Speakers

HOST AND MODERATOR 
Adrian Harewood 
Associate professor of journalism, Carleton University

Adrian spent more than a decade as the supper-hour news anchor for CBC Ottawa. In 2020, he won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Local Anchor. A seasoned broadcaster, Adrian also hosted CBC Ottawa’s drive home radio show All In A Day and has been guest host for several national CBC programs including The Current, As It Happens, The House, Hot Type and Power & Politics.

At Carleton University, Adrian has created the journalism school’s first-ever course focused on race – a graduate seminar called Journalism, Race and Diversity. He has also created the first course in Canada devoted to the study of the history of Black Canadian journalism.

Adrian is on the board of Journalists for Human Rights and the Writers’ Union of Canada.

ELDER
Claudette Commanda
Chancellor, University of Ottawa

Claudette is an Algonquin Anishinabe from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation in Quebec. She has dedicated more than 35 years to promoting First Nations people, rights, history and culture in national and international settings.

Claudette is a University of Ottawa alumna and law professor. She was the first Elder in Residence appointed to the faculty of law and the first First Nations person to serve on the university’s board of governors. In November 2022, she became the first Indigenous leader ever appointed chancellor.

Claudette serves as executive director for the First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres, a national organization that protects and promotes First Nations culture, languages and traditional knowledge.

DAY ONE – Thursday, Aug. 17

MODERATOR
Jennifer Ditchburn 
President and CEO, Institute for Research on Public Policy

Jennifer leads one of Canada’s oldest and most respected think tanks. She is a seasoned, bilingual communicator with more than 25 years of experience helping Canadians better understand complex public policy issues and politics. From 2016 to 2021, she was the editor-in-chief of the IRPP’s influential digital magazine, Policy Options.

Prior to joining the IRPP, Jennifer spent two decades covering national and parliamentary affairs for The Canadian Press and CBC Television. She is the winner of three National Newspaper Awards and the Charles Lynch Award for outstanding coverage of national issues.

In 2015, she was named one of the 10 most influential Hispanic-Canadians. 

PANELLIST
Dr. Alika Lafontaine
President (2022–23), Canadian Medical Association (CMA)

Alika is an award-winning anesthesiologist in Grande Prairie, Alberta and the first Indigenous doctor listed in Medical Post’s 50 Most Powerful Doctors. He was born and raised in Treaty 4 Territory (Southern Saskatchewan) and has Metis, Oji-Cree and Pacific Islander ancestry. 

Alika has served in medical leadership positions for almost two decades, including at the Alberta Medical Association, the CMA and the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, HealthCareCAN and the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada.

From 2013 to 2017 he co-led the Indigenous Health Alliance project, which successfully advocated for $68 million of federal funding for Indigenous health transformation in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.

PANELLIST
Dr. Kathleen Ross 
President (2023-24), Canadian Medical Association (CMA)

Kathleen is a family physician in Coquitlam and New Westminster, British Columbia. She does clinical work in community primary care and obstetrics and surgical assist work in cardiovascular surgery at Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH). 

Kathleen has established health care policy and led grassroots improvement through numerous leadership roles, including as president of Doctors of BC, as a founding member and chair of the Fraser Northwest Division of Family Practice, and as president of the RCH medical staff.

A proponent of health system reform, she is a Physician Quality Improvement faculty member for the Fraser Health Authority, chairs the CMA’s Administrative Burden Working Group and participates in the McMaster National Health Fellows Program.

PANELLIST
Dr. Katharine Smart 
Past president, Canadian Medical Association (CMA)

Katharine is an experienced medical leader and advocate who constantly challenges the status quo in medicine. A pediatrician in Whitehorse, Yukon, her work focuses on providing care to children who have experienced adverse childhood events.

Katharine was the 10th woman to serve as president in the CMA’s 155-year history, where she cemented her reputation as a fierce and authentic leader. She regularly uses her voice to bring evidence and facts to the forefront of health communication.

