ADDENDUM::J.J. has a chance to live! – Respectful Insolence

Although I have already posted concerning the recent ruling regarding the care JJ is now receiving, there are two points that Orac highlights that bear a closer look.  He is a bit more blunt than I can be (comfortably),,,

A point I was not aware of or missed completely in regards to the original ruling:

Even though Clement’s quackery had nothing to do with traditional aboriginal medicine, Ontario Court Justice Gethin Edward, who belongs to the same Six Nations band as JJ, ruled that the parents could choose Clement’s quackery instead of chemotherapy, all in the name of “aboriginal rights.” At the time, I characterized the decision as ruling that the parents can let their daughter die.

Concerning the recent compromise and the "acceptance" of Clement's woo as aboriginal medicine:

It still irks me that the first time around the judge seemed to conflate Brian Clement’s quackery with aboriginal medicine in his decision in that his decision was that JJ’s family had the right to use aboriginal medicine, not that they had the right to fly to Florida and subject JJ to the quackery of a man whose wheatgrass enema treatments have about as much to do with aboriginal culture as Eminem. Yet almost no one that I saw from the aboriginal community actually pointed out that basic fact, so intent were they to claim this decision as a victory for native rights,,,.
,,,
Edward’s ruling was a ruling that delayed effective treatment for JJ for five months and allowed her cancer to relapse. Never mind that JJ wasn’t being treated by aboriginal healers at all, but rather a white quack from Florida! If JJ ultimately dies, it will have been the ruling that let that happen. After all, we’ve already seen what happened when a parent stuck with Brian Clement’s quackery to treat her daughter’s lymphoblastic leukemia. I’m referring, of course, to the case of Makayla Sault, whose mother took her to HHI and who died in January of her leukemia, very likely unnecessarily given that she had a good chance of long term survival with proper treatment. It’s a good thing that Justice Edward was given the opportunity to “walk back” his ruling. It’s not a good thing that it apparently took JJ’s relapse to do it.

Despite all this, it still does not answer the whole conundrum of indigenous rights to self governance as highlighted in some of the comments:

Judge Edward couldn’t really separate Clement from the aboriginal medicine issue, due to the way the case was brought. J.J’s parents claimed they were going to use Native Medicine, so McMaster cited ‘Native Medicine’ in it’s order of protection, and it’s appeal to the court, essentially conceding that however J.J. was being treated WAS ‘Native Medicine’. . This was the HOSPITAL putting politics over J.J.’s life, (though I can’t say how intentional it was in that). That is, McMaster sought a broad ruling that would force Children’s Services to take First Nations children into custody on the hospital’s say-so, essentially without oversight — the hospital wanted the whole Native Medicine argument declared illegitimate. AFAIK, McMaster made no attempt whatsoever to amend the complaint, but let it ride as an ‘Aboriginal Rights’ issue before Judge Edward, even though J. J. was at HHI during the proceedings!!
,,,
Having outsiders involved in that decision assumes a level of knowledge they just don’t have, and also that one snapshot in time is important, rather than seeing culture as dynamic and evolving. It sounds obvious when it is written like that, but most people’s gut reaction assumes indigenous culture was frozen at colonisation, and any change is ‘adulteration’ because of white people.

J.J. has a chance to live! – Respectful Insolence