Racism Has No Place in Health Care

December 01, 2020

BCNU is ready to work with the province and employers to address Indigenous-specific racism in BC's health-care system

BCNU is calling on the province and health employers to implement all of the recommendations contained in yesterday's report, In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in BC Health Care.

The report, authored by a review team led by independent reviewer Dr. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, is based on a five-month survey of the province's health-care system that heard from more than 9,000 people.

The report finds that there is extensive profiling of Indigenous patients based on stereotypes about substance use, and that widespread systemic racism against Indigenous peoples exists in the health-care system, resulting in a range of negative impacts, harm, and even death.

BCNU supports the report's call for an equitable health-care system that is culturally safe and based on the recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples as articulated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and affirmed through the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act passed by the BC government in November 2019.

The union also supports immediate, principled and comprehensive efforts to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against Indigenous peoples.

Many of the report's findings are based on the review's Health Workers' Survey and substantiate concerns BCNU has been raising for many years now about the racism and discrimination Indigenous health-care workers have reported in their work environments.

As a union, BCNU is committed to fairness, equity and establishing safe workplaces. We have been working with health employers and the provincial government to address workplace psychological health and safety and establish standards that protect nurses from harmful behaviours that could stem from or are enabled by systemic racism in the workplace.

Unions have a vital role to play in confronting this historic injustice and creating positive change. We are ready to work with all parties to establish a renewed foundation that properly addresses the legacy of colonialism in the health-care system.