She has been recognized as one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women, with the Medical Post’s Changemaker Media Award and the Waterfalls Global Award. Katharine has held many leadership positions, including as president of the Yukon Medical Association and as a board member at Ronald McDonald House charities.  

SPEAKER
Shachi Kurl 
President, Angus Reid Institute

As president of the Angus Reid Institute, Shachi works with public opinion data to further public knowledge and enhance understanding of issues that matter to Canada and the world.

She is often found offering analysis to national media outlets including CBC’s Power & Politics, The New York Times and The Globe and Mail. In 2021, she moderated the English federal leaders’ debate.

Shachi holds a degree in Journalism and Political Science from Carleton University; in 2022, she returned to Carleton as an adjunct research professor in the School of Journalism and Communication.

PANELLIST 
Laura Osman
Health reporter, The Canadian Press

Laura is an award-winning journalist and federal health policy reporter for The Canadian Press. Her focus is dissecting the politics and policies on Parliament Hill to discover how they impact the lives and well-being of Canadians.  

Her reporting has taken her around the world, including a recent trip to Ukraine for a story on how midwives are looking to Canada for training in emergency situations outside of hospitals. 

Over her 13-year career, she has covered municipal, provincial and federal politics and was introduced to health reporting in February 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.   

PANELLIST 
Carly Weeks
Health reporter, The Globe and Mail

Carly is an award-winning journalist with 15 years’ experience covering national health issues. Most recently, she was part of the team that led The Globe and Mail’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carly has been recognized for stories on abortion access across the country, the toll of misinformation on health care workers and health system reform. As a former parliamentary reporter in Ottawa and Washington, D.C., she understands the complex interplay between politics and health.

SPEAKER 
Dr. Tara Kiran
Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation, University of Toronto

A family doctor and renowned primary care researcher, Tara investigates how changes in the health care system affect patients, particularly the most marginalized. Tara has led initiatives to reduce care disparities, engage patients in health service improvement and support physicians to learn from data. Her research has shed light on the impact of team-based care and physician payment reform. 

In 2022, Tara launched OurCare, a national initiative to engage the public in co-creating the blueprint for a stronger, more equitable primary care system in Canada. She practises family medicine as part of the St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team.

PANELLIST 
Teri Price
Executive Director, Greg’s Wings Projects

Teri is a passionate advocate for improvements in the health system. In 2012, her brother Greg died unexpectedly after a testicular cancer diagnosis, surgery and a missed pulmonary embolism. A review of his case found that missed faxes and follow-ups and poor sharing of health data ultimately cost him his life.

Greg’s family created Greg’s Wings Projects to ensure other patients didn’t suffer experiences like his. One of the organization’s first projects was a film called Falling Through the Cracks: Greg’s Story, which has been screened to hundreds of audiences.

Teri sits on several provincial and national health committees in Alberta. She is also a member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada and the Imagine Citizens Network.

SPEAKER
Sapna Mahajan
Director of Genomics in Society, Genome Canada / Mental health advocate

Sapna has spent more than 15 years in the health field leading strategy, public affairs, research, policy, and program implementation. At Genome Canada, she supports the adoption of new technologies from the research stage to practical application.

Over the last decade, Sapna has held numerous roles in the mental health field including at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and Mental Health Commission of Canada, where she led groundbreaking work in the areas of peer support, e-mental health and suicide prevention.

She is a member of several international wellness working groups, including with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, International Organization for Standardization and World Health Organization.

PANELLIST
Dr. Franco Rizzuti 
President, Canadian Association of Physicians with Disabilities (CAPD)

Franco is a public health and preventive medicine specialist, working as a medical officer of health (Calgary zone) for Alberta Health Services and clinical assistant professor at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. He played a significant role in Alberta’s response to COVID-19, developing a contact-tracing system that led to the creation of the Alberta COVID-19 Exposure Response Team and helped reduce the spread of the virus.

