Aboriginals and preferential treatment in the medical school admissions process

[tejolson]

Aboriginals are a minority. Do you know how crazy that is? I'll say that again, we are a minority in our own country. Perhaps I misswrote that. Many Aboriginals don't recognize themselves as Canadian. Anyway, I bet Italians are not a minority in Italy. If you don't like the preferential treatment, perhaps you should go back to your country of origin. The playing feild will be fair at least.

I've had a cracked tooth my entire life, and on that tooth was a murcury filling. When I complained to my white doctor, did he notice? All of the symtoms were there. Perhaps he is amused by injuns that happen to also be madhatters. He was an old school doctor that was likely involved in the sterilization of many Aboriginals. Should I trust he was simply mistaken?

[Rext]

Originally Posted by tejolson

Aboriginals are a minority. Do you know how crazy that is? I'll say that again, we are a minority in our own country. Perhaps I misswrote that. Many Aboriginals don't recognize themselves as Canadian. Anyway, I bet Italians are not a minority in Italy. If you don't like the preferential treatment, perhaps you should go back to your country of origin. The playing feild will be fair at least.

I've had a cracked tooth my entire life, and on that tooth was a murcury filling. When I complained to my white doctor, did he notice? All of the symtoms were there. Perhaps he is amused by injuns that happen to also be madhatters. He was an old school doctor that was likely involved in the sterilization of many Aboriginals. Should I trust he was simply mistaken?

This topic is one of the most debated topics when it comes to med school admissions and health policy so I think its appropriate for a bump considering its still a current and applicable issue.

To address some of the points that from the quoted message above, firstly, I understand the sense of entitlement to the country that aboriginals feel. Yes, the white man came and essentially scammed and stole the land from aboriginals. Yes, there have been brutal regimes in the past (e.g. residential schools) which blatantly discriminated against the aboriginal peoples. But I would like to think that Canada as a whole is a multicultural society of equity and equal opportunity. I realize that injustice exists in our society but at the same time, I don't consider anyone any more or less of a Canadian based on how long their ancestors have lived here. Upholding our commitment to multiculturalism and diversity, aboroginals aren't any more Canadian than a first generation immigrant from Italy (to continue with the example given).

For the second part of your quote dealing with the cracked tooth, I didn't really understand what you meant by "perhaps he is amused by injuns that happen to also be madhatters" so I won't address this point, if you could clarify, that'd be greatly appreciated. I really don't think you should base the entire medical system on your experience(s) with a single doctor. Regardless of the system, there are always going to be jerks in the field. Yes, there are many doctors who are simply douchebags but I would like to believe that they represent a minority. I would advise you to seek another doctor if your tooth is truly bothering you. Oh, and I would also suggest that you see a dentist who probably know more about oral health than any general physician would.

Personally, I don't think its just or in any sense equitable to give aboriginal applicants preferential treatment in the admission process. Yes, its true that they're under-represented and that Canada as a country has mistreated them since before confederation. But this argument applies to a whole slew of different populations in Canada. I think it would be much more effective if various medical schools set aside seats for potential candidates who wish to practice in rural areas/reserves and to bind these candidates with a contract to indeed practice in these areas.

[mavrik13]

People actually think this is unfair? Wow. I don't even know where to begin. Think about this. Aboriginal communities have a very hard time recruiting doctors. Similar to regional differences in admissions (which I also strongly support, as it ensures that schools like Dalhousie are recruiting physicians who are FAR more likely to stay in the Maritimes), by allowing aboriginals easier access to medical school (and I would argue that their "easier access GPA" is actually a lot tougher to obtain than the typical premed student getting a 3.95 GPA) we are supporting healthcare in under-privilidged communities.

I stand by and fully support the decision to train doctors to practice in remote, rural, aboriginal, underrepresented, whatever, communities by recruiting with lower standards from these areas. This IS what equity is about, and equity in producing doctors for the entire Canadian population is achieved through these means.

