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Canadian police won't investigate doctor for sterilizing Indigenous woman (abcnews.go.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The Canadian government says it is urgently trying to end the forced sterilization of Indigenous women, describing the practice as a human rights violation and a prosecutable offense. Yet police say they will not pursue a criminal investigation into a recent case in which a doctor apologized for his “unprofessional conduct” in sterilizing an Inuit woman.

In July, The Associated Press reported on the case of an Inuit woman in Yellowknife who had surgery in 2019 aimed at relieving her abdominal pain. The obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr. Andrew Kotaska, did not have the woman’s consent to sterilize her, and he did so over the objections of other medical personnel in the operating room. She is now suing him.

“This is a pivotal case for Canada because it shows that forced sterilization is still happening,” said Dr. Unjali Malhotra, of the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia. “It’s time that it be treated as a crime.”

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[-] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago

But the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they would not be investigating Kotaska, because the woman hasn't filed a criminal complaint.

[-] [email protected] 47 points 11 months ago

Thats the most insane thing I have read this week. What, so they don't investigate murders because the victim didnt file a complaint either??

[-] [email protected] 48 points 11 months ago

Right. From the article:

Lisa Kelly, who teaches criminal law at Queen’s University in Ontario, said there is no requirement in Canada’s legal system for a victim to participate, if there is other compelling evidence.

“In this case, there is another doctor and nurse, and possibly others, who could provide credible and reliable evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the patient had not consented to the sterilization,” Kelly said.

While police and prosecutors have discretion, Kelly said, they "do not have the discretion to simply turn a blind eye to what appears to be evidence of a serious aggravated assault.”

[-] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

I’m a true crime fan, and The RCMP always seem to crop up in “mystery” type shows. It usually turns out that they’ve been lazy as fuck, only showed up to the crime scene for 15 minutes or so, and wrote down some bullshit excuse before leaving.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Why could that possibly be?

(Hint: The answer is in the article you didn't continue reading the moment you found an excuse for inaction.)

this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023

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