Social Policy in Ontario

Black women say they’re at risk due to unequal health care. The Ford government is being urged to act

Posted on May 7, 2026 in Health Debates

Source: TheStar.com — Authors: Daysha Lope

TheStar.com – GTA
May 7, 2026.   By Daysha Loppie, Staff Reporter

Black Women’s Institute of Health pushed for urgent action based on the results of its national survey on the experiences of Black women and girls.

During her first pregnancy, a Black woman said she bled out at a Toronto hospital while waiting at triage; she wasn’t considered an urgent patient. She gave birth in the bathroom.

Another Black respondent to a health survey said that after life-threatening symptoms were dismissed and downgraded, she feels she’s only alive because she advocated for herself. She was able to find a diagnosis for her illnesses, and presented it to medical professionals, convincing them to treat her.

At Queen’s Park on Wednesday, the Black Women’s Institute of Health pushed for urgent action on equity for Black women’s health, based on these experiences, shared by women in a report completed by the institute. The report, “Voices UnHeard,” was based on the findings of a first-of-its-kind national survey that focused on the experiences of Black women and girls and health care.

“There’s nothing in this report that I would say I haven’t lived or experienced,” said Kearie Daniel, who spearheaded the report and is the executive director of Black Women’s Institute for Health.

“This is the first time ever that we had anyone survey Black women across this country to this extent in a cohesive way,” Daniel said.

This cancer survivor waited 18 hours in the ER. How a new study highlights unequal care for Black women in Canada

Researchers say there’s a lack of data about the experiences of Black women and girls in Canada when accessing health-care — that’s why a report like this is desperately needed. A health system ill-equipped to provide a basic standard of care for a community group that already disproportionately faces higher rates of certain chronic illnesses and medical conditions could lead to worse health outcomes and higher mortality.

The briefing Wednesday “was part of taking the report from just a report into action,” Daniel said.

The “Voices UnHeard” report was published in November. The report served as an anchor for the policy and legislative moves Daniel is advocating for at Queen’s Park.

The briefing followed Tuesday’s tabling by the NDP of the Black Health Equity and Accountability Act, 2026 (Bill 115), which Daniel says aligns with many of the 70 recommendations in the report.

It looked at different areas of health, from reproductive health to mental health to gender-based violence. The survey collected data from 1,966 participants with a range of ages, income brackets and levels of education from survey respondents, focus groups and attendees of town halls.

More than three-quarters of the participants were from Ontario, the province with the largest Black population in Canada. In 2021, the last national census, there were about 1.5 million Black people in Canada, and 342,275 Black people lived in Ontario.

“In order to not only shine a light on the issue, but also to rectify, to correct, to address health inequities, we have to give voice to the stories,” said Daniel. “And that’s what we’ve tried to do.”

The top barriers Black women and girls said they faced when trying to access health care were long wait times and a lack of culturally competent health providers. Some respondents said they avoided accessing health care because they were worried about how they’d be treated as a Black woman or girl: 67 per cent of respondents said when they presented issues to health-care professionals, they were not taken seriously or were dismissed.

Mental health was a key topic, with having suicidal thoughts as a top concern. About 27.4 per cent of respondents said they struggled with thoughts of self-harm.

The report fills in a gap created by a persistent lack of data across health sectors nationally — part of a broader pattern of race-based data not collected by Canadian institutions.

“It’s important to start collecting the data because we are operating blind,” said Daniel, adding that Canada is far behind the U.S. and the U.K. in that sense.

That’s also why the report listed recommendations for action across sectors including provincial and federal government, hospitals and public health units, regulatory associations, employment and labour, education and research.

Among those recommendations, it called for the implementation and enforcement of data collection, funding for research and to invest in Black-led pathways into the health workforce, and Black-led providers and wellness programs. It also called for legislation to support changes, including amendments to the Canada Health Act and the creation of provincial Black Health Equity acts.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/black-women-say-theyre-at-risk-due-to-unequal-health-care-the-ford-government-is-being-urged-to-act/article_b523d1e8-b3c3-4c1d-8784-49e40051f3fe.html

Tags: Education, Health, multiculturalism, women

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