Feels good to get that off my chest after reading part of this 3 year old thread.

[Mourning Cloak]

Originally Posted by tejolson

I've had a cracked tooth my entire life, and on that tooth was a murcury filling. When I complained to my white doctor, did he notice?

OUCH! Doesn't a cracked tooth x lifetime hurt?

Forget the doctor - GO TO A DENTIST.

Good news: amalgam doesn't cause mercury poisoning (see the ADA's 2004 lit review on the subject). If it did, the dentists would all be mad (the occupational exposure to mercury for dentists and dental students is far higher than that of the patient) and, arguably, they're not.

Now good news / bad news: removal of amalgam fillings in patients complaining of associated symptoms did eventually decrease the levels of mercury in their urine (from really, really low to really, really, really low), but it did not improve their symptoms, or improve their quality of life. Some authors have suggested that amalgam removal is merely a (unsuccessful) placebo treatment, and ignores the deeper issues that cause the patient's symptoms in the first place. I did find one German study from 2008 that showed that health promotion counseling was as statistically as successful an intervention in improving symptoms as performing amalgam removal.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10649939
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11232913
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15256302
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20074291
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18362317

[Cnussey]

I can sit here and type a million and one reasons why I think affirmative action is still required for aboriginals, but it won't do any good...I've believed this for a long time, but I haven't believed it MORE than I do right now. You guys need to go to some of the small, rural, isolated communities and then try and tell yourselves you're living in an equitable country.

[islander2010]

Firstly, aboriginals might refer to this land, rather than country when it comes to entitlement issues. Insofar as the country is concerned you are absolutely right. We may not belong to Canada any more than anyone else, but we certainly belong to this land - morally and ethically. Let's not forget that the aboriginals lost their land to thievery or at the very least, white trickery (yes, the treaties are nonsense).

The issue and the argument really is that due to colonization and white policy forced upon us, indians have been disadvanted from the start. - Indiant Act, Land Treaties, Residential Schools (as you mentioned, making it a legal requirement to send aboriginal kids off to become "civilized", to kill the Indian in the child, where we could not practice our own language or our own customs. If an aboriginal did so, they were beaten, starved, or sexually abused and sodomized) Now before I get too far off the topic with respect to medical school - obviously medicine is one of the most important issues we face - what have you got without your health? We have inherent rights to either have our own medical system -where aboriginal students can train to become doctors and treat their own people (where health issues are statistically worse) or be offered guaranteed seats in the current medical training system (which, ironically, is the way things are being done!).

We are fighting for those seats, we are getting them, and we are going to get more.


http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fniah-spnia/d...ndicat-eng.php

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fniah-spnia/intro-eng.php

http://www.naho.ca/english/publications/DP_rights.pdf

Originally Posted by Rext

This topic is one of the most debated topics when it comes to med school admissions and health policy so I think its appropriate for a bump considering its still a current and applicable issue.

To address some of the points that from the quoted message above, firstly, I understand the sense of entitlement to the country that aboriginals feel. Yes, the white man came and essentially scammed and stole the land from aboriginals. Yes, there have been brutal regimes in the past (e.g. residential schools) which blatantly discriminated against the aboriginal peoples. But I would like to think that Canada as a whole is a multicultural society of equity and equal opportunity. I realize that injustice exists in our society but at the same time, I don't consider anyone any more or less of a Canadian based on how long their ancestors have lived here. Upholding our commitment to multiculturalism and diversity, aboroginals aren't any more Canadian than a first generation immigrant from Italy (to continue with the example given).
Personally, I don't think its just or in any sense equitable to give aboriginal applicants preferential treatment in the admission process. Yes, its true that they're under-represented and that Canada as a country has mistreated them since before confederation. But this argument applies to a whole slew of different populations in Canada. I think it would be much more effective if various medical schools set aside seats for potential candidates who wish to practice in rural areas/reserves and to bind these candidates with a contract to indeed practice in these areas.