The Healthcare Divide Canadian Race Relations Foundation, Antica Productions

How do you bring together two philosophies of medicine: Indigenous and Western? And is that even the right question to ask? We talk to two doctors who are re-imaging ways for Canada’s healthcare system to work better for Indigenous patients. They talk about their hard won successes and the challenges they faced along the way.

Voices in this episode:
Dr. Danièle Behn Smith, British Columbia’s Deputy Provincial Health Officer for Indigenous Health
Dr. Barry Lavallee, CEO of Keewatinohk Inniniw Minoayawin

Filipino migrants make up a critical portion of Canada’s healthcare workforce, as nurses and care aides. They also have one of the lowest average employment incomes among groups designated as visible minorities.

Conditions such as low wages and precarious migrant status were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine what that crisis revealed about labour in Canada’s healthcare system.

Voices in this episode:
Dolie Anne Bulalakaw, assisted living worker
Valerie Damasco, assistant professor of sociology at Trent University.
Ethel Tungohan, associate professor of politics at York University

In the mid-twentieth century, Inuit diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) were taken from their communities and sent to sanitoriums in southern Canada. Many never returned, and their families never learned what happened to them. We explore this crisis and how this history has continued to affect those communities, and why even today, TB rates remain 300 times higher there than in the rest of Canada.


Voices in this episode:
Louassee Kuniliusee, tuberculosis survivor
Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
Beatrice Ikkidlua, daughter of tuberculosis survivor

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing the healthcare industry. While it’s creating new opportunities for treatment, there are ongoing concerns with the ways AI perpetuates and amplifies bias. We explore the promises and the perils of this emerging technology in the mental health field with the creators of the Mind-Easy app and a digital health researcher.

A decades-old decision created a system where Black Canadians need to be sicker than the rest of the population to qualify for a living kidney donor transplant. How did this happen? And why does it persist today if science doesn’t support it?

Voices in this episode:
Charles Cook, donor recipient
Lydia-Joi Marshall, project lead at the Health Commons Solutions Lab and President of the Black Health Alliance
Dr. Bourne Auguste, nephrologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre