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Of: TT
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Photo: Paul Chiasson / AP / TT
Carol Dube, Joyce Echaquan’s husband, is comforted by one of the couple’s children and a friend.
She asked for help before she died, but the medical staff ridiculed her.
“The worst form of racism,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the treatment of indigenous woman Joyce Echaquan.
Three different investigations have been launched into the event in Quebec, which is reviving the debate on structural racism against indigenous peoples in Canada.
The 37-year-old mother of seven visited a hospital in Joliette on the outskirts of Montreal last weekend with stomach pains. She filmed herself in the hospital bed screaming for help.
The video shows how medical staff treat her with derogatory comments. “You’re stupid in your head,” one nurse is heard saying, while another says, among other things, that she made bad decisions in life.
“Shocked”
Joyce Echaquan passed away on Monday, who according to her family suffered from heart problems.
– I have seven children who no longer have a mother, says the devastated widower in an interview with Radio-Canada.
In a country with a long history of oppression of indigenous people, the treatment is described as a clear expression of discrimination.
“Like everyone in Quebec, I am shocked by the racism to which she was subjected,” said the province’s prime minister, François Legault, at a news conference on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The country’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also commented on the incident:
– This was the worst form of racism, against a person in urgent need of help, he said Wednesday in the lower house of parliament.
“This is another example of structural racism that is completely unacceptable in Canada,” he added.
Discrimination reports
Protests under the slogan “justice for Joyce” are planned in cities across the country these days, including in Montreal on Saturday. Joyce Echaquan’s death comes after another high-profile incident in June when a leader of the indigenous population was subjected to violent police intervention.
Several reports in recent years have shed light on the problems of structural discrimination against the country’s indigenous peoples, who make up about five percent of Canada’s 37 million people.
One of them, from 2015, claimed that racist treatment in the health system contributes to the overall indigenous population suffering from poorer health compared to Canadians in the majority population, the BBC reports.
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