UNITED AGAINST RACISM
Trudeau confident provinces will join efforts to fight racism in country’s health-care system
Justin Trudeau says provinces must do more to address racism in the health-care system
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed confidence that provinces will join efforts to fight racism in the healthcare system, adding he does not want to jump to any conclusions about how the federal government could make sure that happens.
“Right across country, all premiers have condemned racism,” Trudeau said Friday at a news conference in Ottawa.
“There’s still more work to do, obviously, but we are confident that we’re going to be able to make significant improvements in the health care accessed by Indigenous Peoples,” he said.
The issue of anti-Indigenous racism in health care gained new attention from outrage over the treatment of Joyce Echaquan, who used her phone to livestream hospital staff using racist slurs against her as she lay dying in a Joliette, Que., hospital last month.
Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said provinces are eager to address systemic racism in the health-care system and “it would be careless to suggest” Ottawa would hold back federal health transfers from the provinces and territories during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Miller, federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett met virtually with about 400 people Friday, including Indigenous leaders and health-care professionals, to discuss experiences of racism and solutions.
Miller said they will reconvene, with an action plan, in January.
Rebecca Kudloo, the president of Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, said the meeting was a good start.
“The barriers to good health care is a problem,” Kudloo said in an interview. “The lack of cultural training for health service providers is a problem. We’re sometimes treated like we don’t have feelings.”
Kudloo said the government is offering encouraging words but little action.