Three years after Joyce Echaquan’s death, a march is organized in her memory

MONTREAL – Three years to the day after Joyce Echaquan died as she was being subjected to racist insults at the Joliette Hospital in Lanaudière, her memory will be honoured Thursday evening at a march in Joliette.

Participants in the memorial march will gather at 6 p.m. in front of the Centre d’amitié autochtone de Lanaudière. Joyce Echaquan’s spouse, Carol Dubé, and the Chief of the Manawan Atikamekw Council, Sipi Flamand, will take part in the event.

Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman, revealed to Quebec on September 28, 2020, the treatment she was receiving at the Joliette hospital through a Facebook live video in which she was heard being insulted by facility employees shortly before her tragic death.

Coroner Géhane Kamel ruled in her report concerning the causes and circumstances of Echaquan’s death, filed in September 2021, that “the racism and prejudice Joyce Echaquan faced certainly contributory to her death”. The report concludes, however, that the death was accidental.

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“The death of the Manawan mother of eight must not be forgotten,” says Jennifer Petiquay-Dufresne, Executive Director of the Joyce Principle Office, which helped organize the march.

“It’s important to remember the woman she was, what she did in the community, who she was as a woman, as a mother, as a person in general, and to say: how can we join together to change things from now on?” said Petiquay-Dufresene.

“In the community, it’s still very striking. These are situations that were happening before Joyce (and) continue to happen since Joyce,” she said, pointing out that events of discrimination against Indigenous people in the healthcare network are reported to the Joyce Principle Office “every week”.

The Office opened its doors last July, in Manawan. The organization’s goal is to apply the Joyce Principle, which aims to “guarantee all Indigenous people the right of equitable access, without discrimination, to all health and social services, as well as the right to enjoy the highest standard of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health”, states the Bureau’s website.

“We have several projects in the works, which we hope to start talking about more fully towards the end of fall, beginning of winter,” says the Bureau’s Executive Director. Petiquay-Dufresne points out that these projects “will have concrete repercussions for the security and equity of access to health care for Indigenous people”.

The Bureau is also pursuing its mission to promote and adopt the Joyce Principle with various partners in the fields of health, educational resources and various levels of government.

The Quebec government does not recognize systemic racism, and has not adopted the Principle.

For Petiquay-Dufresne, to tackle discrimination, “we have to recognize the problem, and we have to be able to move forward with it”.

Joyce’s Principle Office, however, is hopeful. “We’re hopeful that the rights of Indigenous people can be respected in the short and medium term,” she says.

Musical performances by Laura Niquay and Mikon Niquay Ottawa will be presented at the event in Joyce Echaquan’s honor.

Vigil to be held in Montreal

In solidarity with the vigil organized in Joliette, and in collaboration with Joyce’s Principle Office, a vigil will take place in Montreal to honour Joyce Echaquan’s memory.

At 5:30 p.m. at Place du Canada downtown, many are expected to come together to honour her memory, support her family and community, and show solidarity with the Atikamekw nation and all Indigenous Peoples. 

Speakers will include: activist Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, Maya Cousineau Mollen an Innu poet and activist, and Nakuset, Executive Director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal.

-With information from Ugo Giguère

-This information by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 28, 2023.