True reconciliation

I thank Dr David White, the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) President, for his May President’s Message, “Indigenous health: time for action.”¹ Dr White highlights some important actions by the CFPC in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 2015 calls to action²; for example, he points out the collaboration between the CFPC’s Indigenous Health Working Group and the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada in producing a fact sheet on discrimination and racism toward Indigenous people in the health care system.

As an Indigenous family physician, I hope the CFPC and the medical community might consider even further steps to address the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s calls to action. In 2012 the Government of British Columbia appointed Dr Evan Adams, a Coast Salish family physician, Deputy Provincial Health Officer for Aboriginal Health³; to this day, this is the only such position of its kind, in which Dr Adams has jurisdictional legal powers and can advocate for Indigenous people in British Columbia at the highest provincial level. This is very important. Indigenous people have long sought self-determination, and research has shown it to be a protective factor for health.⁴ Subsequently, Dr Adams has become the Chief Medical Officer of the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia. Interestingly, with the commitment to put Indigenous family physicians in positions of leadership, the people who identify as Indigenous in British Columbia have better health than other Indigenous people in Canada.⁵

I encourage the CFPC, among others, such as medical associations, medical regulatory authorities, health authorities, and provincial ministries of health, in sharing space with their Indigenous colleagues, allowing for a way of true reconciliation.

It is like Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, says, “Reconciliation is not an Aboriginal problem—it is a Canadian problem. It involves all of us.”⁶

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