The Indigenous Health Centre of Tiohtià:ke: A Necessity, not a Luxury

By Hillary Wright

In spotlight is the Indigenous Health Centre of Tiohtià:ke (IHCT), a community health centre that provides necessary care to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis in the Montréal area and to those visiting the area. Approaching its 10th anniversary, the clinic is a celebration of hard work, determination, and compassion – removing barriers, delivering culturally sensitive care, and doing so with no charge to its clientele.

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with three members of the Operations Team at the clinic: Carrie Martin, the Clinic’s Executive Director; Shirley Pien-Berube, a Health Navigator at the Clinic; and Eden Gladstone Martin, the Family Violence Prevention Program Coordinator. Our discussion illuminated the path the clinic and its team trudged to reach where they are today and highlighted both the impressive successes and ongoing challenges the clinic faces today. In this spotlight piece, I hope to bring your attention to the successes of the clinic and put forward an important discussion of key challenges that stand in the way of the clinic’s continued evolution and expansion.

The clinic’s development

In the early 2000s, Gary Carbonell, who has since passed, proposed of opening an Indigenous Health Care Clinic to serve First Nations, Inuit, and Métis from in and around the Montréal area. Ottawa had the Wabano Centre for Indigenous Health (est. 1998), and Toronto had Anishinawbe Health Toronto since the 1980s – so why did Montréal have no space designated to offer culturally safe and affordable health care to Indigenous Peoples?

In 2008, the work of the IHCT began, initially as a patchwork of volunteers, small grants, and small projects (e.g., COVID relief, garden projects, and skateboard projects). It was only in 2022, over 20 years after Ottawa and Toronto, that the IHCT was able to secure enough funding to operate with staff and a building. As Carrie Martin, Executive Director of the IHCT explained, the government and potential funding partners kept saying “use what exists.” Eventually, the team secured funding from five foundations, allowing them the ability to hire an executive director and rent a suite out of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Operations Today

As stated on their website, the priority of the clinic is to “increase access to culturally safe, holistic health services for urban Indigenous people of Montreal,” and “improve health and reduce health disparities of the urban indigenous people of Montreal.” The clinic can be found at 2100 ave. de Marlowe, Suite 236 in Montreal, QC, and can be accessed through its urgent care clinic on Wednesdays from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm, or Thursdays from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. Additional clinic hours or changes to the current schedule might arise, subject to the doctors’ availability. Up to date information regarding the clinic's operating hours can be found on Facebook or by calling the clinic at 514-482-8557. The clinic also offers an extensive list of health-related services, beyond those responsive to urgent care needs. Such services are outlined below

Health Navigation: A program offering support and advocacy to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis as they navigate the health care system

Intervention: Intervention workers connect First Nations, Inuit, and Métis community members to culturally safe and respectful essential services and resources

Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infections (STBBI): The clinic has an extensive STBBI program that aims to both raise awareness and support the acute and continuous care of those First Nations, Inuit, and Métis living with STBBI’s

Addiction: Addictions counsellor enrolled to support healing and recovery

Mental Health: The clinic has a range of mental health care options, including an on-site psychologist, or referrals where suitable

Traditional Healing: Elder Mike Standup offers support focused on traditional counseling and spiritual guidance.

Other Specialists: Motor development; diabetes footcare; child behavior; physiotherapy; osteopathy; drama therapy

Successes

Looking at the list above, it is clear that the clinic is a centre of holistic care, offering services for a range of concerns. Through the clinic, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples have access to a broad range of care through a single point of access. In other words, the clinic is a health economist's dream, revolving around patient needs rather than the professionals. Through a quick phone call or meeting at the clinic front desk, the team at the IHCT triage the client to either their urgent care clinic, one of the specialist services available at the clinic or organizes a health navigator to accompany the client through Montreal's public health care system.

Regardless of need, the patient receives care entirely free of charge and with reduced barriers. The IHCT even goes so far as to reduce transportation barriers, offering taxis and Ubers for clients to reach the clinic in emergency situations, and bus passes when the transportation costs might be a barrier to access. In other words, it is clear that the IHCT seriously cares about its clients and stands as an impressive example of what it means to break down health care barriers and provide culturally sensitive care at no cost.

