TORONTO – Toronto Metropolitan University opened Canada\u2019s newest medical school this week, with 94 students who administrators believe reflect the diversity needed among this country\u2019s future doctors. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very intentional for us to be locating the school in Brampton \u2014 a diverse community, underserved from a medical human resources standpoint,\u201d said Dr. Dominick Shelton, interim assistant dean and an emergency physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.<\/p>\n
The University of Prince Edward Island also welcomed its first medical students this week as a regional campus of Newfoundland and Labrador\u2019s existing program at Memorial University. York University in Toronto and Simon Fraser University in Surrey, B.C., will also open new medical schools in the coming years. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Shelton hopes these new schools will help solve the shortage of primary-care physicians in Canada. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to be showing our students the joy of practising family medicine,\u201d he said, noting that TMU is establishing an integrated health centre in the community.<\/p>\n
Four students in TMU\u2019s inaugural class shared what inspired them to become doctors and the barriers they overcame to get here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zaynashae Boreland was born with a multicystic kidney that wasn\u2019t functioning and spent much of her childhood at SickKids Hospital in Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The now 26-year-old said the care she received was so good she was inspired to think about working in health care, but as a Black teen, she didn\u2019t know if it was a viable option for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to be a health-care worker but I didn\u2019t see anyone that looked like me. So I was looking for a path,\u201d said Boreland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That path became even more elusive when a high school biology teacher actively discouraged her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI must have gotten like a 70 on one of my midterms and I went to her to ask questions about what could I have done better and she said, \u2018if I\u2019m being honest with you, I wouldn\u2019t go into health care,\u201d Boreland remembered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI listened because in my head, it\u2019s a teacher. A teacher is telling me not to do something. It\u2019s a mentor in my mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
So Boreland went to the University of Ottawa to do an arts degree majoring in psychology. But a volunteer gig with the school\u2019s student emergency response team got her thinking about health care again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was talking to the other members, some of them nurses, some of them were in med school,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt reignited the spark of \u2018right, that\u2019s exactly what I wanted to do. I lost sight of it, but now I\u2019m back. Here I am, this is my path. Why did I let someone else tell me that it wasn\u2019t my path?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She went to nursing school at the University of Toronto and returned to SickKids Hospital, where she has worked as a nurse for two years. But during her time there, she realized the \u201citch\u201d she was feeling was to become a doctor. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a completely different profession but I also feel as if what you learn as a nurse and what you learn in nursing school completely complements what we\u2019re going to learn in med school,\u201d Boreland said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her dream is to open a multidisciplinary family practice clinic in Mississauga, where she has lived her whole life, or wherever primary care is needed the most within the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, Boreland wants to be that face of health care that she didn\u2019t see growing up for Black children and teens in the community. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want them to feel as if they\u2019re heard and that they can see themselves within me as a Black physician and that they could also do this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After Samah Osman and her family immigrated to Canada from Sudan, her interest in medicine began at a very young age.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember being a child and going with my mom to medical appointments and just helping her navigate a system that was ill-equipped to meet the needs of non-English speaking immigrants,\u201d said Osman, who is now 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like interpreting, writing out complex forms with her. My sisters would help and the three of us would try to, you know, schedule appointments and we would attend appointments and try to relay information the best that we could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osman encountered the health-care system again when she was a teen and suffering from a health condition, but her doctor \u201cdismissed\u201d her symptoms.<\/p>\n
\u201d(I was) told they\u2019re just a normal part of puberty and development and you know, I knew that they weren\u2019t,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her condition worsened and she eventually had multiple surgeries while she was studying health sciences at Western University in London, Ont.