News/Canada/North

Quebec's health minister says the province's public health service is "closely monitoring" the number of tuberculosis cases in Nunavik, in the wake of a letter from the mayors of the region's 14 Inuit communities calling for the declaration of a public health emergency."We take this situation very seriously," Health Minister Christian Dubé's office told CBC News. "We will continue to follow the recommendations of public health experts on this subject."Public health experts who spoke with CBC News said they are facing resource shortages and need help in order to adequately address the rising numbers of active tuberculosis cases in the region. Quebec's health department told CBC that as of June 7, there have been 56 cases so far this year of tuberculosis reported in Nunavik — even higher tha...

The mayors of 14 Inuit communities in northern Quebec are demanding the provincial government declare a public health emergency as tuberculosis cases in Nunavik reach the highest reported level in recent history.In a letter Monday to Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé, the mayors wrote that two issues precipitated the demand: an "unprecedented surge" in tuberculosis cases, and what they say is a plan by the province to cut back on infectious disease resources for Nunavik. CBC News wasn't immediately able to verify the cuts in question.Last year, the region's health board reported 95 cases of tuberculosis. To date in 2025, the mayors wrote, 40 cases have been reported."These statistics are a direct reflection of colonial systemic racism that continues to dictate health policy and resourc...

Recent reports of privacy breaches involving medical records — including a case in which two health-care workers viewed the records of a woman one of them had been in a relationship with — illustrate vulnerabilities in the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority's electronic medical record system.The Northwest Territories Information and Privacy Commissioner issues reports on cases in which an investigation yields evidence of intentional and unauthorized access to private health information, commonly known as "snooping." This year, Commissioner Andrew Fox publicly reported two distinct cases of snooping in electronic medical records. They both involved employees of the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA). An electronic medical record (EMR)...

N.W.T. doctors say that if the territorial government doesn't take action, there will be closures at the emergency room at Stanton Territorial Hospital this summer."We're at, really, a crisis point," said Yellowknife ER doctor Courtney Howard.Howard and other N.W.T. doctors spoke to MLAs on the standing committee on social development Friday on behalf of the Northwest Territories Medical Association. They told committee members there is a desperate need for the territory to increase pay for locum emergency room doctors this summer to keep the emergency room staffed."There is real danger that we won't be able to keep the emergency room open over the next few months if there's not a change," Howard said.Howard told MLAs almost half of all ER shifts at the hospital are unfilled over the next ...

While a national organization seeks to track cases of forced sterilization of Indigenous peoples across Canada, Inuit women in the North say the practice hasn't ended. Karyn Couperthwaite, who lives in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., delivered her second son via C-section nine years ago. At the time, she said she asked for tubal ligation – a surgical process that would tie her fallopian tubes and prevent future pregnancies. When her family decided to have a third child, she made an appointment to have the ligation reversed. That's when she said she found out that her tubes hadn't been tied – they'd been removed instead. Her doctor made the discovery while reading notes in her medical file from the surgeon who performed the operation, she said. "He had to give me news that I didn't have my fa...

A Yukon woman is raising the alarm about the cost and difficulty of accessing abortion medication in the territory.Jane Doe says she had to seek an abortion through the emergency room, because the Opal clinic — the territory's only dedicated abortion services provider — is only open one day a week, for four hours. Jane Doe is a pseudonym. CBC is not disclosing her identity for personal safety reasons.That day, she says, she was left waiting, watching other patients come and go, until a female doctor was on shift — even though she hadn't asked to be seen by a female doctor.At the time, Doe was working in a rural community. She'd travelled to Whitehorse on the weekend seeking a medical abortion to end a pregnancy. She says the doctor advised her to go to the Opal Clinic. The receptionist and...