Chief Andrea Paul, of the Pictou Landing First Nation
Indigenous people sue over alleged Canadian secret medical experiment
First Nation members say in lawsuit that radiologists subjected them to a secret study without their knowledge or consent
Leyland Cecco in Toronto
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan)
Michael MacDonald
The Canadian Press
Updated Feb. 27, 2024 6:45 a.m. MST
HALIFAX -
A Mi'kmaq chief in Nova Scotia has filed a lawsuit against two Halifax radiologists alleging they conducted medical tests on her and other members of the Pictou Landing First Nation(opens in a new tab) without their consent.
In a statement of claim, Andrea Paul says she and other band members agreed in March 2017 to undergo Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans at the QEII Health Sciences Centre(opens in a new tab) in Halifax as part of a research project led by the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds(opens in a new tab).
The claim, filed in Nova Scotia Supreme Court(opens in a new tab) in June 2020 and certified as a class action on Feb. 7, alleges the chief and 60 band members were subjected to additional "secret" scans of their livers without consent.
"Chief Andrea was unaware of the Indigenous study or that she was participating in it," the statement of claim says. "The MRI scans generated data that reveal intimate medical information about her body without her knowledge or consent. She had been singled out for one reason -- she was Mi'kmaq."
Paul, who was the chief of Pictou Landing when she filed the lawsuit, has since become the Assembly of First Nations(opens in a new tab) regional chief for Nova Scotia.
The lawsuit names Dalhousie University(opens in a new tab) radiologists Robert Miller and Sharon Clarke as defendants.
None of the allegations have been proven in court, and Lawyer Harry Thurlow, who represents the two radiologists, said Monday in an email his clients would not be commenting on the court action.
At the time of the MRI testing, both Miller and Clarke were also employed by the Nova Scotia Health Authority in the radiology department of the QEII Health Sciences Centre, the statement of claim says.
Paul learned about the secret testing on June 21, 2018 and later met with Miller and Clarke, who confirmed the unpublished results had been shared with other radiologists at a conference in Halifax, the lawsuit says. The study was titled: "MRI Findings of Liver Disease in an Atlantic Canada First Nation."
The lawsuit says Paul felt betrayed, violated and humiliated by what she was told, knowing the "long history of subjecting Indigenous people in Canada to cruel medical experiments, including starvation studies among children."
"Chief Andera felt powerless, vulnerable and discriminated against because she was Mi'kmaq. She suffered a loss of dignity and self-esteem as a result."
Among other things, the lawsuit alleges the two radiologists are liable for invasion of privacy, acting recklessly and causing distress and anguish. Both are also accused of negligence, unlawful imprisonment and assault and battery for allegedly keeping the participants inside the confined space of the MRI machine for longer than they should have.
As well, the radiologists are accused of failing to immediately advise participants of serious health issues discovered on the additional MRI scans.
"Unfortunately, there is a long history of oppression of Indigenous people in Canada including many instances where Indigenous people were subjected to medical treatment and research against their will and without their consent," the lawsuit says.
"There is an historically and evidentiary based mistrust of the health-care system."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2024.
Michael MacDonald
The Canadian Press
Updated Feb. 27, 2024 6:45 a.m. MST
HALIFAX -
A Mi'kmaq chief in Nova Scotia has filed a lawsuit against two Halifax radiologists alleging they conducted medical tests on her and other members of the Pictou Landing First Nation(opens in a new tab) without their consent.
In a statement of claim, Andrea Paul says she and other band members agreed in March 2017 to undergo Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans at the QEII Health Sciences Centre(opens in a new tab) in Halifax as part of a research project led by the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds(opens in a new tab).
The claim, filed in Nova Scotia Supreme Court(opens in a new tab) in June 2020 and certified as a class action on Feb. 7, alleges the chief and 60 band members were subjected to additional "secret" scans of their livers without consent.
"Chief Andrea was unaware of the Indigenous study or that she was participating in it," the statement of claim says. "The MRI scans generated data that reveal intimate medical information about her body without her knowledge or consent. She had been singled out for one reason -- she was Mi'kmaq."
Paul, who was the chief of Pictou Landing when she filed the lawsuit, has since become the Assembly of First Nations(opens in a new tab) regional chief for Nova Scotia.
The lawsuit names Dalhousie University(opens in a new tab) radiologists Robert Miller and Sharon Clarke as defendants.
