Canada Police Won't Investigate Dr, Sterilized Inuit Woman w/o Consent, Acted In Her 'Best Interest'

Canadian police won’t investigate doctor for sterilizing Indigenous woman, AP News, Sept. 27, 2023.

The Canadian government says it is urgently trying to end the forced sterilization of Indigenous women, describing the practice as a human rights violation and a prosecutable offense. Yet police say they will not pursue a criminal investigation into a recent case in which a doctor apologized for his “unprofessional conduct” in sterilizing an Inuit woman.

In July, The Associated Press reported on the case of an Inuit woman in Yellowknife who had surgery in 2019 aimed at relieving her abdominal pain. The obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr. Andrew Kotaska, did not have the woman’s consent to sterilize her, and he did so over the objections of other medical personnel in the operating room. She is now suing him.

“This is a pivotal case for Canada because it shows that forced sterilization is still happening,” said Dr. Unjali Malhotra, of the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia. “It’s time that it be treated as a crime.” Kotaska declined to comment to the AP. Last month, he released a public apology, acknowledging the sterilization “caused suffering for my patient.” He said he was acting in what he thought was the woman’s best interest.

The Canadian government has said that anyone who commits forced sterilization could be subject to assault charges and that police are responsible for deciding whether to proceed with criminal investigations. But the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they would not be investigating Kotaska, because the woman hasn’t filed a criminal complaint...https://apnews.com/article/canada-indigenous-women-sterilization-5a0ecfc3897ce4fc663281c40dc31f37