historical and scientific perspectives on the health of canada's first ...

organized efforts by the Métis including petitions, a Royal Commission was established in 1934
to examine the problems of health, education <strong>and</strong> general welfare of the “half-breed” population
in the province. This commission came to be called the Ewing Commission after its chair. It
included a medical doctor, E.A. Braithwaite, who had played a key role in organizing public
health services in Alberta. Evidence presented by the recently established Métis Association of
Alberta presented testimonials verifying serious levels of infectious diseases from six doctors
<strong>and</strong> Indian agents in the Grouard area, where it was believed the worst health conditions existed.
The reliability of these testimonies was challenged by the Alberta government in the person of
Harold Orr, a physician employed by the Alberta Department of Health. Earlier, Orr had
alerted his minister to the political implications of increased health expenditures on the Métis.
When the Ewing Commission report was issued, it ran to only fifteen pages, <strong>and</strong> it did agree that
the Métis were experiencing serious health problems <strong>and</strong> identified a number of possible reasons.
They noted that many Métis lived far from any health professionals <strong>and</strong> lacked money both to
cover travel costs to consult them <strong>and</strong> to pay for medical services rendered. Traveling doctors
<strong>and</strong> nurses, who commonly visited “Indian reserves”, rarely came to these Métis communities.
The report also noted the poor sanitary conditions which characterized Metis homes <strong>and</strong> the lack
of proper food (implying in fact that some Metis were, in effect, periodically starving). However,
in the final analysis the commissioners wrote, “On the whole, the Commission is of the opinion
that while the health situation is serious, it is not, except as to the particular diseases mentioned
[presumably tuberculosis <strong>and</strong> venereal diseases], more serious than among the white settlers”.
Clearly, the Métis were once again victimized by their unclear legal status. The Ewing
Commission did make it clear that any assistance provided to them was to be given out of
“considerations of humanity <strong>and</strong> justice,” <strong>and</strong> not because the Métis held any special rights as an
Aboriginal people. The Commission did not want the Métis to become wards of the state.
However, itt did recommend that l<strong>and</strong> be set aside for the Metis, parcels which were referred to
then as “colonies” <strong>and</strong> today as “settlements,” where small hospitals could be constructed.
These colonies were established thereafter under the authority of the Métis Population
Betterment Act of 1938. The Métis living in these colonies were to be periodically provided with
the services of a traveling physician, with the anticipation that ultimately a resident physician
would be hired. It remains unclear whether or to what extent the Métis were to be required to pay
for these services.
While the systematic treatment of tuberculosis among First Nation people on reserves had begun
in western Canada until 1935, the Métis did not receive similar attention until later, primarily in
the 1940s, which coincided with the establishment of the “colonies.” Between 1934 <strong>and</strong> 1939,
Métis represented only 6.9 per cent of the patients discharged from general tuberculosis
treatment facilities in the province, but this figure began to rise thereafter, until by the outset of
the 1960s the Métis constituted nearly one quarter of the patient load. This obviously indicates
that a much higher proportion of their population was contracting tuberculosis, than that of the
mainstream. The prevalence of disease remained high among the Métis for many years, despite
these health programs. Again unlike the First Nations <strong>and</strong> later the Inuit, who received regular
programs of diagnosis <strong>and</strong> treatment, the Métis were subjected to only 'irregular' screening.
Interestingly, a notable study issued in 1963 claimed that the Métis tuberculosis rate was, by the
early 1960s, about half that of the “treaty Indians”. It was argued that, “the major determinants
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