None of the allegations have been proven in court, and Lawyer Harry Thurlow, who represents the two radiologists, said Monday in an email his clients would not be commenting on the court action.
At the time of the MRI testing, both Miller and Clarke were also employed by the Nova Scotia Health Authority in the radiology department of the QEII Health Sciences Centre, the statement of claim says.
Paul learned about the secret testing on June 21, 2018 and later met with Miller and Clarke, who confirmed the unpublished results had been shared with other radiologists at a conference in Halifax, the lawsuit says. The study was titled: "MRI Findings of Liver Disease in an Atlantic Canada First Nation."
The lawsuit says Paul felt betrayed, violated and humiliated by what she was told, knowing the "long history of subjecting Indigenous people in Canada to cruel medical experiments, including starvation studies among children."
"Chief Andera felt powerless, vulnerable and discriminated against because she was Mi'kmaq. She suffered a loss of dignity and self-esteem as a result."
Among other things, the lawsuit alleges the two radiologists are liable for invasion of privacy, acting recklessly and causing distress and anguish. Both are also accused of negligence, unlawful imprisonment and assault and battery for allegedly keeping the participants inside the confined space of the MRI machine for longer than they should have.
As well, the radiologists are accused of failing to immediately advise participants of serious health issues discovered on the additional MRI scans.
"Unfortunately, there is a long history of oppression of Indigenous people in Canada including many instances where Indigenous people were subjected to medical treatment and research against their will and without their consent," the lawsuit says.
"There is an historically and evidentiary based mistrust of the health-care system."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2024.
Indigenous people sue over alleged Canadian secret medical experiment
First Nation members say in lawsuit that radiologists subjected them to a secret study without their knowledge or consent
Leyland Cecco in Toronto
THE GUARDIAN
Mon 26 Feb 2024
Members of a First Nation in Canada have launched a lawsuit alleging they were subjected to a secret medical experiment without their consent that left them feeling “violated and humiliated”.
The class-action lawsuit, which was certified by the Nova Scotia supreme court in early February, revives the painful history of Canada conducting medical experiments on Indigenous peoples and the persistent discrimination they continue to face within the country’s healthcare system.
Indigenous reporter fears more journalists will be targeted after arrest as police cleared Canada camp
In a statement of claim, Chief Andrea Paul, the lead plaintiff, says she and 60 other members of the Pictou Landing First Nation participated in an MRI in 2017 for a medical research project administered by the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds.
But after the test finished, staff at the hospital in Halifax kept her for a second test.
“As she lay inside the claustrophobic MRI chamber, holding her breath, and cringing from the loud banging sounds around her, the MRI scans generated data that revealed intimate medical information about her body without her knowledge or consent,” reads the statement of claim. “She had been singled out for the one reason – she was Mi’kmaq.”
A year later, Paul, who also serves as regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations in Nova Scotia, learned that two radiologists had allegedly used the second procedure to conduct MRI elastography to study the livers of Indigenous subjects, without their knowledge or consent.
The class-action lawsuit has named the radiologists Robert Miller and Sharon Clarke as defendants. According to the claim, Miller met with Paul in 2018 and told her the MRI had been used for a broader research project titled “MRI Findings of Liver Disease in an Atlantic Canada First Nations Population”. Miller, an associate professor at Dalhousie University’s faculty of medicine who previously served as president of the Canadian Association of Radiology, allegedly told her the findings had been shared with a radiology conference after initially denying disclosing the test results.
Neither researchers with the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds nor the plaintiffs were given the results of the test.
Canada has a dark history for its treatment of Indigenous peoples under the guise of healthcare, with the deadly effects of systemic racism persisting into the present day.
In the 1940s, nearly 1,300 Indigenous children across Canada were starved for studies about the effects of malnutrition as part of a government-run study. Indigenous women have also been sterilized against their will, leading human rights groups to call for an end to the practice.
“Knowing the long history of subjecting Indigenous people in Canada to cruel medical experiments … and to confirm the Indigenous right to own and control research data of Indigenous people, Chief Andrea felt powerless, vulnerable, and discriminated against because she was Mi’kmaq.”
The claim also asserts that Indigenous people “have been reluctant to participate in health research and receive treatment from non-Indigenous doctors, health centers, and hospitals” because of a legacy of mistreatment and abuse.
“There is an historically and evidentiary based mistrust at the healthcare system,” the claim reads. Paul says in the claim she had worked to persuade community members to participate in the initial MRI test and the actions of the two radiologists is emblematic of the mistrust held by Indigenous communities.
