Indigenous two-spirit woman files human rights complaint against London Health Sciences Centre

An Anishinaabe two-spirit woman has filed a human rights complaint against the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), alleging discrimination at southwestern Ontario's largest hospital and hoping to bring systemic change to the health-care system.

Hollee George, 44, describes her two-day experience at LHSC in November 2020 as terrifying and dehumanizing. What began as an appointment for a routine endoscopy ended with the hospital wanting to discharge George in the middle of the night with no personal belongings and nowhere to go. 

She also says she overheard offensive comments and was treated with a lack of trust. The LHSC won't comment on the case due to confidentiality rules but says it's committed to an inclusive environment.

"My story is the story of many," George told CBC News. "The systems that we deal with every day, as Indigenous people, as two-spirit people, are so harmful, spiritually and physically."

George's treatment constitutes discrimination based on her race, colour, ancestry, ethnic origin and creed, as well as sex and disability, the filing with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal alleges.

George is a member of Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation. She belongs to the Sturgeon Clan. She was raised in Sarnia and now lives in Kitchener-Waterloo with her wife.  

She is visibly Indigenous, has a prominent tattoo featuring Indigenous art on her chest, and wears a medicine pouch around her neck. She is also a medical cannabis user. 

Throughout her stay at LHSC, nurses and doctors treated her as if they didn't believe the seriousness of her condition, assumed she was faking it and insinuated she was lazy, deceptive and a drug addict, George told CBC News.

"This is not just my harm or my experience. I'm just using it to bring it to the forefront, to affect systemic change, because truly, nobody should have to deal with what I had to deal with."

Sarah Baldwin, George's Toronto-based lawyer, said there's a common misconception that discrimination is always very deliberate and direct, like a racial slur. 

"Often, it's things that are more subtle, that are harder to point to," Baldwin said. "Generally, people who have been experiencing that kind of subtle discrimination their whole life know it when they see it. People without those lived experiences, they don't see it. Often it's not intentional, it's often not even conscious. Discrimination can exist in the application of what you think are neutral policies." 

After being put under for her endoscopy, George expected to be released an hour later. Her dad was waiting for her in the hospital parking lot to take her home to Waterloo. 

When she woke up, it was to the feeling of hands on her legs and genitals, inserting a catheter.

"I was unable to move my body, open my eyes, or speak, no matter how hard I tried," George wrote in her human rights complaint. "I felt violated and scared by what was happening.... This approach is especially inappropriate with a two-spirit Indigenous woman patient."