Reporting from Canada, #12: The Canadian Indigenous and the Middle East

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PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

As I covered in a column last October 14, 2024, titled “Indigenous People’s Day, Columbus Day, and the Holy Grail of a Human Race Day,” Native Americans continue to have the worse mental health statistics of any cultural group in the United States. Coming to Canada, I wondered how that country deals with their First Nations history. Note the plural, that there were—and are—multiple tribes in both countries, sometimes at war with one another historically. Such commonality should not be surprising given that there was much similarity of the 2 colonial counties of Great Britain in their displacement and destruction of the Native populations, and then later removal of children to be taught in residential schools under the guise of helping and “civilizing” them.

At the Blyth Theatre festival, we saw a play called “Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrifying Ojibway Rebellion.” It covered how Sir John MacDonald brought the country together, but also began the forced removal of children away from their families to often abusive schools. Canada, in contrast to the United States, set up The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which presented a final report in 2015.¹ There were 94 calls for action, but these have been basically unaddressed as there was no power to implement reparations. In Canada, too, their traumatic legacy is reflected in significant adverse mental health disparities, including suicide, and worse of all, in the Inuit.

Both countries often provide ongoing verbal public recognition and appreciation for using the land once shepherded by the Native populations that preceded the Europeans. We heard such statements by rote before most every performance we saw. However, I have yet to hear of any return of such land, although Canada, in contrast to the United States, does have a requirement to consult with First Nations who may have a claim to public land being deposed by the federal government.

The rights of the Indigenous gets even more complicated in the Middle East in regard to the ancestors of Israelis and Palestinians. History suggests that both peoples occupied different parts of that area of the Middle East over many centuries from the dawn of their living in the land. Israel, though, was conquered twice and sent in a Diaspora for about 2000 years before the current founding of Israel after a war with the Arab population soon after the Holocaust.

The general trend among Native Americans is in siding with the Palestinians and viewing Israel as a colonial power. To my surprise, not so apparently, with Native Canadians, at least according to the online article in Tablet by David Jager titled “What Real Decolonization Looks Like.” In it, Karen, a Native Canadian, is quoted²:

“The Israeli people are Indigenous people of the region, and they have an absolute right to be there.”

In so many countries colonized by Europeans, the Indigenous were conquered and traumatized, leaving their mental health compromised to this day. Intergenerational transmission of trauma makes colonized countries more psychologically vulnerable and, at trigger times, overreactive. We need a comprehensive study of this major global social psychiatric challenge and how to rectify it, which can hopefully then lead to a fair and peaceful sharing of the involved lands and resources.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.

References

1. Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Government of Canada. Updated December 12, 2024. Accessed August 11, 2025. https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1450124405592/1529106060525

2. Jager D. What real decolonization looks like. Tablet. August 7, 2025. Accessed August 11, 2025. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/real-decolonization-indigenous-peoples