Paul and 60 members of Pictou Landing are seeking a declaration from the defendants for invasion of privacy, unlawful imprisonment, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, charter breaches and damages. They also argue the tests amount to assault and battery because the MRI scan procedures “amount to a medical procedure that was performed on [the plaintiffs] without their knowledge or informed consent”.
A lawyer for the two radiologists has said neither will provide comment. None of the allegations have been tested in court and no hearing dates have been set.
Indigenous people accuse radiologists of secretly studying their organs
By Leo Sands
Members of a First Nation in Canada have launched a lawsuit alleging they were subjected to a secret medical experiment without their consent that left them feeling “violated and humiliated”.
The class-action lawsuit, which was certified by the Nova Scotia supreme court in early February, revives the painful history of Canada conducting medical experiments on Indigenous peoples and the persistent discrimination they continue to face within the country’s healthcare system.
Indigenous reporter fears more journalists will be targeted after arrest as police cleared Canada camp
In a statement of claim, Chief Andrea Paul, the lead plaintiff, says she and 60 other members of the Pictou Landing First Nation participated in an MRI in 2017 for a medical research project administered by the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds.
But after the test finished, staff at the hospital in Halifax kept her for a second test.
“As she lay inside the claustrophobic MRI chamber, holding her breath, and cringing from the loud banging sounds around her, the MRI scans generated data that revealed intimate medical information about her body without her knowledge or consent,” reads the statement of claim. “She had been singled out for the one reason – she was Mi’kmaq.”
A year later, Paul, who also serves as regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations in Nova Scotia, learned that two radiologists had allegedly used the second procedure to conduct MRI elastography to study the livers of Indigenous subjects, without their knowledge or consent.
The class-action lawsuit has named the radiologists Robert Miller and Sharon Clarke as defendants. According to the claim, Miller met with Paul in 2018 and told her the MRI had been used for a broader research project titled “MRI Findings of Liver Disease in an Atlantic Canada First Nations Population”. Miller, an associate professor at Dalhousie University’s faculty of medicine who previously served as president of the Canadian Association of Radiology, allegedly told her the findings had been shared with a radiology conference after initially denying disclosing the test results.
Neither researchers with the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds nor the plaintiffs were given the results of the test.
Canada has a dark history for its treatment of Indigenous peoples under the guise of healthcare, with the deadly effects of systemic racism persisting into the present day.
In the 1940s, nearly 1,300 Indigenous children across Canada were starved for studies about the effects of malnutrition as part of a government-run study. Indigenous women have also been sterilized against their will, leading human rights groups to call for an end to the practice.
“Knowing the long history of subjecting Indigenous people in Canada to cruel medical experiments … and to confirm the Indigenous right to own and control research data of Indigenous people, Chief Andrea felt powerless, vulnerable, and discriminated against because she was Mi’kmaq.”
The claim also asserts that Indigenous people “have been reluctant to participate in health research and receive treatment from non-Indigenous doctors, health centers, and hospitals” because of a legacy of mistreatment and abuse.
“There is an historically and evidentiary based mistrust at the healthcare system,” the claim reads. Paul says in the claim she had worked to persuade community members to participate in the initial MRI test and the actions of the two radiologists is emblematic of the mistrust held by Indigenous communities.
Paul and 60 members of Pictou Landing are seeking a declaration from the defendants for invasion of privacy, unlawful imprisonment, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, charter breaches and damages. They also argue the tests amount to assault and battery because the MRI scan procedures “amount to a medical procedure that was performed on [the plaintiffs] without their knowledge or informed consent”.
A lawyer for the two radiologists has said neither will provide comment. None of the allegations have been tested in court and no hearing dates have been set.
Indigenous people accuse radiologists of secretly studying their organs
By Leo Sands
The Washington Post
February 27, 2024
Dozens of Indigenous people have brought a lawsuit against two radiologists in Canada, accusing them of conducting MRI scans without their consent as part of a secret scientific study of their livers.
According to the lawsuit, 59 members of the Pictou Landing First Nation were subjected to invasive MRI scans between 2017 and 2018 for research purposes without their knowledge. The complaint was first filed to Nova Scotia’s Supreme Court in June 2020 and certified as a class-action lawsuit this month.
In their suit, the plaintiffs evoked Canada’s dark history of subjecting Indigenous people to nonconsensual experimentation, which they said was motivated by racism.
