People take part in a protest called ‘Justice for Joyce’ in Montreal, on Oct. 3, 2020.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Joyce Echaquan had long feared going to the hospital in Joliette, Que., where she died last year after being subjected to racist insults from medical workers, according to emotional testimony from her husband at a coroner’s inquest Thursday.
Ms. Echaquan, 37, an Atikamekw mother of seven, livestreamed video from the hospital north of Montreal last September as she screamed for help while staff were heard mocking her.
The footage became a widely shared symbol of discrimination against Indigenous people in Canada.
Carol Dubé, 43, her husband of 23 years, told the inquest on its first day of hearings that Ms. Echaquan had health problems, including heart issues and diabetes, that frequently sent her to the hospital about 200 kilometres from her home community of Manawan, but that she was often badly treated at the facility. He never heard racist comments from staff when he accompanied her, but he said it was different when she went alone.
She further dreaded going to the hospital in Joliette because she had been pressed to three abortions there, he said, and because she worried medical staff would give her painkillers, despite her allergy to morphine.
Mr. Dubé wiped tears from his eyes as he recalled the final days of someone he described as a loving wife and mother. Ms. Echaquan’s eldest daughter and her mother also testified tearfully at the inquest on Thursday.
Her death last year sent shock waves throughout Quebec, eliciting an apology from Premier François Legault and launching a debate about systemic racism in the province and across the country. Two hospital employees were subsequently fired. The shocking video of her dying moments inspired the federal government to hold a two-day summit in January about racism against Indigenous people in health care.
Ms. Echaquan was taken to hospital by ambulance with stomach pains on Sept. 26 and told her husband in a text she had bleeding in her stomach. She died in hospital on Sept. 28, not long after posting the video on Facebook Live.
Mr. Dubé said he met with hospital officials the day after Ms. Echaquan’s death, and they told him she had two litres of blood pumped from her stomach and had been intubated. He said they told him Ms. Echaquan’s death was natural and there wouldn’t be an autopsy.
In the video, which circulated widely on social media, Ms. Echaquan can be heard crying out in Atikamekw, her native language. “Carol, come see me,” she says, according to a French translation submitted to the inquest. “They’re giving me an overdose of medication. … It hurts.”
Later in the video, workers can be heard calling Ms. Echaquan “stupid,” saying she was only good for having sex and asking what her children would think of her.
In an emotional response to that question during her testimony on Thursday, Ms. Echaquan’s daughter, Marie-Wasianna Echaquan Dubé, said that her mother was a “good mom.”
“I’m here because I want justice to be done and I don’t want anyone to forget Joyce Echaquan,” she said.
Although the proceedings at the provincial courthouse in Trois-Rivières, Que., focused on the circumstances surrounding Ms. Echaquan’s death, a portrait began to emerge of a woman who has become one of the face of calls for better treatment of Indigenous people in Canada.
Her husband described her as a woman who loved life, family, wildlife and travelling through the territory of her ancestors.
“She didn’t ask to end her life like that with those people who insulted her, who disparaged her,” Mr. Dubé said, adding that getting justice for her would be the best outcome.
Coroner Géhane Kamel will hear from about 50 witnesses, including health care staff, expert witnesses and members of Ms. Echaquan’s family. The inquest will sit for 13 days between May 13 and June 2. A coroner’s inquest does not rule on liability but rather looks at the causes and circumstances of a death and comes up with recommendations to avoid similar occurrences.
Ms. Kamel played a prominent role in the public hearing on Thursday, speaking of the value of diversity in her opening statement.
“I am deeply convinced that we must learn to live together and to welcome differences as a collective wealth,” she said.
She later emphasized the importance of avoiding racially charged inferences from testimony about Ms. Echequan’s cannabis use, and she took the rare step of descending from her bench to console Mr. Dubé.
“I can’t hug you, that isn’t done, but understand my intention,” she said.
To Ms. Echaquan’s daughter, the coroner said, “No one should lose their mother at the age you have. … If I had half your courage at your age, I’d be quite the warrior today.”
The first witness was Martin Pichette, a Quebec provincial police officer who oversaw an investigation into Ms. Echaquan’s death.
Mr. Pichette said officers spoke to 36 people during their investigation, including family and health care staff. No file was transferred to prosecutors because nothing criminal was found to have occurred in Ms. Echaquan’s death, he said.
The family’s lawyer, Patrick Ménard-Martin, told reporters the inquest was an important step for a family that has been seeking answers.
With a report from The Canadian Press
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