This Week in Human Rights News

Systemic Racism in Canadian Healthcare

Sources: Al Jazeera (1, 2), BBC, and CBC (1, 2, 3, 4)

Joyce Echaquan, a mother of seven from Atikamekw of Manawan, a First Nation community in Quebec, died on Monday after seeking treatment for stomach pain at a hospital in Joliette, about 75 kilometres north of Montreal.
Her partner, Carol Dubé says that systemic racism killed Joyce.
Equachan filmed some of the last moments of her life on a Facebook video. She can be heard screaming in distress, along with the voices of staff members yelling racist insults at her.
In her livestreams, hospital staff can be heard calling her a “f***ing idiot” and saying she is only good for sex. “You’ve made bad choices, my dear. What would your children think, to see you like this?” said one of the staff members.
“How many human lives will we need to lose before we can recognise that systemic racism exists against us as Indigenous peoples?” said Dubé, who repeatedly broke down in tears as he spoke to reporters.
"In 2020, a simple denunciation of systemic racism is not enough," the family's lawyer Jean-François Bertrand said.
He said the family will be launching a lawsuit against the hospital and seeking criminal charges against all those involved.

Legal experts have called for her death to be investigated by police to determine whether Joliette’s medical staff’s actions were criminally negligent and motivated by hate.
"You have those two aggravating factors: an abuse of the position of trust and the motivation driven by prejudice or racism", said Amir Attaran, a professor in the Faculty of Law and School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa
Attaran said that based on Echaquan's anguished complaints that she was being overmedicated, along with statements by family members that she was allergic to morphine and had heart problems, the medical staff should be investigated for criminal negligence causing death for negligently administering her drugs.

Many are drawing comparisons to the death of Brian Sinclair, an Indigenous man who died in a Winnipeg emergency room 12 years ago after being left untreated by medical staff.
"While shocking to many in Canada and the rest of the world, this video confirms what First Nation people and communities across the country have been reporting for years," said Southern Chief’s Organization Grand Chief, Jerry Daniels, adding that little has changed since Sinclair died in 2008.

On Monday, Quebec Premier François Legault offered his condolences to Echaquan's family, confirming a coroner's inquiry and that a workplace investigation will be held. But he stopped short of saying the incident reflected systemic racism.
The Viens Report, released a year ago, found it is "impossible to deny" Indigenous people in Quebec are victims of systemic discrimination in accessing public services, including health-care services. The Report came with 142 calls to action.

Alisa Lombard, a lawyer representing two Indigenous women in an ongoing lawsuit against Ottawa and Saskatchewan over coerced sterilisation said police should have immediately opened a criminal investigation.
"It's discrimination, it's hate and it's causing death," said Lombard. "Something has to be done, and it has to be done now."