February is Black History Month in Canada – a time to learn about, reflect on, and honour the legacy and contributions of Black people and their communities across Canada. This #TalkClinicalTrials blog is written by the Black Women’s Institute for Health (BWIH) and highlights their seminal report “Voices Unheard: Healthcare Barriers and the Lived Experiences of Black Women in Canada,” released in late 2025.
The Black Women’s Institute for Health is a national, Black-led organization transforming the conditions that harm Black women and girls across every social determinant of health in Canada. BWIH uses research, policy, and community-rooted programs to drive equity and build power through three pillars: Systemic Change, Advocacy, and Liberation Through Knowledge and Care. BWIH exists to make Black women visible, valued, and well.
The Voices Unheard Report is a call to action. It is a first in Canada and the result of nearly 2,000 Black women, girls, and gender-diverse people sharing their lived experiences across the social determinants of health. Their experiences come from accessing healthcare to navigating mental wellness, employment, education, and more.
The Report highlights disparities, amplifies truth, and names systemic harm. Six areas of healthcare disparities are documented:
- Medical conditions that disproportionately affect Black women, girls, and gender non-conforming people
- Black maternal health and medical neglect
- Severe and unique mental health challenges
- Exposure to racial violence, abuse, and increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder
- Burnout and emotional fatigue through toxic work environments and racial discrimination
- Black girls’ and youth’s early experiences with racism and identity.
Hear directly from those with first-hand lived experiences in Canada about their experiences, and learn about some of the Report’s findings in this short video
The truths brought to light in the Report are used to make recommendations for change, for and relating to: federal government; provincial and territorial governments; hospitals, public health units, and healthcare institutions; medical, nursing and hospital regulators and associations; employers, labour and economic policy; education, research and academic institutions; and cross-sectoral institutions and ministries.
The Report puts forward the following research-focused recommendations:
- Establish federally funded Black research institutes with full Black governance.
- Mandate Black Health Research Ethics Boards (BH-REB) for all federally funded research involving Black communities.
- Enforce Black data sovereignty and community ownership of research.
- Fund Africentric curriculum development across all levels of health education.
- Restructure health research funding distribution with transparency and justice.
- Embed community governance in all health research governance structures.
- Create reparative fellowships and career advancement programs for Black scholars.
- End predatory publishing and peer review exclusion of Black researchers.
An intersectional approach to healthcare is central to understanding the inequities highlighted in the Report. For Black women, girls, and gender-diverse people, health experiences are shaped by the interaction of multiple identities and systems—rather than by racism or sexism alone. Addressing these challenges requires moving beyond isolated solutions and toward approaches that consider social, cultural, and economic context across the research and healthcare landscape.
We encourage you to read the Report and reflect on the realities it surfaces and consider how you might take action. That could mean sharing this blog within your network or community, to connecting with BWIH for more information, or supporting systemic change within your own organization or institution. No action is too small, and each one plays a role in moving this work forward.