In my discussion with the Operations team, Ms. Martin made an important remark about how the clinic came to offer such a wide range of services. She said, “as [the] community is telling us we need something, what we do is we go out, and we find it. So, we’re really listening to the community about what they’re asking for.”

In listening to the community, the clinic has expanded at an impressive pace. Shirley Pien-Berube specified that when she started as a Health navigator a year and a half ago (in 2024), the clinic had a register of roughly 140 patients. In 2026, the clinic has nearly 900 registered patients, all receiving care entirely free of charge.

Challenges

Even the most successful community operations must face challenges, and the clinic has undoubtedly faced some remarkable ones throughout its decade of operations. Most significantly, the team points towards its funding. Unlike in Ontario, the Indigenous Health Centre of Tiohtià:ke in Montreal does not receive any operational level funding from the province, despite providing necessary health care.

As discussed above, the clinic has reached its current state of success through a patchwork of funding and projects. Looking forward, the clinic seeks to get official provincial funding in order to continue growing and ascertain a clinic space of their own, rather than an agglomeration of rented suites.

What I would like to highlight here is that, despite the many funding and space challenges faced by the clinic, it continues to grow and deliver more and better care to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis in Quebec, with a continued emphasis on dismantling the structural determinants of health that disproportionately and persistently challenge Indigenous Peoples’ health.

Opportunities for Involvement

The IHCT is proud to support the next generation of healthcare professionals, frequently hosting physiotherapy, osteopathy, medical, and nursing students. They also offer a variety of volunteer opportunities and are currently seeking a dedicated volunteer to assist with their social media presence. For more details, please check out their website or contact the clinic.

Final Remarks

As I close off this piece, I would like to leave you with the words of the Operations Team at the Indigenous Health Centre of Tiohtià:ke.

“It's not just an ideal clinic, it's a necessary, a fully necessary and life-saving operation that we're running here.”

“And so a clinic that is barrier free, that is open to serving no one of any particular socioeconomic status is our approach trying to build a clinic that addresses the systemic symptoms as much as possible. But ultimately the real change needs to happen at the system level… because it's the system that's causing these concerns.”

This article was written in collaboration with three members of the Operations Team at the IHCT.

Carrie Martin, Executive Director

Carrie Martin is an experienced Mi’gmaq administrator and researcher with nearly three decades of experience working in the field of Indigenous health and wellness, with a focus on HIV and STBBI’s. Carrie is skilled in HIV/AIDS prevention, research, and support, with an emphasis on workshop and small group facilitation, fundraising, training, and research. She is a strong community and social services professional and is currently a Doctor of Philosophy candidate (PhD) at Concordia University, specializing in Social and Cultural Analysis.

Carrie Martin has received multiple honours and awards, including the Tahatikonhsontóntie’ Doctoral Scholarship (Quebec NEIHR), the Indigenous Graduate Student Award (Concordia University), Faculty of Arts and Science Graduate Fellowship (Concordia University), Next City Vanguard Conference, Big Idea Challenge Winner (Concordia University). She was also a civil society member of the Government of Canada’s Delegation (CANDEL) at the 2016 United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on Ending AIDS (HLM) and is an active member of the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network as the Principal Knowledge User.

Shirley Pien-Berube, Health Navigator

Shirley Pien-Berube is a Naskapi from the community of Kawawachikamach in northern Quebec. She previously worked at the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal and has always had a strong urge to help the Indigenous, Inuit and Metis community in the urban area. She currently works as a Health Navigator at the Indigenous Health Centre of Tiohtia:ke, providing support and accompaniment, as well as providing translation. Pien-Berube also performs outreach work to inform community members of the clinic’s services and whereabouts.

Eden Gladstone Martin, Family Violence Prevention Coordinator

Eden Gladstone Martin relocated from Toronto to Montreal to join IHCT in May of 2025 for his Master's in Global Health practicum (McMaster University). He first served as a bilingual Health Navigation intern and, upon completion of his MSc, was hired back full-time as the Family Violence Prevention Program Coordinator at IHCT — a position he has held since September 2025. In this role, he is working to increase the capacity of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous community health workers across the Greater Montreal Area in responding to and preventing family violence concerns within the urban Indigenous community in a way that is culturally safe.