Joyce Echaquan: Systemic Racism in Canadian Healthcare
By Joshua Li, Truth & Reconciliation Summit - May
2021
Joyce Echaquan before her death. Photo credits to ATPN national
news
On September 28, 2020, Joyce
Echaquan, an indigenous woman, passed away in a Quebec hospital after filming vicious insults directed at her
from 2 employees. Earlier that day, Echaquan was administered morphine at the hospital despite concerns of an
allergic reaction. Although she expressed distress, the employees questioned if she was “done acting stupid” and
commented that she was “stupid as hell”. Their actions seemed as if, from the viewpoint of Echaquan’s cousin,
that their intent was never treating her but only ensuring that she was not in pain as they were “fed up”.
Echaquan’s case illustrates an instance of system racism in Canadian healthcare. However, despite her death
causing widespread indignation, a lawsuit and a public inquest, Quebec Premier François Legault still firmly
believes in the province’s absence of systemic racism.
Yet the experiences of other indigenous people across Canada weave a different perspective on systemic racism in
the healthcare industry. For one, Frederick Edwards, a Cree from Manitoba, recalls a nurse telling him to “shut
up and sit down” as he suffered unbearable pain in the emergency room - an interaction that made him feel
“worthless”. In another example, Brian Sinclair - an indigenous man - died of sepsis at a Winnipeg hospital
after being neglected by the staff, who assumed he was either “homeless or intoxicated.” On a larger scale, the
executive of Native Women’s Shelter, Nakuset, noted that situations like Echaquan are only “heartbreakingly
normal” in Canada after bearing witness to countless instances of racism over the last 20 years.
To bring justice to the Joyce Echaquans across Canada, we - the public - must first recognize systemic racism as
a pervasive issue in Canadian healthcare. Only then can the indigenous community and the government converge,
calling inquiries for the past and creating reforms for the future, effecting a meaningful, long-overdue
overhaul of systemic racism in the healthcare industry.