Nearly four years after finding at least 22 Indigenous women that had gone through forced sterilization in Quebec, a group of researchers now says that number is much higher — and they’re asking the government to take its report seriously.

In 2022, the researchers at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscaminque (UQAT) collected the testimonies of 35 First Nation and Inuit women as part of the first phase of a report that looks into obstetric and gynecological violence — including imposed sterilizations — endured by Indigenous women.

The 22 cases of imposed sterilizations documented in the research’s first phase took place between 1980 and 2019.

The second phase covers a much longer time period: 1956 to 2023. Including this latest phase, the research is now based on 132 testimonies. The total of documented cases of forced sterilization now stands at 77.

The study’s lead author is Suzy Basile, an Atikamekw scholar who holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous women’s issues.

Here are some key takeaways from this latest report.

Understanding who was affected — and how

According to the report, testimony was gathered from the Innu/Naskapi, Eeyu, Atikamekw and the Anishinaabe nation.

The report classifies obstetric and gynecological violence (OGV) into three categories:

• Verbal, emotional and psychological OGV.
• Physical and sexual OGV.
• Ethnic-based discriminatory OGV.

The women who took part in this research project vary widely in terms of their age at the time of their interviews as well as how old they were at the time they experienced some form of OGV.

The youngest victim was 15 at the time of the events; the oldest was 40. One woman was 90 years old at the time of the interview, according to the report.

WATCH | First Nations leadership calls for government apology:

New report reveals decades of obstetrical violence against Indigenous women in Quebec

A new report reveals that more than half of the 132 Indigenous women interviewed in Quebec were sterilized without their consent. The findings detail decades of obstetrical violence and systemic racism, prompting Indigenous leadership to demand a formal government apology.

The report published excerpts of several interviews with women, whose names weren’t published. In one case, the report highlights, a woman recalled being made to sign a consent form in 2022 for tubal ligation, which is the procedure commonly referred to as getting one’s tubes tied.

It was two days after the procedure had been done.

The researchers say another woman told them about being urged to abort her child, against her wishes, because the health-care staff told her the child would have severe health issues. She resisted — and the child was ultimately healthy.

The report highlights that many of the women interviewed only found out about the sterilization procedures years after the fact.

Last fall, about 30 Atikamekw women alleging forced sterilizations came forward as part of a class-action lawsuit targeting three doctors and the regional health authority for the province’s Lanaudière region.

Recommandations and the notion of systemic racism

The report includes 17 recommendations for First Nations organizations, the provincial and federal governments as well as Quebec’s college of physicians.

It says First Nations groups should take steps to ensure women and girls are more aware of “their right to report ill-treatment experienced before, during, or after childbirth, or for any other reason during gynecological or medical consultations related to their pregnancy.”

The report also says those groups should establish a monitoring system to better document OGV cases.

As for recommendations specifically targeting the provincial and federal governments, here are some of them:

• Governments should recognize the existence of systemic discrimination in Quebec health care.
• Governments should issue a formal apology to women who have experienced OGV.
• Establish a moratorium on “the destruction of medical records that may belong to First Nations people.”

The authors point out certain limitations of the research.

The report states they tried unsuccessfully to reach all First Nations in Quebec. It also acknowledges they could not conduct investigations into medical records, whether personal or institutional, during the second phase of the research.

“The primary objective of this research was to demonstrate that OGVs and [imposed sterilizations] were indeed practised in Quebec, by giving a voice to Indigenous women and thereby making their stories accessible,” the report reads.