According to the claim, Pictou Landing Chief Andrea Paul, the lead plaintiff, took part in a consensual MRI scan in March 2017 as part of a medical research project conducted by the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds at a research facility in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Instead of being withdrawn from the MRI machine when the scan finished, the suit alleged that Paul was unwittingly kept in the scanner as part of a second, separate study into liver disease among First Nation populations.
“Chief Andrea was unaware of the Indigenous Study or that she was participating in it. As she lay inside the claustrophobic MRI chamber holding her breath and cringing from the loud banging sounds around her, the MRI scans generated data that revealed intimate medical information about her body without her knowledge or consent,” the suit said. “She had been singled out for one reason — she was Mi’kmaq.”
The lawsuit named radiologists Robert Miller and Sharon Clarke as the defendants, whom it accused of undertaking the separate MRI study. Based on the scans, the suit said, Miller and Clarke later presented their results to a conference in Halifax and wrote an unpublished research paper titled “MRI Findings of Liver Disease in an Atlantic Canada First Nations Population.”
When contacted by The Washington Post, a lawyer representing Miller and Clarke declined to comment. Lawyers representing the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chief Andrea only learned about the other study in June 2018, after which the suit said dozens more members of the Pictou Landing First Nation community also became aware that their livers had been studied without their consent between 2017 and 2018.
“Knowing the long history of subjecting Indigenous people in Canada to cruel medical experiments, including starvation studies among children, and knowing that there were research protocols in place to ensure the consent of Indigenous participants in health studies and to confirm the Indigenous right to own and control research data of Indigenous people, Chief Andrea felt powerless, vulnerable and discriminated against because she was Mi’kmaq,” the lawsuit said.
According to lawyers representing the plaintiffs, the participants were not given the results of their scans — even where they “revealed a medical issue requiring medical treatment.”
The plaintiffs are seeking damages from the defendants and declarations of invasion of privacy, unlawful imprisonment, assault and battery, negligence, breaches of fiduciary and trust duties, and breach of contract. The action will next proceed to a common issues trial for which no date has yet been set, the lawyers said.
What to know about Canada’s residential schools and the unmarked graves found nearby
In recent years, Canada has embarked on a national reckoning of its treatment of its Indigenous populations — including the observation of a National Day of Truth and Reconciliation to commemorate the Indigenous victims and survivors of Canada’s government-funded and Catholic church-run boarding school system.
Nearly 150,000 Indigenous children were sent to the residential schools to be assimilated between the 19th century and the late 1990s. In 2021, the remains of 215 Indigenous children were found in unmarked graves near the grounds of one residential school in British Columbia.
Within the residential schools, researchers subjected children to bizarre, invasive, and cruel experiments — many of which the wider Canadian public has only learned of recently.
In the 1940s, 50 children at Indian Residential School in Brandon, Manitoba, were subjected to tests seeking to establish evidence of extrasensory perceptions, or a “sixth sense,” among Indigenous people.
In 2013, a researcher at McMaster University revealed that starting in 1942, researchers conducted nearly a decade of “nutritional” experimentation on Indigenous children. The experiments involved depriving children of nutrition in the name of science and allowing conditions of virtual starvation to continue.
The Crown broke a promise to First Nations. It could now owe billions.
Prominent institutions in the United States are also grappling with their histories of mistreating Indigenous people and artifacts in the pursuit of scientific research, including many violations that have only recently come to light.
Last year, The Washington Post reported that the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History holds more than 30,700 sets of human remains largely taken from graveyards, battlefields, morgues and hospitals around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries; among them were 254 human brains, most of which were taken from Black, Indigenous and other people of color to further now-debunked theories of racial differences.
Revealing the Smithsonian's 'racial brain collection'
In January, the American Museum of Natural History in New York announced it would close two halls dedicated to Indigenous cultures of North America while it reviewed whether the museum needed consent to display the artifacts. Last year, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland strengthened federal regulations requiring museums and federal agencies to identify and return stolen sacred items to their respective cultural groups.
By Leo SandsLeo Sands is a breaking-news reporter and editor in The Washington Post’s London Hub, covering news as it unfolds around the world. Twitter
February 27, 2024
Dozens of Indigenous people have brought a lawsuit against two radiologists in Canada, accusing them of conducting MRI scans without their consent as part of a secret scientific study of their livers.
