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There is a TB crisis in Nunavut at this very moment. Crisis affecting 14 communities & many children :Stephen Lewis aidsfreeworld.org/commentary/201…
"What became painfully evident was that TB is driven by the social determinants of health. Time and again, we heard of food insecurity..."
"...we heard of excruciating poverty, we heard of mental health, but above all, over and over and over again we heard about housing."- Lewis
"Not only is there a desperate shortage, not only are many units in dreadful disrepair, but the overcrowding has to be seen to be believed."
"And with overcrowding comes the transmission of TB. " -Stephen Lewis must-read report on #Tuberculosis in the North.
“I sometimes wonder, given the unrelieved history of the oppression of Indigenous Canadians — how they sleep at night in Ottawa." -Lewis
"They all reflected on one chapter of Inuit history that is largely unknown yet it ranks w/ the horror of res schools, MMIW & 60s Scoop..."
"In the 1950/60’s, the C.D. Howe ‘hospital ship’ sailed the Arctic, screening Inuit for TB & taking anyone w/TB to be treated in the south."
"Many Elders spoke with piercing, eviscerating intensity about their own trips when they were children. They wept unashamedly."
"They were the narratives of nightmares. Mothers, fathers were wrenched heartlessly from families. They disappeared, some never to return."
"No, my issue is with the Federal Government. I didn’t know that would be the case when I came to Nunavut. I certainly know it now." - Lewis
"I did not realize … & this is my personal shame … that TB in Nunavut was inextricably tied to a form of cultural genocide." -Stephen Lewis
"It is now up to the Minister to persuade Trudeau to enter a new era of dignity & respect towards the Inuit & give his words true meaning."
"I remain hopeful, but with a gnawing skepticism." - Stephen Lewis on TB in Inuit communities in the North & action from federal government.
