First Nations leaders are applauding an Ontario judge's decision, after he ruled an 11-year-old aboriginal girl with cancer has a constitutional right to forgo chemotherapy in favour of traditional medicine.
In a precedent-setting ruling issued Friday, Justice Gethin Edward rejected a bid by McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton to compel her family and the Brant Family Children's Services (BFCS) to force the 11-year-old girl to resume chemo treatments.
Justice Edward said the family's constitutional right to choose aboriginal treatment must be upheld.
The chief of the girl's Six Nations Reserve hailed the decision as an acknowledgement of First Nations' culture and autonomy.
"No longer are we going to let people come and take our kids," said Chief Ava Hill. "We've been practicing traditional medicine, we've never stopped, and now we're just going to do it more openly."
The girl, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, had been receiving chemotherapy for leukemia at McMaster earlier this year. But in September, the child’s mother stopped the chemotherapy and took her to Florida to receive herbal treatments.
At the time, the BFCS said it would not remove the girl from her mother’s care or force her to resume chemotherapy. The hospital took the agency to court in an attempt to force it to intervene.
On Friday, Justice Edward sided with the BFCS in upholding the right of the aboriginal girl's family to choose her treatment.
"It just reaffirms our right to be able to practice our medicines and our traditions in our way," added Chief Bryan LaForme of the Mississaugas of New Credit, a neighbouring reserve.
Lawyer Mark Handelman, who represented the BFCS in the case, said aboriginal rights were at the heart of the court battle with the hospital.
Handelman said the decision recognizes the rights of First Nations to "practice their own medicine," while reminding health-care providers they must factor in the wishes and beliefs of the patient when administering treatment.
"I think this is a landmark case and I think it will ripple at length," Handelman told the Canadian Press on Friday.
The judge ruled that First Nations healing practices were in place before the arrival of Europeans in North America, and so are entitled to constitutional protection, Handelman said.
The girl's family is now free to pursue traditional treatments, or to resume chemotherapy in the future.
Handelman said the family has returned to Canada from the U.S., and the girl has been referred to an oncologist at a different hospital.
McMaster doctors say the girl has about a 90 to 95 per cent chance of survival with chemotherapy treatments.
"Our goal has always been to provide therapy to save the child's life," hospital president Dr. Peter Fitzgerald said on Friday. "Today's court decision hasn't changed that."
"I don't think we're risking our kids' lives," Chief Hill said. "Her mother loves her to the world and back."
The hospital acknowledged the court case as a "difficult circumstance for everyone involved" in a statement posted on its website Friday. In the statement, the hospital calls the judge's decision "appropriate," before adding that it is not opposed to using traditional healing methods alongside chemotherapy.
"We have always supported this family's decision to use traditional aboriginal healing practices in conjunction with conventional medical treatment," the statement says. "We remain committed to support this child's treatment with compassion and respect."
The judge's decision will also be a welcome one for Makayla Sault, another 11-year-old First Nations girl who decided to give up chemotherapy in favour of traditional medicine. Sault touched off debate over alternative cancer treatments last May when she posted a video to YouTube announcing her decision to stop chemo.
Sault had also been receiving chemotherapy at the McMaster Children's Hospital before she decided to stop the treatments. The hospital asked the Children's Aid Society to get involved in her case, but the organization refused to remove her from her family.
With files from the Canadian Press
