Two Black medical students aren’t waiting for anyone’s permission to lead tough conversations about race and equity at their schools.
“It really comes down to who's in the room, who's at the table,†Ikunna Nwosu, a fourth-year medical student at Queen’s University, told CTVNews.ca in a video interview last month.
“I found that there isn't this huge malicious intent necessarily for people to not improve their curriculum or not necessarily improve what they're teaching medical students. But many just don’t have that lived experience,†she said, adding that lecturers, administrators and fellow students need to look for ways to give their Black peers the space to openly critique issues such as microaggressions, the lack of collecting race-based data overall and increasing Black enrollment.
Nwosu and others have felt emboldened to speak up following the social upheaval during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, sparked by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of former police officer Derek Chauvin in Minnesota.
“For a lot of non-Black folks -- who are seeking to be allies -- just being not racist isn't enough,†Kimberley Thomas, a first-year medical student at the University of British Columbia (UBC), told CTVNews.ca in the same interview.
“[Being] anti-racist is a very active process and it's something that doesn't have an end point. It's something that's ongoing and it takes experience.â€
Thomas, who’s also the western regional director of the Black Medical Students’ Association of Canada, said part of undoing decades of systemic racism means mentoring others and finding working physicians to do the same.
It’s one of the initiatives her group is spearheading, but even this is an ongoing challenge.
“I go to the largest medical school in Canada at UBC and I'm the only Black student in my class,†she said. “There's one above me and then there's one in the class below. And so, for me to find those networks, to find people who have traversed medical school, it was really difficult.â€
Nwosu, who also chairs the Black Medical Students’ Association of Canada, said that since 2020, her group has been holding universities accountable by tracking schools’ pledges to fight systemic racism to actual initiatives and tangible changes.
To see what some medical schools have been doing well so far, check out the video above.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh got into a heated exchange in the House of Commons on Thursday, just minutes after Singh announced his party would not be supporting the Conservatives' first non-confidence motion against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Treasury Board President Anita Anand to take on additional duties as Canada's minister of transport on Thursday.
CTV News has learned there are multiple Canadian women alleging they were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the late Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed.
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A federal law enforcement agency confirmed it's opened an investigation into Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he allegedly cut off the head of a dead whale and took it home two decades ago.
A judge in a rural Kentucky county was shot and killed in his courthouse chambers Thursday, and the local sheriff was charged with murder, police said.
Israel warned U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in a call Tuesday that a military operation was going to take place in Lebanon but gave no details, U.S. officials said Thursday. The same day of the call, in an attack widely blamed on Israel, thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants exploded.
A 22-year-old woman who became an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child tells her story in a new campaign ad for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
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Israeli security services said on Thursday they had arrested an Israeli citizen on suspicion of involvement in an Iranian-backed assassination plot targeting prominent people including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The head of Via Rail repeatedly told MPs a train delay over the Labour Day long weekend was an isolated incident, despite a similar event two years ago.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Treasury Board President Anita Anand to take on additional duties as Canada's minister of transport on Thursday.
Ontario’s Minister of Sport, Neil Lumsden, will donate his brain to research.
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Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport, the National News Agency reported, after thousands of such devices exploded during a deadly attack on Hezbollah this week.
NASA scientists have successfully replicated spider-like shapes found on the surface of Mars in a laboratory setting for the first time.
Lawyers representing the producers of 'Russians at War' say they may pursue legal action against Ontario's public broadcaster for pulling support for the controversial documentary amid outcry from the Ukrainian community and some Canadian politicians.
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British actress Florence Pugh has revealed that shaving her head for her latest movie role was a 'really bizarre' experience that sent her body 'into a bit of trauma.'
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Nike Inc. said Thursday it has named Elliott Hill as its president and CEO, replacing John Donahoe, who will retire next month.
Maple Leaf Foods asserted its innocence in an alleged bread price-fixing scheme ahead of a hearing to determine whether it will be added to an ongoing class-action lawsuit.
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Shohei Ohtani became the first major league player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season, with the Los Angeles Dodgers star going deep twice to reach the half-century mark and swiping two bags to get to 51 against the Miami Marlins on Thursday.
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The Parole Board of Canada says a man who assaulted a young pregnant woman and left her for dead remains too dangerous to be released into the community.
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A union representative says someone driving a pick-up truck with heavily tinted windows rammed a member on Western Road, near Elborn College.
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SERVEONE Canada, a global procurement solution company, has begun Canadian operations in Tecumseh.
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In a rare move, the Greater Victoria School District Board of Education has been slapped with a ministerial order from the province requiring it to update a student safety plan – drawing concern around political posturing leading up to an election.
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The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.
Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls – including one that gave birth to 10 puppies – from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.
A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.
A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.
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A new community health profile in the Algoma District shows the area is significantly below provincial averages in a number of health metrics.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester’s farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
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