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While doing her master\u2019s degree in public health, she had a realization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was able to understand that as a Black woman my experiences and having my concerns dismissed is not unique,\u201d Osman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something that is consistently reported by Black women and by Black populations, Indigenous populations, whether that be from things about maternal care to cancer screenings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osman knew she wanted to become a doctor and be part of the solution. She first worked in public health, knowing that learning about social determinants such as housing, nutrition and employment would make her \u201ca better physician one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that the day has come to start that journey, her family is \u201cso happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom always said growing up \u2014 when we were having those experiences with the health-care system \u2014 she\u2019d always say, \u2018I need you to become a doctor. Our community needs you to become a doctor,\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost like a full-circle moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vanessa Wilson didn\u2019t think about becoming a doctor until she became a patient at age 17. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was playing on my high school\u2019s badminton team and it just happened out of nowhere. I slipped and I fell in the middle of a match and I looked down and my leg was broken right in half,\u201d Wilson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At McMaster Children\u2019s Hospital in Hamilton, doctors found a cancerous tumour on her leg. Wilson had several surgeries over a couple of years and \u00a0her orthopedic oncologist inspired her to pursue medical school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe became not only the person that cured my cancer, but a person that was really, really comforting during that entire experience,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of why I wanted to go into medicine, to be able to give that experience back to people because doctors can have such an important impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson also developed a passion for accessibility after spending a lot of time in a wheelchair during her recovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She just finished a master\u2019s degree at the University of Toronto\u2019s Rehabilitation Sciences Institute and hopes to offer her patients accessible services when she becomes a physician.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201d(Being in a wheelchair) completely changed my perspective on life. You don\u2019t understand all the barriers in place until you are actually the person sitting in the chair,\u201d said Wilson, who is now 24.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really dehumanizing experience that a lot of people just don\u2019t understand exists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson is the first person in her family to go to university and had to overcome financial barriers to make it possible. As soon as she could walk again, she worked two jobs throughout her undergraduate degree in health sciences at the University of Waterloo. \u00a0<\/p>\n
A lack of self-confidence was another barrier she had to overcome as she applied to medical school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith pretty much any pre-medical student, throughout your journey there\u2019s constant self-doubt,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re seeing like TMU had over 6,400 applicants and there was 94 seats for the class. So how could you not doubt yourself?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wilson said when she thought she wasn\u2019t \u201ccapable\u201d of getting in, she remembered her oncologist \u2014 and all the barriers she had already overcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough how well he cared for me, I kind of learned even more the value a doctor can offer,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018you know, if I went through all this when I was 17, I can do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Adrian Sejdijaj\u2019s parents met while taking English classes after immigrating to Canada. His mother came from Brazil and his father came from Albania. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, they always taught me to be grateful for all the opportunity Canada has given to me,\u201d said Sejdijaj, who is 22.<\/p>\n
He was attracted to health care, so he joined the Canadian Armed Forces soon after turning 18 and trained to become a medic, while also doing an undergraduate degree in biomedical science at TMU.<\/p>\n
As a medic, he got to see the different roles each member of the health-care team played and was inspired by their holistic approach \u201cwhere you see the patient as an entire person, not just a physical laundry list of symptoms to treat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The physician role resonated most with him, but Sejdijaj said that as the first person in his immediate family to go to university, he had a crisis of confidence about whether he would be a \u201ccompetitive applicant\u201d \u2014 something his peers who were not first-generation students didn\u2019t appear to face.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such an expensive process and time-consuming process to even apply to medical school,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea how to get into research opportunities, how to do extracurriculars. I didn\u2019t even know how the GPA system worked. So I was just trying to get the best grades I can,\u201d Sejdijaj said.<\/p>\n
But while he was feeling overwhelmed, he thought about a cousin in Brazil who had gone to medical school and become a general surgeon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a real big motivator for me to see, you know what, (if) she could do it, I could do it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat served as more of a confidence boost into me being able to continue down this path.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2025.<\/p>\n
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO – Toronto Metropolitan University opened Canada\u2019s newest medical school this week, with 94 students who administrators believe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,549,65769,84,392,890,2970,47,905,14394,1785,3302],"class_list":["post-117801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-education","tag-education-health-lifestyle-national","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-lifestyle","tag-medical","tag-national","tag-ontario","tag-school","tag-students","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}