A ROOM WITH A POINT OF VIEW

A SETTLER’S JOURNEY TOWARDS RECONCILIATION

Early years in Canada: Dr Chandrakant Shah with his wife Sudha and two sons.

By DR CHANDRAKANT SHAH

I immigrated to Canada in 1965 and began my journey in this country as an intern in Vancouver General Hospital.

Like most immigrants, I had no knowledge about the Indigenous Peoples in Canada. For almost ten years I never met one, and even if I saw them in the emergency room, it did not register in my mind. The only glimpse of them I had, the only place I “saw” them, was through Westerns, but the movies did not depict who they really were.

However, some sublime forces were working to change that. The late Dr. Geoffrey Robinson, my mentor and a renowned pediatrician, kept gifting me books about the Indigenous Peoples. Guests Never Leave Hungry: The Autobiography of James Sewid and A Kwakiut Indian by James Spradely  being two of them. Upon my departure from Vancouver for Toronto, he gave me a pair of silver Haida cufflinks depicting a totem pole.

He was planting a seed in my heart which germinated a few years later. In 1972, I moved to Toronto as a professor at the University of Toronto’s  newly created department of preventive medicine in the faculty of medicine. As a pediatrician, I was also cross-appointed with the department of pediatrics and the world-renowned Hospital for Sick Children (HSC).

The chief of pediatrics (the late Dr. Harry Bain) had witnessed firsthand the sorry state of healthcare for the Indigenous Peoples living in very remote and isolated First Nations Communities in Northwest Ontario leading to excessive deaths amongst infants and children. Many individuals suffered from acute infections and chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, mental illness, etc.

Moved by these observations, and in collaboration with the federal government, he established a medical hub in the town of Sioux Lookout which attempted to provide services of family doctors and medical consultants to 26 First Nations Communities with a population of 16,000 Indigenous Peoples.

I learned about this program and volunteered my services as a physician. During my visit to these remote communities, I had to fly in small two to four-seater Cessna planes which landed on either water or ice depending on the season as there were no landing strips in many communities.

What did I find in these communities?

Most of these communities had no infrastructure such as potable water, electricity, indoor heating and toilets.

Food and household items at the cooperative store were available at exorbitant prices as they had to be flown in from the south.

Their homes were dilapidated and overcrowded.

Schools were staffed by teachers from the south and a small clinic staffed by nurses and community health workers.

Winters were long and harsh, and summers were short.

However, these communities were tranquil and friendly and had at least one, if not two or three, Christian churches. Initially, I went to these communities at least once a year for one to two weeks and later two to three times a year. When I was there, I not only provided medical services, but did research and a lot of soul searching.

Dr Chandrakant Shah was honoured with a blanket for his work with Canada’s Indigenous communities.

A question arose in my heart: Why is my Canada so indifferent to the plight of Indigenous Peoples – the first inhabitants of this beautiful land?

I read the history of colonization of this land by the British and French, the treaties signed by the Crown, our treaty obligations to them, the impact of residential schools and their long-lasting effects on children and families, the Royal Commission Report on Aboriginal Peoples, the Report of Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and so on. I reflected on these facts. Coming from India and having witnessed the Independence movement, I also could relate with the Indigenous People’s quest for self determination and self-government. Initially, as a first-generation immigrant with a poor command of language and lacking social connections, I felt helpless and hopeless. I was lost!

However, soon realization dawned that as a professor, I had credibility when I spoke or wrote about an issue. I had a voice, which needed to be heard. I had an obligation and social responsibility as a Canadian to make wrong right! My research should address the pressing problems of our society. All I had to do was keep my mind open and when I saw injustice or a need for change, I had to act and not be a mere bystander! I had to speak out because, as someone has said, “silence is violence”.

I decided to act with the tools I had in my toolbox. I will cite a few examples of my actions.

