonder: where will they be next month/year/decade?
Reconciliation is a longterm commitment.
When I turned on the TV tonight, I happened to see my friend/colleague,
@BogochIsaac
. He is the pandemicโs Eveready bunny: tireless and unflappable. Thank you for all that you do, Isaac.
Heart-melting moment: when your teenage son who is now almost 6 feet tall bends over to give you a Motherโs Day hug and says in a deep voice, โI love you, Mamaโ...then gives you a beautiful hand-drawn card.
The cognitive dissonance of being hesitant to get a covid vaccine but subsequently wanting any available therapy to treat the infection highlights to me how terrible it is to struggle for breath.
The word โChiefโ was formally removed from the titles of executives at
@WCHospital
yesterday.
In the context of the hospitalโs significant commitment to
@WCHIndigenous
& Indigenous health, it was a powerful symbolic act. Thank you to all who led this work.
The next time I am at a code blue resuscitation and the patient does not survive, I want to ask the team to pause for a moment of silence to honour the life of the person who has died.
An example of structural racism is when an institutionโs anti-racism policy has to be vetted, adapted and approved by the very processes that perpetuate structural racism in the first place.
I often wonder if my male colleagues who speak up about health equity have to spend as much time modulating their tone of voice, presentation style and language choice so that they are not perceived as angry?
The phrase vaccine hesitancy in reference to Black & Indigenous people implies that itโs an individual problem rather than a response to years of mistreatment & unethical conduct in research & health care. It needs a structural solution: communities leading vaccination programs.
The anti-vaccination movement seems to be a well-organized network with communication campaigns, outreach to hospitalized patients and rallies to foment mistrust. An organized response to it is needed and is very distinct from the need for ongoing vaccine education and outreach.
I cannot emphasize this message enough. Our inpatient units are full. Our ERs are full. Our ICUs are full.
Please wear a mask, practice distancing, stay in your bubble, wash your hands and be safe.
Learnings from Indigenous vaccine clinics: introduce yourself, create space for traditional practices like smudging, do not rush, build in time for dialogue, care for the whole person rather than focus just on vaccination, understand the impact of trauma & racism in healthcare.
In addition to the encouraging example of Israel, we can see the effectiveness of vaccines closer to home in data from Indigenous Services Canada about newly reported cases of
#covid
in First Nations communities (on reserve):
Jan 10-16: 2519 cases
Apr 11-17: 50 cases
I have received gifts like sacred medicines, invitations to ceremony, moccasins & many expressions of deep gratitude. Having now vaccinated 100s of Indigenous people, I have observed lots of vaccine confidence when implementation is done or guided by Indigenous orgs & leaders.
We are living in a time when sharing knowledge about vaccines and speaking out against racism and discrimination make a person a target for hate and threats to personal and family security.
I am grounding myself in the teachings of respect and love and of courage and honesty.
We were told to look out for anti-mask protesters who might try to enter the hospital today. All was fine but I just ran into them storming the grocery store on my way home.
I was in tears as I walked home thinking about patients with
#covid
and those who have died from it.
If there is an exhausted employee sitting in an office in the Ministry of Health trying to procure rapid tests and PCR tests and then create a plan to distribute them quickly and fairly, how can we help you?
Blaming a
#covid
outbreak in a nursing home on staff โnon-complianceโ with IPAC processes misses the structural analysis: understaffing due to hiring practices, low wage/low job security/high risk roles & a focus on profit rather than providing high quality care for elders.
I want to acknowledge what it means when an Olympian speaks about mental health with the same candour as they speak about a physical injury. This is huge. ๐๐ผto Simon Biles for your leadership.
People have known the stories of those who were lost at residential schools for a long time and many were not believed. But as knowledge keepers remind us, the land never lies.
I have noticed a guardedness amongst some in
#MedEd
to speak anout racism because it is โtoo politicalโ.
But racism structures heath outcomes. And to ignore it is to contribute to health inequities.
We were asked today during a plenary panel presentation to describe a significant challenge as a leader. My response:
Working in a system which is hierarchical, transactional & individualistic while having a worldview which is non-hierarchical, relational & collaborative.
I am really excited for the time when people from groups currently underrepresented in medicine will be leading in many roles rather than being called upon to advise leaders about diversity.
After days of stories about the treatment of children at residential schools, we learn of a man who killed a family based on Islamophobia & of the sentencing of another who threw a trailer hitch at an Indigenous womanโs head.
The construction of the Other is deadly.
Equity work is not just about cheerleading or speaking out. It involves the heavy, messy and uncomfortable work of dismantling programs, structures, systems, practices, etc. In my experience, this is often taken on by people who do so very quietly and with humility.
Reconciliation is not a performance. It is a deep commitment โ including personal/institutional reflexivity and appropriate resources to support transformative change.
Just received a big compliment from my daughter (an undergrad student in the humanities) who said that I have managed to remain a disruptive thinker even though I am โmedium-agedโ.
Quote shared with me recently by a friend (& strong woman):
"Dear strong woman,
You are not intimidating,
They are intimidated.
There is a difference."