‘They had no right’: Inuit women recount experiences past and present of forced sterilization


While a national organization seeks to trace cases of forced sterilization of indigenous peoples throughout Canada, Inuit women in the north say that the practice is not over.

Karen Couperthwaite, who lives in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL, delivered her second child through caesarean section nine years ago. At that time, he said he requested tubal ligation, a surgical process that would link his fallopian tubes and avoid future pregnancies.

When his family decided to have a third son, he made an appointment to reverse the ligation.

It was then that he said that he discovered that his tubes had not been tied, they had been removed instead. His doctor made the discovery while reading notes in his medical archive of the surgeon who performed the operation, he said.

“I had to news that I didn’t have my fallopian tubes to try to conceive naturally,” he said. “It is very shocking and harmful, and the sting is still with me despite the fact that two years have passed.”

Couperthwaite was recorded in the survival circle for reproductive justice, a non -profit organization launched in 2024 that helps survivors and defenders of reproductive justice for the peoples of first nations, Inuit and Métis.

It is building a record to serve as an official registration of forced sterilization in Canada.

Claudette Dumont, the co -president of the circle of survivors for reproductive justice, said that “eliminating the ability of a woman to have children is a very, very serious injustice.”

“These women are traumatized. They continue to suffer. They were suffering in silence, and this must be addressed,” he said.

That is why the organization held a meeting in Quebec in early March, where registered survivors could share their experiences from each other; Some of those experiences were more recent, such as CoupertHwaite, while others happened decades ago.

An example of coercion

Cecilia Papak, who lives in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, told CBC News that he was considering registering in the organization.

He gave birth to his daughter while he was on a plane from Whale Cove, Nunavut, to Winnipeg. She said she was sent back to Whale Cove, her home at that time, but she was finally a medicality to the south because she continued to have a bad bleeding.

There, he said, a doctor told him that he should stop having children. She rejected surgery at that time. She said doctors kept telling her that if she had more children, she couldn’t see her children grow up and not know her grandchildren.

“It was very difficult for me to accept that,” he said.

“I wanted to see my children grow, so I had no choice but to accept the surgery they offered me because I can’t live much if I still have children.”

Now, Papak says he is happy to have grandchildren, but he would never be able to undergo surgery.

‘They were not right’

Alice Simik, who also lives in Rankin Inlet, recalls the moment when, as a preteen, his mother Annie Alout told him that he had performed the tubal ligation procedure in 1970. Simik said his mother only learned of six years later, when a doctor, a nurse and an interpreter asked him if he wanted his tubes.

Alice Simik remembers the moment when, as preteen, her mother told her that she had performed the tubal ligation procedure in 1970. Simik said her mother only learned six years later when she was asked if she wanted the process to reversed. (Sent by Alice Simik)

“I felt hurt by her,” Simik recalls.

Simik said women and their own bodies should decide when it is time to stop having children.

“They had no right to tie their tubes.”

Couperthwaite said he was surprised when he realized that he was not the only one who was sterilized against his will, that his situation was not a case of one in every million.

“How can you, you know, almost interpret God with someone’s body and someone’s future and not even feel the need to inform them of something that changes their lives and that changes life?” Couperthwaite said.

Couperthwaite said he has been sharing the website of the Circle of Survivors with other women who have told him about similar experiences of sterilizing. She wants you to know that there is support available if they need it.



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