Our new government issue health cards finally arrived and we were both struck by something printed on the paper the cards were attached to. Read this exerpt and see if it doesn't raise an eyebrow or two:
So my question is this: Why is my government recording ethnicity in order to provide health care?-And they aren't really doing so for me, as I'm only designated by the letter N, which encompasses thousands of possible ethnicities from around the globe excluding the other four listed.
So that rules out health issues related to specific ethnicities as an explanation and suggests that it is simply related in some other way to the most common aboriginal groups likely to be in our area. (But what about other aboriginal groups recognized by our government that don't fit one of these categories? What label do they get and why?)
Perhaps it simply relates to different treaty agreements that each of these four groups have with the government, for which I have one last question: We're all Canadians. Why would this result in differences in health care for any of these 5 groups. We SHOULD all get the same care..
Hmm. I'm not terribly bothered by this and there is likely a simple explanation but I find it vaguely unsettling somehow.
2 comments:
In 1983 when we moved to the Northern Town you are living, in the choices you had to pick from were:
Dene
Inuit
Metis
Other
At the time I just laughed at it as being slgihtly crude and quite funny. I saw it as a sort of not-meant-to-be racism and still to this day I can't see that it's anything to get your knickers in a not over.
BTW, I believe the reason why they need to have this information is that different etnic groups have different benefits, depending on what Final Agreement they are signatories to.
Hi Trudie!
Thanks for commenting. I'm always surprised when someone new finds my blog, and especially when they're as far away as you. :)
In response to your comment, no, I'm not bothered by the typecasting of sorts on the health card. I agree that the distinction likely relates to the various final agreements different aboriginal groups may be participants of and consequently, to the way the relevant health care is paid for.
Practically of course, I recognize the distinction of aboriginal status as it relates to such federal agreements and understand why it is present and necessary. I suppose my only concern in mentioning this is my thinking that Canadians, no matter their ancestry or heritage, should be able to get equivalent health care and anything other than that is discriminatory.
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