The premier of Quebec denounced the remarks considered racist addressed by a nurse to an indigenous woman shortly before her death in a hospital and which caused an uproar in Canada on Tuesday.
In an approximately 7-minute video that was broadcast live on Facebook on Monday night shortly before her death, Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw placed on a stretcher, made urgent calls for help, while two hospital staff members her. shout racist insults.
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This mother of seven from the community of Manawan died at Joliette hospital, about 70 kilometers from Montreal, where she had gone a few days earlier for stomach pain, according to local media.
“The nurse, what she said, is totally unacceptable, it's racist and she was fired,”
Quebec Premier François Legault told the press.
“We must fight this racism,”
insisted François Legault.
The Quebec political class unanimously condemned the remarks heard in this video.
"The words (...) clearly demonstrate racism against the
Amerindian
First Nations"
, denounced the Atikamekw council of Manawan.
"I know very well that most of the time, the racism we are subjected to is not intentional and that it is often the result of unconscious bias,"
said Ghislain Picard, Grand Chief of the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador.
But
"it is also very often the result of government policies which lead to systemic discrimination,"
he lamented.
The Prime Minister announced the opening of two inquiries, one of the regional health authorities, the other of the forensic pathologist, responsible for investigating deaths in suspicious circumstances or due to negligence.
On Twitter, reactions multiplied under the hashtag #JusticePourJoyce while a tribute vigil was to be held Tuesday evening in front of the Joliette hospital.
Joyce Echaquan's death comes a year after the publication of a report of a public inquiry, which concluded that
"members of the First Nations and Inuit of Quebec are indeed victims of systemic discrimination in their relations with public services".