A strong advocate for physicians, he has held numerous leadership positions. As president of the Professional Association of Resident Physicians of Alberta, Franco negotiated two resident physician agreements that led to improvements in wellness, learner safety and compensation. As the current president of the CAPD, he is spearheading initiatives aimed at increasing inclusivity in the workforce.

PANELLIST
Philip Stack
Director, Health, Safety and Environment, University of Alberta

With more than 30 years in health care and higher education, Philip has gained extensive experience in driving change and continuous improvement in the areas of budgeting, integrated planning, health and safety, and emergency and risk management and has published, presented and taught extensively on these topics. 

As director of health, safety and environment at the University of Alberta, he is committed to creating a people-focused culture for the institution’s 14,000 staff and incorporating trust, accountability, relationship building and safety into all activities. 

Philip served as co-chair of the university’s working group that developed A Culture of Care – a three-year safety action plan that focuses on ensuring physical, psychological and cultural safety in the workplace. He currently co-chairs the implementation team.   

PANELLIST
Dr. Cornelia (Nel) Wieman
Acting Chief Medical Officer, First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), British Columbia

Nel is Anishinaabe (Little Grand Rapids First Nation, Manitoba) and lives, works and plays on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples – the səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.

In January 2023, she took on the role of acting chief medical officer for the FNHA in BC after serving as deputy chief medical officer.

Recently, Nel co-chaired the provincial technical committee that created the BC Cultural Safety and Humility Standard – the first of its kind in Canada – that provides a toolkit for the BC health system on how to address anti-Indigenous racism.​

Nel is Canada's first female Indigenous psychiatrist and has more than 20 years’ clinical experience working with Indigenous people in both rural/reserve and urban settings. She served as president of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada.

SPEAKER 
Dr. Chandi Chandrasena
Chief Medical Officer, OntarioMD

Chandi provides the clinical perspective to inform and advise on current and future digital health products and services for Ontario clinicians to add increasing value to patient care. She is a member of the Ontario Medical Association Burnout Task Force and is passionate about alleviating digital burden and advocating for the more efficient use of technology in medicine.

Chandi is a highly qualified and innovative leader who understands the challenges of community practice and the complexity of the health system. She has practised family medicine in Ottawa for the past 20 years.

SPEAKER 
Corinne Pohlmann
Executive Vice-president, Advocacy, Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB)

Corinne is responsible for CFIB’s advocacy and research strategy and for raising concerns of small and medium-sized businesses to governments across Canada. She currently oversees CFIB’s legislative teams as well as their research and economics functions.

CFIB’s research has been widely used to bring about legislative change for small businesses, including extensive work on reducing administrative burden. In January 2023, they released Patients before Paperwork, a report that estimated the amount of administrative burden on physicians in each province and territory and the number of patient visits that could be restored by eliminating that red tape.

SPEAKER 
Dr. Nicole Stockley
Director of External Engagement, Newfoundland and Labrador College of Family Physicians (NLCFP)

Nicole is a family physician from Conception Bay South who practises full-scope, community-based family medicine. She is a passionate advocate for the needs of family doctors and served as president of the NLCFP from 2017–19. Now, as Director of External Engagement, one of her main objectives is educating policy-makers about physician administrative burden and suggesting ways to lessen its impact.

In addition to her role at the NLCFP, Nicole sits on several committees that aim to improve efficiency and workflow in clinical settings to ensure quality of care. She is a clinical assistant professor of family medicine at Memorial University and the urban division head of primary care for her health zone.

MODERATOR
Dr. Joss Reimer
President-elect nominee, Canadian Medical Association (CMA)

Joss is an expert in physician leadership, health advocacy, science communication, and public health. Before taking on her current role as chief medical officer for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, she served as the medical lead and official spokesperson for Manitoba’s COVID-19 Vaccine Taskforce and led the province through its largest and most successful vaccine campaign ever.

Prior to the pandemic, Joss worked as the city’s medical director of public health and director of population health for the undergraduate medical education program at the University of Manitoba.

