Justice for Joyce Echaquan (ep 229)

MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs

It’s a gut-wrenching, even agonizing video. As a distraught, bed-ridden Joyce Echaquan pleads for help, a nearby nurse and an orderly at a Quebec hospital do not seem particularly concerned with her condition.

"You're stupid as hell," one can be heard saying in French: the other tells the mother of seven she’s made bad choices in life, asking what her children would think of her behaviour. Those comments—streamed live to Facebook by Echaquan herself—have sparked a firestorm of reaction. But the sad truth is, it’s only the latest example of a Canadian health care system that fundamentally, and fatally, fails Indigenous people. And yet, despite all evidence, there persists a stubborn refusal to see racism as a systemic, social determinant of Indigenous ill-health.

Joining host/producer Rick Harp this week to share their thoughts on this horrific incident and the reaction in its wake are Brock Pitawanakwat, York University Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies, and Candis Callison, Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC.

// CREDITS: This episode was edited by Stephanie Wood. Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.