OTTAWA — Forced sterilizations of Indigenous women are reprehensible and must immediately be stopped, says Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde. “It is wrong, it is immoral, it is a gross violation of human rights and this dehumanizing practice must stop,” Bellegarde said in an interview. “We’ve heard from various additional women who are reporting having been forcibly sterilized, Indigenous women, and actually non-Indigenous women who are coming forward reporting they have witnessed Indigenous women being pressured into forced sterilization,” Lombard said. Indigenous women deserve to be respected in the medical system and to be treated with empathy and fairness like any other Canadian, she added. “For this historic act to continue happening in this day and age … Indigenous women are not feeling safe in Canada,” she said.

Source: National Post November 14, 2018 20:46 UTC