Senator says she was never told her 2005 surgery would leave her sterile

OTTAWA - A Quebec senator says she was never told by her doctor that a surgical procedure she went through in 2005 would render her unable to have children, and hopes her story can advance a broader reckoning on systemic racism in Canada.

Sen. Amina Gerba told her story to her colleagues on the floor of the Senate earlier this month. She said she went public to support legislation before the Senate to criminalize forced or coerced sterilizations.

"I never wanted to be seen as someone who played the victim. I always fought to move forward," Sen. Amina Gerba told The Canadian Press in an emotional French-language interview this week.

"I didn't want to talk about it at all. But it was too hard to keep quiet."

Gerba said her uterus was removed in 2005 in a Montreal hospital.

She said tha