‘The process is not complete’: Mtis physician calls CMA apology a step toward reconciliation [Video]

A Métis physician who works in the Northwest Territories says change must follow the Canadian Medical Association’s apology to Indigenous people.

“It’s important … that they [the CMA] are involved with trying to right some of those past harms. It [the apology] is a step along that process. But the process is not complete,” said Dr. Thomsen D’Hont.  

The CMA said Wednesday it regrets its role in the decades of harm inflicted on First Nations, Inuit and Métis people within the Canadian health-care system. 

“As an association, our purpose is to support the medical profession and create a more sustainable, accessible and equitable health system for all patients and providers. In failing to address systemic anti-Indigenous racism in health care, we have failed to fulfil this purpose,” said CMA president Dr. Joss Reimer, who presented the association’s official apology during a ceremony in Victoria. 

In anticipation of the ceremony, the CMA said it has reviewed 150 years of archives, chronicling systemic and overt …