Description
Book SynopsisLaunched by healthcare providers in January 2018, the #aHand2Hold campaign confronted the Quebec government''s practice of separating children from their families during medical evacuation airlifts, which disproportionately affected remote and northern Indigenous communities. Pediatric emergency physician Samir Shaheen-Hussain''s captivating narrative of this successful campaign, which garnered unprecedented public attention and media coverage, seeks to answer lingering questions about why such a cruel practice remained in place for so long. In doing so it serves as an indispensable case study of contemporary medical colonialism in Quebec. Fighting for a Hand to Hold exposes the medical establishment''s role in the displacement, colonization, and genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Through meticulously gathered government documentation, historical scholarship, media reports, public inquiries, and personal testimonies, Shaheen-Hussain connects the draconian medevac practice with o
Trade Review"Anyone who thinks that racism in Canada is more benign than it is in the United States--or that Canada has left its genocidal policies in the past--must read Samir Shaheen-Hussain's new book. Fighting for A Hand to Hold is an engaging and well-documented analysis of medical colonialism that deserves further discussion and, most important, action." Canadian Dimension
"Fighting for a Hand to Hold is important in encouraging us to reflect and rethink it. Samir's call for the decolonisation of health care would entail reparations for Indigenous nations, which includes the return of land and sovereignty over the labour of care. Indigenous land defenders fighting colonial development, Indigenous projects of food sovereignty and agroecology, and the resurgence of Indigenous traditional knowledge, including practices of healing, all point to the importance of reclaiming sovereignty over care as pathways for decolonising health care." Race & Class
"Fighting for a Hand to Hold reveals systemic challenges through an approach that offers a holistic look at the structures that hold injustices in place. Inspired by patients, Shaheen-Hussain examines the impacts of medical colonialism on the lives of Indigenous young people. This book made me think about how we can create the change that is necessary to address the anti-Indigenous racism of Canada's past and present." Margo Greenwood, The Lancet
