On Monday, September 28th, an unsettling video was released that displayed staff in a Quebec hospital harassing an Indigenous woman who lay on her deathbed. Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman, arrived at Joliette hospital in Quebec on Monday, complaining of stomach pain. The mother of seven had previously suffered similar issues and told staff she had a heart condition. Echaquan started live-streaming her encounter on Facebook as her pain intensified, and staff appeared indifferent to her pleas for help, instead making racist and derogatory insults and comments.
In the footage, Echaquan can be seen in clear pain as nurses call her “stupid as hell.” As she moans in pain one nurse asks in French, “Are you done acting stupid? Are you done?”
“You made some bad choices, my dear,” another nurse said. “What are your children going to think, seeing you like this?”
“She’s good at having sex, more than anything else,” the first nurse said.
Devastatingly, Echaquan later passed away in the hospital. Indigenous leaders say the video exposes the grim realities of systemic racism that has been ignored throughout the country. “Discrimination against First Nations people remains prevalent in the healthcare system and this needs to stop,” the Assembly of First Nations national chief, Perry Bellegarde, said in a statement. Multiple reports have revealed the widespread impact that racism within the health care system has on Indigenous people. One example is a 2015 report titled “First Peoples, Second Class Treatment” which revealed that racism against Indigenous people in Canada’s health-care system contributed to the community’s poor health. Echaquan’s video sheds more light on the systemic racism often faced by Indigenous people in Canada in the Healthcare system and further.
Although Quebec’s Premier Francois Legault acknowledges that racism is a priority for his government following the release of the video, he denies that the issue is systemic despite a public inquiry concluding the opposite. Legault has said, “For me when we talk about systemic racism, it’s in relation with the Black people in the United States for reasons we know.”
The family of Joyce Echaquan has announced that they will be pursuing a lawsuit against Joliette Hospital (where the unfortunate death occurred) and its employees to bring justice to Joyce and ensure a tragedy like this never occurs again. They will also be filing a claim with the Indemnisation des victimes d’actes criminels (IVAC) who compensate crime victims and also a complaint with the human rights commission over the racist and discriminatory treatment received by Echaquan as she was dying.
As our neighbour engages in a conversation about systemic racism, we cannot allow ourselves to believe we should not be doing the same. Canada needs to tackle the racism that is embedded within this country, not just in our policing system but in every area of our lives, from health care to the education system. At some point, we need to face the fact that we are not “better” than our neighbouring country simply because our racism is more implicit. Instead, we must begin a discussion on how we can tackle and dismantle the systems that allow for racism to continue to flourish.
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