Aboriginal right--or wrong?

• Author: Edmond, John
• Position: Obituary

Two eleven-year-old girls from neighbouring First Nations in southwestern Ontario were diagnosed last year with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow. Both received chemotherapy, then stopped. One has died. Makayla Sault of the Missisaugas of the New Credit, after eleven weeks, told her parents that the treatments were "killing her," and discontinued the treatment last spring. She died in January, after following "alternative remedies," including an $18,000 treatment at the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida.

The Institute is run by Brian Clement, a "nutrition counsellor" claiming a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Science Arts and Technology of Montserrat, where it has been refused medical accreditation. Licensed as a "massage establishment," treatments include cold laser therapy, Vitamin C injections and a strict raw food diet, not to mention Aqua Chi Ionic Footbath, BioEnergy Field Intervention and The Power of The Mind in Getting Well Program[TM], none of which seems particularly Aboriginal.

According to the First Nation, "Makayla was on her way to wellness, bravely fighting toward holistic well-being after the harsh side effects that 12 weeks of chemotherapy inflicted on her body. Chemotherapy did irreversible damage to her heart and major organs. This was the cause of the stroke." But a pediatric oncologist is quoted as saying no drug could have caused a stroke months after the fact: Her death "had absolutely nothing to do with the chemo [and] probably has everything to do with the leukemia coming back." He explained that cancer cells accumulating in untreated blood make it more viscous, causing clots and so a stroke.

The other young girl can be known only as J.J., by court order. From the Six Nations, she was the subject of a remarkable decision by the Ontario Court of Justice (the provincial court) that found her mother to have a constitutionally-protected right to pursue traditional medicine. J.J. started chemotherapy in August, but her mother withdrew consent after 12 days, having spoken with Clement: "He had the tone of voice where he was so confident. By him saying, 'Oh yes no problem we can help her,' that's the day I stopped the chemo." The family found the money to attend the Institute in Florida.

The Ontario hospital applied to the Court a few weeks later for an order stating that J.J. was "a child in need of protection," and requiring her to be returned for treatment. Under the Ontario...