Good medicine from two top Indigenous medical professionals

Two Indigenous health care professionals; two leaders in their field. They talk about the challenges and the opportunities to fix a broken healthcare system that too often harms Indigenous people.

Dr. Alika Lafontaine says Indigenous people are starting to take their place in institutions like the medical field. He would know, he’s done it as the first Indigenous physician to head the Canadian Medical Association - the largest advocacy group for Canadian doctors. Dr. Lafontaine, who is Oji-Cree and Pacific Islander, is positioned to make change. Dr. Lafontaine tells us how he uses his position as a leader in his field to uplift others, just as he has been lifted up by others before him.

As one of only a few Indigenous pharmacists in Canada, Jaris Swidrovich knows about making space. When they started in the field, Indigenous pharmacists were few and far between. Longing for community, they founded the Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada to support other Indigenous pharmacists and make room for Indigenous ways of teaching and healing. Jaris, who is Saulteaux and Ukrainian, is also an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s faculty of pharmacy.