A Montreal vigil to commemorate three years since the death of Joyce Echaquan

A crowd of community organizers and passersby came together at Montreal Downtown’s Place du Canada for a vigil in memory of Joyce Echaquan, an Atikamekw mother of seven who died three years ago at a Joliette Hospital, where just moments before her death, she livestreamed as hospital staff said derogatory and racist remarks about her.

“When we remember things like this, it’s because we want to make sure that they don’t keep happening and that they don’t happen again,” said Megan Victoria Leinen, part of The Pow Wow Rangers. “When you don’t talk about the things that have happened and the hardship, the unfairness, and the inequality that people have been treated with, we make space to allow it to continue to happen.”

Indigenous nurse Josée Lavallée told CityNews she witnessed first-hand systemic racism embedded at work and in healthcare education.

“Everyone deserves care with dignity in a culturally safe way.”

“The family is advocating tirelessly,” added Lavallée. “And their advocacy is protecting other Indigenous peoples, children, women in healthcare system. Honouring their work and supporting them in that. And also, for us to take accountability in that as well.”

Appointed this year as the director for McGill University’s Office of Social Accountability in Nursing, Lavallée works with the university’s nursing faculty in implementing anti-oppression, anti-racism, and decolonization practices to their curriculum.

“Ultimately, everybody deserves access and deserves the ability to safely access healthcare services regardless of whether they live on reserve or off reserve,” Leinen added.

“Whether they’re city living or not, whether they’re visibly more Indigenous, whether they are a visible minority or not – it’s not something you should ever have to worry when you’re trying to put health and safety first. It should be something that should come with just being human.”

A march is also taking place at the same time as the vigil in Joliette, just 50 km northeast of Montreal, with people joining family members of Echaquan and the Atikamekw community of Manawan.

RELATED:

• Three years after Joyce Echaquan’s death, a march is organized in her memory
• Indigenous healthcare workers demand cultural safety three years after Joyce Echaquan’s death
• Joyce Echaquan: Indigenous access to health care still lacking three years later, advocate says