Canada: Controversy over ‘Indigenous Health’ course at University of Alberta

At the University of Alberta, in Canada, there is a course in which students learn about "systemic racism" and the"indigenous ways" of understanding health.

The course, called Indigenous Health in Canada, has generated a lot of controversy.

Speaking to The College Fix, a conservative US newspaper focused on higher education, Dr. Joanne Olson, a professor and vice dean of the nursing school, argued that the course should be mandatory for students aspiring to become nurses.

"Students learn about the legacy of systemic racism against our Indigenous people and the public health crisis that has resulted due to racism and racial trauma," she said.

According to the course description, it is "the beginning step to culturally safe interaction and practice. Focus is on introducing students to a variety of historical realities and contemporary issues relevant to Indigenous health in Canada."

The College Fix added that the course was created in response to a government report called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action aimed at advancing "the process of Canadian reconciliation" toward students and families affected by its former residential schools for Indigenous peoples.

Olson told the newspaper that students can learn "from Indigenous ways in terms of health promotion and being at one with nature." She added, "These lessons can offer us valuable knowledge as we try to deal with the current issues that face us today (climate change, mental health issues, intergenerational trauma etc.)."

Criticism of the course

In dialogue with The College Fix, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, president of the medical organization Do No Harm, dedicated to ending identity politics in medicine, argued: "The true origins of this mentality reside in postmodernism, as adherents need to see the world through power relationships in which men and particularly white men are seen as eternally subjugating any people of color."

"These guilt-ridden progressives think that their economic and social status is envied by groups that they believe are powerless. They then feel regret about generating envy in others," he added.

Goldfarb, who was a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, further remarked that "what really is going on here is a kind of mass neurosis that generates such absurdities as seen in this course." He then warned that medical schools in the United States are also promoting this ideology.