Family of Indigenous woman subjected to slurs in Quebec hospital plans lawsuit
‘Systemic racism contaminated the Joliette hospital,’ partner says
JOLIETTE, QUE. — The family of an Indigenous woman subjected to insults as she lay dying in hospital said Friday it will hit back hard against a racist system it accuses of killing her.
Members of Joyce Echaquan’s family, community members and lawyer JeanFrancois Bertrand announced a series of legal actions at the native friendship centre in Joliette, Que., northeast of Montreal.
The family said it will launch a lawsuit against the Joliette hospital and file complaints with the province’s human rights commission and with the police. They said they hope criminal charges will follow.
Echaquan’s partner, Carol Dube, appeared overcome with emotion and struggled to get through his speech at times. He said he wanted justice for Echaquan, as well as for her seven children.
“I’m convinced my partner is dead because systemic racism contaminated the Joliette hospital,” Dube said. “It killed my partner.”
He said he wanted to ensure that what happened would never happen again to other Indigenous people, especially women, who he said receive unfair treatment when seeking medical care. “Justice for Joyce! Justice for my children! Justice for my Atikamekw Nation and for other First Nations!”
Before her death, the 37-year-old Atika
mekw mother filmed herself from her hospital bed Monday while she was in clear distress and pleading for help.
Two female hospital staff can be seen entering the room and are heard insulting Echaquan, who had been admitted with stomach pain.
On Thursday, the regional health authority for the Joliette region confirmed that a second health-care worker had been fired
in connection with the treatment of Echaquan, a mother of seven. Quebec’s coroner’s office is investigating Echaquan’s death as is the regional health authority.
Bertrandsaid the family intended to “take all — and I mean all — the recourse the law puts at our disposal” to ensure that all the light is shed on the matter. “We’re going to hit hard because we want to give the example that it has to stop.”