The circumstances of the death of Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman, at a hospital in Joliette, Qc., on Monday night will be investigated, according to an announcement from Quebec’s coroner’s office Tuesday.
Echaquan, a mother of seven, died shortly after filming a live recording of herself on Facebook where she said that she had been overmedicated.
“Come help me, they’re drugging me,” Echaquan said in the video.
According to Echaquan’s husband, she had a fragile heart and she couldn’t take morphine because of that.
Towards the end of the video, nurses or attendants came to Echaquan’s bedside and said that they would take care of her because she couldn’t take care of herself.
In the video, a hospital staff member is heard telling Echaquan, “You’re stupid as hell,” and another is heard saying that Echaquan has made bad choices in life.
One of the nurses was dismissed, says Legault
Quebec’s Minister of Indigenous Affairs, Sylvie D’Amours, said that an investigation by the Coroner’s Office is currently underway, as well as an internal investigation into the local hospital authority, the CISSS de Lanaudiere.
“We want to know what happened,” D’Amours said in a statement.
“Regardless of the results of this investigation, the statements heard are unacceptable and intolerable.”
As well, Quebec Premier François Legault announced that a nurse had been fired.
In a news conference on Tuesday, Legault offered his condolences and said that the nurses did something unacceptable.
Spokespersons for the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Youth Network (FNQYLN) called on the Quebec government to recognize the existence of systemic racism in Quebec institutions.
“We, the spokespersons for the FNQYLN, are outraged to note that First Nations are still the targets of mistreatment and racism in Quebec public services,” they said in a statement.
The FNQYLN also called on the Quebec government to implement calls for action and justice on the Viens Commission (CERP) report, which recommended that the Quebec government apologize for their treatment of Indigenous people.
Canada’s federal minister calls into a full investigation
Canada’s Minister of Indigenous affairs, Marc Miller, also reacted to the news in a tweet on Monday night, calling for a full investigation of the “shocking events in and around the tragic death of Joyce Echaquan.”
A vigil in memorial of Echaquan is being organized at the Joliette hospital for Tuesday evening.
Death to KKKlanada
wow that feels weird to say, gonna throw a Death to Amerikkkka in there to even in out
Racism against Indigenous people in Canada is so fucked up and pervasive. Literally yesterday they also found a 17 year old kid dead in his own closet in his group home after being reported missing four days earlier. Terribly underfunded social services across Canada regardless of who you are, but especially for Indigenous folks, its a total disaster 😞 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/first-nation-youth-death-1.5743707
regardless of the results of this investigation, the real issue is their lack of civility!
:che-laugh: fucking hellworld
Canadian hellworld; just as hellish, but you also need to put on a pleasant facade.
mfw out in a boot, stop to get poot-tin, mounties come up to me and say "very sorry [incorrect gendered noun], but we need to beat the ever loving hell out of you as today is tuesday, so sorry"
:shocked-pikachu:
Does anyone else open every single one of these stories just to look at the person's photo, and imagine the life they could have gone on living? The times they must have shared with their loved ones, the things you had in common with them, he friendship you might hypothetically have had if things were different. The irreplicable splash of love and thought and color that forms a human life, cut short by monsters in human skin for no other reason than petty, childish intolerance and the continuation of this monstrous machine.
My hate flows pure.
