Dr. Alika Lafontaine, BSc, MD, FRCPC

Biography

Dr. Alika Lafontaine is the Indigenous Advisor-in-Residence at the Canadian Medical Association, a rural Anesthesiologist and the author of The Outrage Cure (HarperCollins, 2026). Of Métis, Oji-Cree, and Pacific Islander ancestry, he has worked at the intersection of frontline medicine, institutional leadership, and systemic change for nearly two decades. From 2013 to 2017, he co-led the Indigenous Health Alliance, representing more than 150 First Nations and securing $68 million for health transformation across Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. In 2022, he became the first Indigenous physician and youngest doctor to lead the CMA in its 156-year history. During his presidency, the CMA delivered its first formal apology to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples and successfully advocated for the largest federal investment in healthcare since 2004. Today, his work focuses on what happens when institutions lose the trust of the people inside them — and what it actually takes to rebuild it.

Disclosure

I have a relationship with a for-profit and/or a not-for-profit organization to disclose: Direct financial payments including receipt of honoraria: Indigenous Advisor in Residence, Canadian Medical Association Membership on advisory boards or speakers’ bureaus: VITAL Advisory Board, Health Workforce Canada Board, Healthcare Excellence Canada Board, Member of Speakers Bureau (Speakers Spotlight) All other investments or relationships that could be seen by a reasonable, well-informed participant as having the potential to influence the content of the educational activity: Chairperson, Downie Wenjack Fund Board I do not intend to make therapeutic recommendations for medications that have not received regulatory approval (i.e. “off-label” use of medication). I did not use generative AI to assist with any or all of the following: summarizing literature / drafting learning objectives / creating diagrams.