Yesterday, on the 28th of september, Joyce Echaquan, a 37 yo mother of 7 (the youngest is only 7 months old) died at the hôpital de Joliette in Québec, Canada. There will be an investigation by a coroner and one nurse was fired.
Before her death, she filmed herself. Carol Dubé, her husband, said (rough translation from french) : ’’My wife went to the hospital on saturday for a stomach ache. Two days later, she is dead. [...] We see she asks for help on Facebook... [...] We see the personnel being degrading. I have seven children who now find themselves motherless.’’ She was declared dead moments after her video.   Â
In the beginning of her video, Joyce is alone and there is an alarm ringing. I think it’s the thing to call the nurse? Hearing Joyce’s voice, she seemed scared and it looked like she had trouble moving, probably because of some medication. She screams, scared, when the nurse doesn't show up. She lets out a few screams of despair and frustration until you hear someone coming in, almost 4 minutes into the video. I don’t know how long she waited before recording.Â
Joyce Echaquan can be heard asking for help in atikamekw. She wanted someone to come for her because she had been overmedicated. She couldn’t take pain meds, and morphine was particularly dangerous because of her heart.
She was still given something that was dangerous for her because her nurse.s thought she was too agitated. While Joyce asks for help and is distressed you can also hear racist and disgusting comments in the background (which, understandably, seems to distress her more).
Rough/literal/bad (sorry) translation from french :
‘’I think you’re having trouble taking care of yourself, so we’re gonna do it for you, ok?’’
‘’That’s better off dead’’ (’’That’’ being Joyce)
‘’Are you done fucking around? Fuck.’’
‘’Eh, you’re dumb as fuck’’
 ‘’You’ve made bad choices, gorgeous. What would your kids think, seeing you like this? Think about them a little.’’
‘‘That’s better at fucking than doing other things’‘ (meaning ‘‘That’s only good at fucking’‘)Â
‘‘Who do you think pays for this?’‘
The video ends when an employee stops the recording. The video was deleted by one of them from facebook. We only have Joyce’s video because someone recorded the live she did.Â
In a video her daughter did that I can’t re-find, we can see Joyce Echaquan was tied down to her hospital bed (after the events that were shown by her video). Her daughter believes Joyce Echaquan was already dead at that time. She talks to her softly in atikamekw. I understand none of it, but I still cried like a baby because her words sounded so strong, loving and sad. Â
Our government refuse to recognize it’s an exemple of systemic racism. Prime minister Legault said something out of touch like ‘’Oh yes, yes, yes, ah, see! Racism is real! The employees are racists! But no systemic racism in sight :)’’ It’s not a big surprise coming from an islamophobe who banned ‘’religious symbols’’ for people working in public services, which essentially affected muslim women who wear hijab.
What is so sad is that it comes almost exactly a year after the Commission Viens recognized that First Nations and Inuits are facing systemic discrimination + recommended (142) changes. It’s not the first Commission of its kind. The Truth and reconciliation commission said, amongst other things, that : Canada is guilty of genocide and systemic racism exists! Yes, yes! Our governments prefer big reports to taking action or just fucking providing clean water for everyone :)Â
Please, talk about systemic racism.
Please, demand we do better.Â
Sorry if I forgot anything! You can add more information if you have any.Â