In 1988, my family and I visited Europe. My two sons and I were Canadian citizens, while my wife had retained her Indian citizenship even though she had been in Canada for more than twenty years – a common occurrence amongst first-generation Canadians. She encountered significant difficulties obtaining visas for different countries. Upon returning from our trip, she decided to obtain her Canadian citizenship. To write her citizenship examinations, she had to study two citizenship booklets published by the government of Canada. One day, I happened to read the guide and I was horrified to read what was written about the Indigenous Peoples. It stated:

The Indians and Inuit (also called Eskimos) lived in this country long before it was also known as Canada. They developed many languages and cultures. Their different ways of life developed in relation to the land and vegetation, wildlife and weather unique to different parts of the country. Corn, potatoes and tobacco were first cultivated by natives of America, and they invented the kayak, canoe and snowshoes. – Government of Canada, 1986

Being an immigrant myself, I realized that to develop a harmonious relationship (reconciliation was not in my vocabulary at the time) with the Indigenous Peoples, new Canadians need to know more about them.

I started a one-man letter writing campaign in 1991. I wrote to the ministers of day, leaders in the opposition parties, municipal governments, social organizations, heads of the various Christian churches, Indigenous organizations and so on, asking that the content of the guide be changed to reflect the Indigenous presence in Canada. I suggested that these changes be done in consultation with the Indigenous peoples, and be a part of the citizenship examination.

As a professor, I knew people remember their material if they had to study it for an exam!

I also solicited the head of the citizenship judges who agreed with my suggestions.

It took three years of writing letters and a meeting with the assistant deputy minister of citizenship to change the guide, but finally, the one published in 1994 and subsequent guides included a lot more content about Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

I am proud to say that since the inception of this change, over six million new Canadians know more about Indigenous history, residential schools, treaties, etc. This change preceded the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Recommendation 93: We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with the national Aboriginal organizations, to revise the information kit for newcomers to Canada and its citizenship test to reflect a more inclusive history of the diverse Aboriginal peoples of Canada, including information about the Treaties and history of residential schools.

The next example deals with “unconscious bias” we might carry about individuals or groups. Unconscious bias refers to a bias that we are unaware of, and which happens outside of our control. The presence of such implicit bias among health and social service providers further suggests that it could play a role in healthcare disparities just as it plays a role in differential outcomes elsewhere in society.

In the 1980s as a professor I became aware of such bias towards Indigenous Peoples among undergraduate and graduate learners and researchers at the University of Toronto, healthcare workers in general and the population at large.

Realizing that the voices and “lived experiences” of aboriginal people were missing in curricula contents across health and social sciences faculties, a three-week program “Visiting Lectureship on Native Health” was developed in 1990. The objective of the program was that if present and future healthcare workers were cognizant of aboriginal issues, their services would be more culturally sensitive; if they become policy makers, their policies would be more relevant; and in future they would become advocates for aboriginal people.

The program ran for eleven years (1990-2001); developed a different theme of Indigenous issues each year; and knowledgeable Indigenous speakers from all walks of life were invited from across Canada to deliver classroom sessions at three universities in Toronto; they also provided continuing education sessions to various teaching and community hospitals, health professional groups and delivered public lectures at the university and Toronto City Hall. Evaluation of the program indicated Indigenous speakers were extremely well received and contents of the lectures were valuable; Indigenous speakers rated the utility of program high for their audience and their personal growth. At the end of eleven years, and in 2000, an endowment fund of two million dollars was obtained to establish an Endowed Chair in Indigenous Health and Wellbeing at the University of Toronto, the first of its kind in Canada to hire an Indigenous professor. This initiative was congruent with what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had recommended for education of healthcare professionals to remove their unconscious bias.

During this journey, I realized that I was not as helpless and without hope as I had thought earlier. I was able to carry out many actions as an “ally” for the Indigenous cause. I realized that we all have unique talents and skills we can use to contribute toward Indigenous reconciliation. What many of us lack is conviction and sustained commitment.

To make our Canada truly just, each one of us needs to act towards reconciliation. As Justice Sinclair has said, ‘Reconciliation is not an aboriginal problem, it is a Canadian problem. It involves all of us.’

• Excerpts from a lecture delivered by Dr Chandrakant Shah at Seniors’ College at the University of Toronto on his life experiences, on the lessons learned and the way forward.

Dr Chandrakant Shah has received wide recognition for his work with the Indigenous communities.