Even at 87, Dr. Yvette Bonny sometimes struggles with imposter syndrome.
A pioneering hematologist who performed the first pediatric bone marrow transplant in Quebec in 1980, she’s received plenty of accolades since.
She was working with her head down — leading the provincial pediatric bone marrow transplant unit for nearly two decades — when waves of recognition began to pour in, she says.
She was hematologist of the year in 1996, professor of the year in 1999 and a physician of merit the year after. In 2007, Bonny was named a Knight of the National Order of Quebec, a member of the Order of Canada in 2008 and received the Order of Montreal in 2025.
“The more I receive, the more… I ask if I deserve it,” she said.
“I’ve done this, but why have they distinguished me instead of others? Because they also did a lot.”
She doesn’t like attention, but this year, she’s featured by the Government of Canada for Black History Month as one of nine remarkable figures who have helped shape Canadian heritage and identity.
Sitting in her living room in her Montreal apartment, Bonny says she feels the responsibility that comes with the recognition — especially when aspiring physicians tell her they hope to one day be just like her.
‘If I was able to do it, others can too’
The successful pediatric bone marrow transplant that shaped her career in 1980 filled Bonny with pride — mostly because of what it meant for the future of medicine.
Whenever she receives an honour, she says she often thinks back to her younger self, who first arrived in Canada in 1962.
The federal government is recognizing Dr. Yvette Bonny as one of nine Black pioneers who has helped shape Canadian heritage and identity. In 1980, she performed the first pediatric bone marrow transplant in Quebec and has received dozens of accolades since.
She had an education — and a medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine of Haiti — but not much practical experience under her belt for the budding pediatrician and soon-to-be hematologist.
“If I was able to do it, others can too,” she said. “You have to put in … the energy, the time. But it’s worth it.”
She was one of the only Black people at the Sainte-Justine Hospital at the start. She said people had questions.
“Are you sure you can do this?” was something Bonny heard.
“The more I heard that, the more it motivated me, the more I learned, the more I wanted to get better and better.”
She says Black female doctors might say she paved the way. But Bonny says she can’t take that kind of credit.
“They tell me, ‘If we are here, it’s because of you.’ I say, ‘No, not because of me — it’s because of your own personal worth,” she said.
“You are here because of your value, now go and prove it.”
‘Embodiment of Black history in the flesh’: former patient
Her clinical knowledge aside, Bonny’s humour and compassion stood out to Ulysse Guerrier, Bonny’s former longtime patient turned friend.
“You could be in the lowest of lowest … But she would say something clever to make you laugh,” he said.
“She is the embodiment of Black history in the flesh,” said Guerrier.
“She’s a living legend and we need to acknowledge and give her flowers while she’s still alive.”
Lying in a hospital bed undergoing treatment for a recent health crisis, Guerrier recalled the first time Bonny came into his life — when he was just a toddler.
At the time, he suffered from an undiagnosed illness, which some doctors misdiagnosed as growing pains.
It was on a trip from Toronto back to his parents’ birthplace, in Haiti, when a family friend put them in touch with Bonny. She diagnosed him with sickle cell anemia.
When his family relocated to Montreal years later, Bonny, then a physician at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, became his primary doctor.
“I view Dr. Bonny like my second mom,” he said.
Not only did she provide Guerrier with thoughtful care, but he says she helped him become an advocate for himself and others with sickle cell anemia.
“There was a lot of misrepresentation of the disease and labeling it as something that is bad, that is contagious,” he said.
“That stigmatization made a lot of people afraid of talking about it.”
But Bonny encouraged Guerrier, leading him to a career in advocacy as the current president of the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario.
“She made me understand I have to speak for myself and educate other people,” he said, adding that Bonny was present at his recent 50th birthday party in Montreal.
“I was privileged to have met her and to be part of her life and that she was part of my life.”
Bonny calls Guerrier her son, “her Ulysse.”
“I hope he goes far in life, because he deserves it,” she said.
Advising Black female professionals to take up space
Hearing from former patients — many of whom she still remembers — deeply moves Bonny.
But she also loves to hear that some Black female medical professionals might take inspiration from her story.
“That is the kind of thing that brings me joy. To think that I was all alone, that I had to say, ‘Yes, I’m here, I’m here, look at me.’ And now, they are carving out their own space,” said Bonny.
“The message I often give to these girls is … ‘You are at home. So, take up all the space you are given. Do it well, don’t crush others, but take it — it’s yours.'”