According to the lawsuit, 59 members of the Pictou Landing First Nation were subjected to invasive MRI scans between 2017 and 2018 for research purposes without their knowledge. The complaint was first filed to Nova Scotia’s Supreme Court in June 2020 and certified as a class-action lawsuit this month.
In their suit, the plaintiffs evoked Canada’s dark history of subjecting Indigenous people to nonconsensual experimentation, which they said was motivated by racism.
According to the claim, Pictou Landing Chief Andrea Paul, the lead plaintiff, took part in a consensual MRI scan in March 2017 as part of a medical research project conducted by the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds at a research facility in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Instead of being withdrawn from the MRI machine when the scan finished, the suit alleged that Paul was unwittingly kept in the scanner as part of a second, separate study into liver disease among First Nation populations.
“Chief Andrea was unaware of the Indigenous Study or that she was participating in it. As she lay inside the claustrophobic MRI chamber holding her breath and cringing from the loud banging sounds around her, the MRI scans generated data that revealed intimate medical information about her body without her knowledge or consent,” the suit said. “She had been singled out for one reason — she was Mi’kmaq.”
The lawsuit named radiologists Robert Miller and Sharon Clarke as the defendants, whom it accused of undertaking the separate MRI study. Based on the scans, the suit said, Miller and Clarke later presented their results to a conference in Halifax and wrote an unpublished research paper titled “MRI Findings of Liver Disease in an Atlantic Canada First Nations Population.”
When contacted by The Washington Post, a lawyer representing Miller and Clarke declined to comment. Lawyers representing the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chief Andrea only learned about the other study in June 2018, after which the suit said dozens more members of the Pictou Landing First Nation community also became aware that their livers had been studied without their consent between 2017 and 2018.
“Knowing the long history of subjecting Indigenous people in Canada to cruel medical experiments, including starvation studies among children, and knowing that there were research protocols in place to ensure the consent of Indigenous participants in health studies and to confirm the Indigenous right to own and control research data of Indigenous people, Chief Andrea felt powerless, vulnerable and discriminated against because she was Mi’kmaq,” the lawsuit said.
According to lawyers representing the plaintiffs, the participants were not given the results of their scans — even where they “revealed a medical issue requiring medical treatment.”
The plaintiffs are seeking damages from the defendants and declarations of invasion of privacy, unlawful imprisonment, assault and battery, negligence, breaches of fiduciary and trust duties, and breach of contract. The action will next proceed to a common issues trial for which no date has yet been set, the lawyers said.
What to know about Canada’s residential schools and the unmarked graves found nearby
In recent years, Canada has embarked on a national reckoning of its treatment of its Indigenous populations — including the observation of a National Day of Truth and Reconciliation to commemorate the Indigenous victims and survivors of Canada’s government-funded and Catholic church-run boarding school system.
Nearly 150,000 Indigenous children were sent to the residential schools to be assimilated between the 19th century and the late 1990s. In 2021, the remains of 215 Indigenous children were found in unmarked graves near the grounds of one residential school in British Columbia.
Within the residential schools, researchers subjected children to bizarre, invasive, and cruel experiments — many of which the wider Canadian public has only learned of recently.
In the 1940s, 50 children at Indian Residential School in Brandon, Manitoba, were subjected to tests seeking to establish evidence of extrasensory perceptions, or a “sixth sense,” among Indigenous people.
In 2013, a researcher at McMaster University revealed that starting in 1942, researchers conducted nearly a decade of “nutritional” experimentation on Indigenous children. The experiments involved depriving children of nutrition in the name of science and allowing conditions of virtual starvation to continue.
The Crown broke a promise to First Nations. It could now owe billions.
Prominent institutions in the United States are also grappling with their histories of mistreating Indigenous people and artifacts in the pursuit of scientific research, including many violations that have only recently come to light.
Last year, The Washington Post reported that the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History holds more than 30,700 sets of human remains largely taken from graveyards, battlefields, morgues and hospitals around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries; among them were 254 human brains, most of which were taken from Black, Indigenous and other people of color to further now-debunked theories of racial differences.
Revealing the Smithsonian's 'racial brain collection'
In January, the American Museum of Natural History in New York announced it would close two halls dedicated to Indigenous cultures of North America while it reviewed whether the museum needed consent to display the artifacts. Last year, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland strengthened federal regulations requiring museums and federal agencies to identify and return stolen sacred items to their respective cultural groups.
By Leo SandsLeo Sands is a breaking-news reporter and editor in The Washington Post’s London Hub, covering news as it unfolds around the world. Twitter
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