When the Canadian Institutes of Health Research was first established in 2000, the Institute of Aboriginal Peoples Health (IAPH) was one of its 13 research institutes. IAPH’s two scientific directors to date moved with creativity and conviction to tackle the need to prepare a cadre of mostly Aboriginal health researchers, to reform guidelines on the ethics of research with Aboriginal peoples, and to engage with Aboriginal communities in all aspects of the research process.
But over the last three years the senior leadership at CIHR has changed course. There are several actions that are cause for concern. While most of these reflect decisions by CIHR senior leadership applied system-wide, the Aboriginal health community knows that system-wide policy will result in unequal impacts experienced by this relatively new sub-specialty of heath research, ultimately preventing progress on Canada’s biggest health challenge: the health and well-being of Aboriginal populations in Canada.
In recent decisions the governing council of CIHR has:
• Terminated funding for the celebrated NEAHR program (Network Environments for Aboriginal Health Research). This program supported dozens of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Masters and PhD students at any one time. This will sharply reduce the number of highly-educated Aboriginal health researchers who can apply for university positions, CIHR grants or work for Aboriginal community-based and political organizations. Research prepared individuals in communities are essential for fair and equal university-community partnerships.
• Put in place a requirement for a number of its granting programs that applicants not only have to succeed in highly-competitive peer review processes (only about 15 to 20 per cent of proposals are funded), but must also line up a measure of matching funds from sources other than CIHR. In the Aboriginal health research field, matching funding is almost impossible to obtain. Yet, in programs such as CIHR’s Pathways, evidence of cash or in kind partner leveraging is required before the application is even considered on its academic merits.
• Set out on a path to eliminate an Aboriginal-specific peer review process for research proposals. Aboriginal health research is different primarily because it requires trust building and engagement with Aboriginal communities in the research process from beginning to end. Mainstream researchers on peer review committees who do not have a background in Aboriginal health research are ill-equipped to judge proposals, leaving Aboriginal health researchers at an unfair disadvantage in funding opportunities.
• Cut the budget of IAPH and other institutes in half and redirected the funds saved to a common pool for which institutes will have to compete with each other, and retaining the fund matching requirement, which again disadvantages Aboriginal Health researchers. In any event, the new funding arrangement sharply reduces the amount of strategic funding that is available for research that is primarily determined by IAPH.
• Set out to eliminate the individual institute advisory boards in favour of four clustered boards — a move that removes the only advisory mechanism entirely devoted to Aboriginal health and one that creates a circumstance where Aboriginal voices will invariably be a small minority in the new groups.
• While IAPH will continue to operate from its base at Simon Fraser University, the Ottawa-based staff of IAPH will lose their identification with the institute and become assigned to more general duties.
In summary, CIHR has eliminated the main program that seeks to build strength in Aboriginal health research, placed additional obstacles in the way of those who would apply for funding, and weakened the means by which a strong First Nation, Métis and Inuit voice is heard within the organization. At a time when many public institutions such as universities and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, among others, are struggling to adapt their structures and programs to provide a respected place for First Nation, Métis and Inuit people, CIHR seems intent on going the other way, undoing what has so painstakingly been put in place in earlier years.
The Aboriginal health community has organized an 11-member steering committee to coordinate a response to the recent decisions made by CIHR. Steering committee members sent letters to the head of CIHR in advance of the governing council meeting held Nov. 18, 2014, and these are collected together on the web site
kahwatsire.com. The group made two requests of the CIHR president and governing council: (1) that CIHR make no decisions, or take any steps to implement previous decisions, that would have the effect of further undermining the Aboriginal health presence within CIHR and its programs and (2) that the senior leadership of CIHR agree to participate with the IAPH leadership and steering committee representatives in a process to address and resolve the full range of issues described above.
Many Aboriginal and mainstream Canadian individuals and organizations, including CAUT, have supported these requests. Chiefs from across Canada at an Assembly of First Nations meeting in December passed a resolution calling for “the federal government and CIHR to immediately restore full funding to the Institute of Aboriginal Peoples Health (IAPH) and reverse the dismantling process of one of the most highly regarded Aboriginal health research organizations in the world.”
Alain Beaudet, CIHR president and chair of the governing council, responded on Dec. 9, 2014 to the letters that had been received. A teleconference was held with CIHR vice-presidents two weeks later, involving the co-chairs of the steering committee, the scientific director of IAPH and the chair of the IAPH advisory board. At that time, it was agreed to convene a series of meetings in the New Year with representatives from the steering committee and IAPH to discuss concerns.
It will be critical in the months ahead for academic researchers to continue putting pressure on CIHR to ensure that we remedy, and not perpetuate, the historic marginalization experienced by Aboriginal Peoples.
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Fred Wien is professor emeritus in Dalhousie University’s faculty of health professions and former deputy director of research for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. He can be reached at
frederic.wien@dal.ca.
Rod McCormick, Kanienkehaka, is a professor of aboriginal education at Thompson Rivers University and the BCIC Research Chair in Aboriginal Child and Maternal Health. He can be reached at
RMcCormick@tru.ca.
Drs. McCormick and Wien chair the Aboriginal Health Research Steering Committee.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily CAUT.
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