Hon. Amina Gerba: Honourable senators, I rise today with deep emotion and a keen sense of responsibility at third reading stage of Bill S-228, introduced with courage and determination by our colleague, Senator Yvonne Boyer.

This bill is much more than a legal text. It is a cry for justice. It is a response to decades of silent suffering. It is a clear recognition of the systemic racism that has infected our health care institutions.

As a member of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights, I had the honour of participating in the study on forced and coerced sterilization in Canada. We held many meetings and heard heartbreaking testimony from dozens of women. They deserve our utmost respect for having the courage to share their unspeakable experiences with us.

We are not here to protect the powerful. We are here to defend the vulnerable.

Our duty in the Senate is clear: to represent minorities and ensure that the laws we pass are equitable, inclusive and non‑discriminatory. We stand with others as guardians of human dignity.

However, our study revealed a chilling truth: Forced sterilization is not a thing of the past. It remains a concrete sign of systemic racism within our health care institutions.

That racism is not limited to Indigenous communities. It also affects racialized women, marginalized women and women with disabilities.

Today, I am going to tell you a story that left a lasting impression on me. It might cause some offence, but it needs to heard. It’s the story of a well-educated, well-established businesswoman. For years, she suffered from horrific menstrual pain and profuse bleeding. One day, she almost fainted in an international airport. When she got back to Canada, she decided to consult her gynecologist. The diagnosis was endometriosis.

She was told there was a solution — a surgery, a relief. She trusted the system.

She was offered surgery to remove endometrial tissue. She agreed to it. The surgery went well. Her life, travel and business activities resumed as before.

Two years later, during a routine examination, her doctor prescribed a pelvic ultrasound. Then came the shocking news. The ultrasound revealed that her uterus had been removed. She was stunned. She’d never been told. She’d thought the procedure was a simple endometrial ablation. The hospital sent her written confirmation that her uterus had indeed been removed. According to the documents she received, she had given consent to any procedure necessary.

Necessary for whom? Necessary for what? She was sterilized without her consent, without her knowledge and without being informed.

Honourable senators, that woman is me. It was through the committee’s study that I came to understand what I had been through. I realized that I had been the victim of forced sterilization. I had never talked about it before.

I realized that systemic racism does not differentiate between educated and uneducated women or wealthy and poor women. It affects all Indigenous and racialized women, because when we enter the health care system or the justice system, we are viewed in one and the same way: with suspicion, indifference and too little consideration. This attitude in health care services has a name: misogynoir. Have you heard about that before? It is a form of dual discrimination, both sexist and racist, experienced only by Black women. This little-known term was coined by the American academic Moya Bailey in 2008.

According to Agnès Berthelot-Raffard, an associate professor in the Faculty of Health at York University, one of the consequences of misogynoir is the assumption that Black women can handle pain better than others. This kind of discrimination is unacceptable.

I have chosen to speak out in this chamber today to stand up for real equality for everyone in our health care systems. I am speaking out to break the silence and to put an end to this systemic racism. I am speaking out so that no woman, ever again, has to discover by chance that her uterus has been removed.

Bill S-228 is an essential step towards justice. It recognizes that sterilization without consent is mutilation. These acts will be enshrined in the Criminal Code as crimes, period.

Honourable senators, this bill is not just about law; it is about dignity, truth and healing. Bill S-228 is fighting systemic racism in our health system. Let us be the voice they were denied. Let us be the justice they deserve.

Colleagues, I urge you to vote in favour of this bill so that it can be sent to the other place very quickly, for the sake of Indigenous women, racialized women and all those who have been silenced.

Vote “yes” to justice. Vote “yes” to dignity. Vote “yes” to Bill S-228.

Thank you.