Justice For Joyce Echaquan poster in Montreal. Print by Anissa Hach
Despite what Quebec Premier François Legault says, Joyce Echaquan was a direct victim of systemic racism; it took her life.
Echaquan, an Atikamekw woman, checked herself into the Centre hospitalier de Lanaudière in Joliette because of stomach pains. Instead of proper care from hospital staff, she received insults and degrading comments.
“You’re stupid as hell,” a hospital staffer told Joyce. Echaquan livestreamed her experience in the hospital with her phone as she called out for help. Speaking in Atikamekw, Echaquan said that she was being given too much medication moments before dying.
“Joyce was able to record with her phone, and this is why we know that it happened,” says Nakuset Sohkisiwin. “But it happens every day. We just don’t always have the option of filming it.”
“No one’s addressing all the recommendations, the calls to action from the Viens Commission…No one’s doing anything with it.” The Viens Commission has recommended that the National Assembly both adopt a motion to recognize and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and adopt a law to ensure that the provisions of this Declaration are incorporated into Québec’s legislative corpus.
Although the Quebecois government has ordered a public inquiry into the incident, the 37-year-old woman’s death could have been preventable had the Legault administration followed the proposals made by the Viens Commission’s 520-page report when they were made in 2019. In fact, Echaquan died on the one-year anniversary of the Viens report, which stated plainly that it is impossible to deny that Indigenous peoples face systemic discrimination when accessing public services.
Mohawk activist Ellen Gabriel spoke at the march and rally for Joyce on October 3rd. According to her, Legault is “ignorant of Quebec and Canada’s colonial history and he should be held responsible as one of the people who continues to deny Indigenous people their dignity and human rights.” Likewise, the Plante administration has failed to recognize systemic racism and discrimination on its unceded territory.
