I have always seen Canada’s Health Care system as a blessing and one of the best in the world. Both free and equal access were some of the main benefits. One hears stories about US citizens having to skip badly needed surgery since they could not afford it. This has never been a question in Canada. My image of our perfect health care system suddenly collapsed during our recent Youth Empowerment Support (YES) Group meeting.
Through allyship and good working relationships, the YES group is seeking ways to collaborate, support and empower Indigenous youth. We were in the process of discussing our goals for 2022 when one of our members, Karen shared a personal story. She worked as a teacher in Pikangikum, a remote First Nation community in northwestern Ontario. She contracted pneumonia and ended up with a collapsed lung. Fortunately, she was flown out to Thunder Bay where she was in intensive care for ten days, received proper treatment and survived. As an Ontario resident and Canadian citizen, she was covered by OHIP.
One of her co-workers, a young and bright Indigenous teacher trained in early childhood education also had pneumonia. She kept going to the nursing station daily for over a week hoping to get treatment. She was told that she wasn’t sick enough to be flown out for treatment and to go home and ride it out. Her home was heated with firewood which was woefully inadequate to help her recover. Sadly, she passed away without receiving treatment even though she followed protocol and trusted the system.
Karen, later asked her father who was employed by Ontario Works why he did not drive her to Red Lake Hospital, a two-hour ride from Pikangikum. He said that there was no guarantee that she would be treated there.
It makes me wonder how many more Indigenous people will die due to lack of treatment before our governments will take action to provide equal healthcare to Canada’s Indigenous.
After hearing Karen’s personal story, The YES Group decided to add “Advocacy for equal health care for all Indigenous people” as one of their 2022 goals.