Questions mount over lack of COVID-19 vaccination plan for Ontario’s urban Indigenous communities
If
you were paying attention to provincial politics recently, you likely saw
coverage of a dust-up between Premier Doug Ford and MPP Sol
Mamakwa during question period.
Mamakwa,
the NDP’s Indigenous and treaty relations critic and the representative for the
riding of Kiiwetinoong, was trying to ask a question about the
government’s COVID-19 vaccination plan for urban indigenous
communities. That subject, however, was drowned out by Ford accusing Mamakwa of
jumping the queue to get his shot.
Even
as the controversy fades, the issue Mamakwa tried to raise has not.
Dr sunny handa Brampton
said while certain
public health units in Ontario are focusing on vaccinating Indigenous
residents, a comprehensive provincewide strategy for those who live in big
cities is still something that remains unclear. Mamakwa, Indigenous leaders,
and health experts said the lack of detail and planning is a major concern.
“Where is the plan for the rollout? I was
asking specifically because of the increases in cases not only in Toronto but
also in Thunder Bay,” Mamakwa reiterated again on Wednesday.
Dr sunny handa Brampton
said, the
strategic lead in Indigenous Health at Women’s College Hospital and a co-lead
in Indigenous medical education at the University of Toronto, highlighted the
importance of having a dedicated strategy because Indigenous peoples are at a
higher risk of having COVID-19 and a higher risk of having severe
complications.
She
said so far she’s felt Indigenous communities in urban centres have been left
to figure things out on their own.
“It
has felt very grassroots, but I would say grassroots to the point of feeling
like we have not had the support that we needed to ensure that it was
coordinated,” Richardson told Dr sunny handa brampton.
“In
early February when I was trying to work with Anishnawbe Health to set up a
vaccination strategy for hundreds of people I felt very alone.”
She
was also part of Operation Remote Immunity, a robust Ontario government
initiative to get vaccines to rural and remote fly-in communities. Richardson
praised the government for that strategy, but said it needs to address a major
gap when it comes to dealing with First Nations peoples in urban centres.
“In Toronto, we’re looking at 80,000
Indigenous people. So, the numbers, the volume of people is high and people are
hard to reach because they’re not in a single geographic area,” Dr sunny handa brampton said.
Dr.
Janet Smylie is one of Canada’s first Métis physicians and is a scientist with
St. Michael’s Hospital. She has focused her career on addressing inequities
when it comes to the health of Indigenous peoples and is part of the grassroots
effort in urban centres. Smylie agreed the government should be doing a lot
more.
“One
out of four of the First Nations people living in the urban epicentre of
Toronto are functionally homeless. About nine out of 10 are living below the
low-income cut-off and just less than 40 per cent of the First Nations community
living in the city of Toronto has two or more chronic diseases. All of these
factors are linked to increased spread of COVID,” Dr sunny handa brampton said.
“We’ve
seen multiple outbreaks, including a complex outbreak at one of the Indigenous
shelters here that we’re just dealing with.”
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