In addition to her public health and medical leadership roles, Joss maintains a clinical practice in Women’s health providing antepartum and intrapartum care at the Women’s Hospital in Winnipeg.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Timothy Caulfield
Professor of health law and policy, bestselling author

Timothy is an unrivalled communicator who debunks myths and assumptions about health innovations — from research on stem cells, to diets and alternative medicine — for the benefit of the public and decision-makers.

He is the author of The Cure for Everything: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness and Happiness; Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?: When Celebrity Culture and Science Clash; and Relax, Dammit!: A User’s Guide to the Age of Anxiety.

Timothy is a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, a professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health and research director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta. He is co-founder of the science engagement initiative, ScienceUpFirst.

DAY TWO – Friday, Aug. 18

SPEAKER
Erik Sande  
President, Medavie Health Services 

At Medavie Health Services, Erik leads a team of health care professionals delivering out-of-hospital emergency medical services and home-based primary care across six Canadian provinces. His career has spanned a variety of industries, including health care, financial services, energy and communications. 

Prior to Medavie, Erik was vice-president and general manager of Home Monitoring Solutions for Philips Healthcare, where he led a technology and services team in North America, Europe and Asia.  

A dedicated community leader, Erik is currently Chair of the Board of Healthcare Excellence Canada and Chair of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.    

SPEAKER
Robin McGee
Registered psychologist and patient partner

Robin is a registered clinical psychologist in Nova Scotia who has worked in health and education for more than 30 years. 

Her award-winning book, The Cancer Olympics, describes her fight for medical justice after a delayed diagnosis of colorectal cancer in 2010, and the discovery that the best-practice chemotherapy was not available in her province. 

Her advocacy work in cancer care and patient safety has earned her the Governor General’s Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers and the Canadian Cancer Society’s National Medal of Courage. Robin is currently in treatment for a recurrence of her colorectal cancer.   

SPEAKER
Dr. Hasan Sheikh
Board member, Canadian Doctors for Medicare

Hasan is an emergency and addiction medicine physician in Toronto and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto Department of Family and Community Medicine.

Hasan’s academic work focuses on Canadian health care policy, in particular using the emergency department to diagnose failures of public policy and to advocate for better policies to address health inequities, including pharmacare, dental care and the impact of precarious work on health

He holds a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.

SPEAKER
Dr. Bonnie Henry
BC Provincial Health Officer

Bonnie was appointed British Columbia’s Provincial Health Officer in 2018 and is responsible for undertaking measures for disease prevention and control and the health protection of all British Columbians. Most recently, she led the province’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the drug overdose emergency.

Bonnie has served in several senior roles at the BC Centre for Disease Control and Toronto Public Health, including as the operational lead in the response to the SARS outbreak in Toronto.

She has worked internationally with the World Health Organization (WHO)/UNICEF polio eradication program in Pakistan and with the WHO to control the Ebola outbreak in Uganda.

SPEAKER
Dr. Danièle Behn Smith
BC Deputy Provincial Health Officer, Indigenous Health

Danièle is Eh Cho Dene of the Fort Nelson First Nation in BC with French-Canadian/Métis roots in the Red River Valley. She works alongside BC Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and provides independent advice and support to the Ministry of Health on Indigenous health issues.

Danièle partners with Indigenous collectives, communities and organizations to advance wellness and disrupt colonial practices and policies. A family physician, Danièle has practised rural medicine in remote and First Nations communities across Canada.

She has held several leadership roles, including with the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada, the University of Alberta’s Indigenous Health Initiatives Program and the University of British Columbia’s Aboriginal Family Practice residency.

SPEAKER
Kate Jongbloed
Health researcher

Kate is a white occupier living on the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is an epidemiologist and mixed methods health researcher with more than 12 years of experience working in the field of Indigenous health and wellness.

