Joyce Echaquan: Indigenous access to health care still lacking three years later, advocate says

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      “Three years later, not much has changed,” says Ghislain Picard, Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador’s regional chief, on Quebec’s healthcare system as we near the three-year anniversary of Joyce Echaquan’s death. Diona Macalinga reports.

      Three years after the death of Joyce Echaquan, advocates say there remains a gap of accessibility and services in Quebec’s health-care system for Indigenous People.

      Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw mother of seven, filmed and livestreamed hospital staff in Joliette making derogatory comments toward her as she died.

      Her Sept. 28, 2020, death caused shockwaves in Quebec. It led to widespread protests in Montreal, with demonstrators urging the Quebec government to assert systemic racism existed in the province.

      “Three years later, not much has changed. The trust in the system is still very much not there,” said Ghislain Picard, the Quebec and Labrador regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

      “This has been happening for so long. Joyce’s death was just that very tiny tip of the iceberg of a much broader problem.”

      Picard firmly believes the video Echaquan took of the Joliette nurse and orderly is proof of systemic racism in the province. Quebec Premier François Legault has long maintained he disagrees with that stance.

      Picard feels Legault’s position has allowed discrimination against Indigenous people to continue – not only at hospitals and clinics, but within the criminal justice system as well.

      “If you want to tackle the problem, you have to acknowledge its root causes,” Picard said.


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      Quebec Indigenous Affairs Minister Ian Lafrenière introduced Bill 32 in June, an act requiring health and social service institutions to adopt a more safe, welcoming and inclusive approach when interacting with Indigenous People. One element includes ensuring all employees take mandatory training on Indigenous cultural and historical realities.

      “We’re told that, yes, there has been training done to staff,” said Picard. “And then we learned that not many of those people registered to it. Moreover, we learned that the content of that training was limited in terms of addressing such major issues as colonization and its impacts on Indigenous Peoples.”

      Fo Niemi, the executive director of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, notes this isn’t the only case of racial discrimination in Quebec’s health-care system before the courts. Last month a Quebec Superior Court allowed a class action over the forced sterilization of Atikamekw women.

      “The anecdotal (evidence) that we see based on our work with some Indigenous organizations right here in Montreal is that there’s still a lot of challenges,” said Niemi.

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