Montreal vigil to honour the memory of Joyce Echaquan, four years after her death

A vigil in honour of Joyce Echaquan took place in downtown Montreal Saturday evening, marking four years since the Indigenous mother died in a Quebec hospital.

Echaquan, the 37-year-old Atikamekw woman, revealed to Quebec on Sept. 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.

The coroner 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.

“Cultural safety is a given, it’s not something that we have to beg for,” said Ghislain Picard, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador.

He was at the vigil along with dozens of other people.

“We’ve dealt with adversity all of our lives and I think we can certainly rise beyond it and to me this is where lies our hopes for change.”

The rally is also advocating for Joyce’s Principle which aims to guarantee to all Indigenous people the right of equitable access, without any discrimination, to all social and health services.

“She showed the world what we’re going through on a daily basis,” said Doreen Petiquay Barthold, communications and social media officer for Joyce’s Principle Office.

Adding, “People thought that what we were saying was not true, that it was from the past, but it’s still here.”

“It took a sacrifice of Joyce Echaquan and others, you know, to show how bad the system is,” said health activist, Alex McComber.

“Joyce’s Principle really give such a clear recommendation to the government, to the health system, to educators, to health professionals about how do you do things in good ways,” said McComber.

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