Kate is currently working with the BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer (OPHO) on a Health Systems Impact Post-Doctoral Fellowship, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Health Research BC. Together, they are engaged in a research project focused on naming Indigenous-specific racism, asking how it’s operating within the BC OPHO and strategizing to act to uphold foundational obligations to Indigenous Peoples.

SPECIAL GUEST
The Honourable Mark Holland
Minister of Health

Mark has served his Ajax community for more than 20 years, first as a Durham Regional Councillor, before becoming a Member of Parliament in 2004. He was re-elected four more times, most recently in 2021.

Mark believes strongly in collaboration among political parties to improve the lives of Canadians, which guided his recent work as Government House Leader and as Chief Government Whip. Through his many political roles, Mark has advocated for public safety to help reduce crime rates, for marriage equality rights and the overhaul of animal cruelty laws.

Outside politics, he holds a passion for health policies and improving health systems. Mark worked at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada as executive director of Ontario’s Mission and national director of children and youth, where he led initiatives related to smoking cessation and restricting the marketing of food and beverages to children.

SPEAKER
The Hon. Catherine McKenna
Former Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Catherine is founder and principal of global advisory firm Climate and Nature Solutions. She is a distinguished fellow at Columbia University and launched the Women Leading on Climate initiative at COP26. She also chaired the UN’s High-Level Expert Group on the Net Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities.

As federal minister of environment and climate change from 2015 to 2019, Catherine was a lead negotiator of the Paris Agreement, negotiated Canada’s climate change plan including a coal phase out and price on carbon, brought in a new Impact Assessment Act for major projects and doubled the amount of nature protected in Canada. Internationally, she co-founded the Powering Past Coal Alliance and the Ministerial Meetings on Climate Action.

Catherine also served as Canada’s minister of infrastructure and communities from 2019 to 2021.

SPEAKER
Dr. Courtney Howard
Climate change and health researcher

Courtney is an emergency physician in Yellowknives Dene First Nation, Northwest Territories, a clinical associate professor at the University of Calgary and a 2022–23 Master of Public Policy candidate at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. 

She has researched the health and environmental impacts of menstrual cups and wildfires, and led policy work and advocacy regarding ecoanxiety, vaccine equity, active transport, plant-rich diets, fossil fuel divestment, carbon pricing and coal phase-out.

Courtney is a CMA board member and was the first woman president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. She is vice-chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance and is on the steering committee of the Planetary Health Alliance. She serves on the editorial advisory boards of the Lancet Planetary Health and the Journal of Climate Change and Health.

PANELLIST
Dr. Stephan Williams
Anesthesiologist, The University of Montreal Hospital Centre (CHUM)

Stephan is medical co-manager for carbon neutrality/sustainable development at CHUM and is part of a team tasked by the hospital to make it carbon neutral by 2040.

As the climate crisis represents the greatest health threat of the 21st century, and the means to mitigate this climate emergency are within our grasp, Stephan organizes numerous presentations for clinicians and non-clinicians on achieving carbon neutrality in health care.

Stephan is also a clinical investigator at the CHUM Research Centre, a clinical assistant professor at the Université de Montréal and chair of the Carbon Neutrality Committee of the Association des anesthésiologistes du Québec.

PANELLIST 
Dr. Melissa Lem 
President, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE)

Melissa is a Vancouver family physician who also works in rural and northern communities within Canada.

President of CAPE and Director of PaRx, Canada’s national nature prescription program powered by the BC Parks Foundation, she is an internationally recognized leader in the field of nature and health. She has also engaged in advocacy and policy work on issues ranging from climate change and hydraulic fracturing to sustainable health care and low-carbon transportation.

As a widely published writer, climate change panelist on CBC Radio's Early Edition, in-house medical columnist for CBC TV Vancouver, and clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, one of her major priorities is knowledge translation.

PANELLIST
Dr. Ojistoh Horn
Board member, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE)

Ojistoh is a Mohawk/Haudenosaunee woman whose mother is from Kahnawake and father is from Akwesasne. A family physician in Akwesasne, she cares for her people through all stages of the lifecycle and focuses her time in outpatient clinics, homes and long-term care facilities in the community.

