Undoubtedly, there are occasions when we cannot find the right word to use, use the wrong one or are at a total loss of words. To some people and in some situations, such a word error may be seen as no big deal. However, this may not be the case, as Lorna Kay Thomas discusses in her blog post, “A Small Victory: Changing the CBC’s use of “drug abuser.”
With efforts being made to address the many Indigenous health issues in Canada, the recommendations put forth by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the high suicide rate in some Indigenous communities, a text sent out by an Alberta Health Services employee has generated much anger and disappointment.
According to an article found on the CBCNews Calgary website,
An Alberta Health Services employee has been suspended after using a racial slur in a text message to refer to a Kainai Board of Education school principal.
The texts sent by the AHS employee on Monday refer to a colleague apparently being disciplined during a training event on the Kainai First Nation, also known as the Blood Tribe First Nation, which is southwest of Lethbridge and about 200 km south of Calgary.
However, the AHS employee accidentally sent the texts to an employee at the Kainai Board of Education.
Ramona Big Head — principal of Tatsikiisaapo’p Middle School in Stand Off — said she’s referred to in one of the texts as a “rabid squaw.”
Click here to read the full CBC story.
Here is a follow-up article pertaining to the above story.
For many people, going to the doctor’s office can be a stressful, anxiety generating, uncomfortable experience. One can only imagine what an indigenous individual would feel upon entering his/her doctor’s office and being greeted by sign that said the following:
“Attention: native patients please don’t ask for tranquilizers or pain medications.”
Maxine Ginnish, who works at the Rising Sun Healing Centre, and took a photograph of the note posted at her doctor’s office is seeking an apology. Click here to read the full story.
When one hears the word seniors, oft time images arise in one’s mind of someone who is frail, bent over due to osteoporosis, listless and lethargic, confused and lacking in mobility. Not surprisingly, such assumptions and stereotypes affect how we see and treat seniors.
Recognizing this, Michelle Gibson, a professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, challenges her first-year medical students’ assumptions of seniors and geriatric medicine through the use of You Tube videos. According to Gibson, “All the videos are of “regular” seniors- not famous folk, by design. I will only show videos where seniors are treated like adults, with respect. (This means there are many news interviews I won’t use, sadly, because they often have a patronizing ‘yes dear’ tone to them that I can’t stand.)”
Below is one of the video Gibson uses in her class.
Click here to read Gibson’s article and watch some more of her videos.
