Deep Cuts: A special compilation of The Current's Facing Race town hall series

B.C. Nurses Union's Diane Lingren on Indigenous people and health care

7 years ago

Duration 1:27

B.C. Nurses Union's Diane Lingren on Indigenous people and health care

Earlier this year, The Current travelled across the country — from Vancouver, to Montreal, to Halifax — to discuss the most pressing issues of race and racism in a series of town halls. 

Still captured by what they heard, the show's team has compiled the most powerful moments from all three conversations into a radio special for any who may have missed it, and all those looking to continue the dialogue. 

Halifax

 

In Nova Scotia, Anna Maria Tremonti spoke to community members living in the southern tip of Shelburne, who say environmental racism contributed to a toxic dump being put in their backyards in the 1950s.

"The dump was afire all the time, and when it was burning the smoke was so thick it was like fog," recalled 67-year-old south Shelburne resident Louise Delisle.

"It's in our community, and it's not in the other community. The north end is where the white settlers or the white people live. This is where the black people live."

Delisle is among many who believe that pollution from the dump has contributed to high rates of cancer in south Shelburne.

"A majority of men in my father's generation have all died of cancers. And the majority of people that are dying of cancer are dying of multiple myeloma ... It is a rare cancer. For it to be in such a large cluster in such a small spot is very suspicious."

After significant community pressure, the dump closed in 2016. But health concerns persist, including how toxic runoffs may affect Shelburne's water supply.

"We don't know if [the dump] has been closed properly. We don't know what's seeping into the ground. You're looking at years and years of chemicals and garbage," says Delisle.

• 'Call it what it is — white ignorance': Gentrification frays the social fabric in Halifax's North End
• #MeToo (but not you): Black women are being left out of the conversation on violence, says El Jones
• Facing Race: The Current's town hall event in Halifax

Vancouver

In Vancouver, Piya Chattopadhyay spoke to Indigenous nurses on the frontlines of healthcare about the impact racism has had on themselves and their patients.

"There's just such a huge discrepancy… I see [Indigenous people] get taken away in the police cars and I've often tried to intervene and explain that 'my patient has residential school survivor — please don't tie them up,'" said Diane Lingren, the provincial chair for the Aboriginal leadership Caucus of the B.C. Nurses Union.

"But no. I'm told by the RCMP that they are doing that for 'their own protection.'"

Beyond access to care, Lingren told Chattopadhyay that bias among medical professionals is a barrier to appropriate treatment for Canada's indigenous people as well. 

"Two [surgeons] come to mind who have openly stated — and actually give an education to the nurses in the surgical unit — about how Indigenous people have different pain receptors and do not need the same level of narcotics for surgeries," she said.

•  'You don't belong here': Integrating Indigenous 'cultural humility' into health care

• 'It has eaten a hole in my heart': Indigenous nurses call out systemic racism with life-or-death consequences

Chattopadhyay also spoke to Byron Cruz, an outreach worker with Sanctuary Health in Vancouver. Migrant workers call him when they need medical help but are worried they could lose their jobs for visiting a doctor or hospital.

"We work with people with precarious immigration status," said Cruz. "It's precarious because ... temporary workers do not have the right to work with other employers. If they are abused on a farm, they cannot change to another."

• 'The unspoken ones': How race and culture complicate Asian-Canadians' access to mental health care
• Facing Race: The Current's town hall event in Vancouver

Montreal 

At the last town hall in Montreal, The Current had a frank conversation with a former skinhead, Maxime Fiset, who co-founded the right-wing extremist group la Fédération des Québécois de souche in 2007.

"Nobody joins a far-right group because they're happy," Fiset told CBC's Duncan McCue.

"It really is something that you do because you feel some unease about the world."

But after Fiset started to see the world differently after he got a job, met people from different walks of life, and had a daughter.

"If you feel it does not make sense, it doesn't mean that there's no sense," he said. "It might just mean that you're wrong."

• 'Had we known you were Muslim, not sure we would have hired you': Workers face discrimination in Quebec

• 'We shouldn't be begging to exist': Audience members share their stories

Fiset is now a consultant for Montreal's Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence and works to de-radicalize people who shared the views he once had.

Regarding a successful intervention, Fiset says: "The best case would be for such a person to renounce 'essentialization' — seeing a group as a unified thing, and giving each member of these group the characteristics that we think belong to the group. It's the base of racism."

Listen to full special at the top of this post, or check out the full series: Facing Race: Your life. Your stories. Your identity.

This compilation was produced by The Current's Pacinthe Mattar.