Ojistoh teaches medical students and family medicine residents at McGill University, Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa the complexities of providing primary care to Indigenous Peoples and their communities.

As a CAPE board member with a focus on the effects of the environment and pollution on health, she promotes the inclusion and support of traditional knowledge and “ways of being” into a framework for providing holistic and primary care to her people.

SPEAKER
Dr. Douglas A. (Gus) Grant
Registrar and CEO, College of Physicians & Surgeons of Nova Scotia

Gus has served in leadership roles for many provincial and national organizations, including as a past president of the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada (FMRAC), a board member of the Medical Council of Canada and founding chair of the FMRAC Working Group on Anti-Indigenous Racism.

He is a co-author of the national guidelines on the use of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain and sits on the advisory council for PrescribeIT, a national initiative to implement and improve safe e-prescribing. Gus is a member of the Health Canada Task Force on Medical Assistance in Dying and has testified before parliamentary committees on the issue. 

A proud Haligonian, Gus maintains an active interest in any areas where law, medicine and the humanities overlap.

SPEAKER
Dr. Caroline Gérin-Lajoie
Executive Vice-President, Physician Wellness and Medical Culture, Canadian Medical Association (CMA)

Caroline is a bilingual psychiatrist and assistant professor in the University of Ottawa’s faculty of medicine and is cross-appointed to the palliative care division of the department of medicine. She has worked at The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) since 2000 and at its Cancer Centre since 2007, in leadership, teaching and clinical roles, including director of the faculty wellness program, faculty of medicine, and as the hospital’s first medical director of physician health and wellness.

She joined the CMA in January 2019 as its first vice-president of physician health and wellness, a role that has expanded to include medical culture.

In collaboration with colleagues at TOH, Caroline is working on implementing resiliency initiatives for physicians, trainees and staff and has received two grants to evaluate a resiliency pilot, create peer support training and develop a health care wellness application.

SPEAKER
Dr. Jeff Blackmer
Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice-President, Global Health, Canadian Medical Association (CMA)

At the CMA, Jeff has led the work of the association on issues such as global health, pandemic planning and response, end-of-life care and assisted dying, opioid prescribing and legalization of cannabis. He regularly serves as a CMA spokesperson on these and other issues for national and international media. 

Jeff is chair of the board of directors of the Canadian Association for Global Health and serves as an expert advisor to the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross and several other national medical associations and international organizations.

Jeff continues to teach at the University of Ottawa, giving numerous lectures every year at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

SPEAKER
Dr. Paula Cashin
Board member, Canadian Medical Association (CMA)

Paula is Canada’s first Indigenous radiologist and nuclear medicine physician. A Mi’kmaw physician based in rural Newfoundland, she advocates for equity, diversity and inclusion in medicine, drawing attention to systemic barriers through work with organizations like Equity in Medicine. 

Paula also openly discusses her own experiences with systemic discrimination and harassment, which prevented her from working as a physician for three years. 

She recently completed a Master of Laws (LLM) at Osgoode Hall Law School and is focused on the creation of a national physician dispute resolution process to address the potential career loss and patient safety issues that arise from unresolved workplace conflict and harassment. 

SPEAKER
Dr. Sarah Williams
Strategic advisor, Indigenous health, Canadian Medical Association (CMA)

Sarah is Michi-Saagiig Anishnaabe (Mississauga Ojibwa) from Curve Lake First Nation, in Southern Ontario, and lives in the Coast Salish territory of the Lekwungen people, in B.C.

After training as a family physician, she served the First Nations Health Authority in B.C. as the Senior Advisor for Health Services. Over the last decade, Sarah’s career has focused on bringing an Indigenous perspective to medicine and health care, and advocating for Indigenous Peoples’ right to access services that are culturally safe, trauma-informed and free from racism.