News clips - systemic racism in health care

Canadian media – September 30, 2020 to date

News stories related to systemic racism in health care

Study unveils deteriorating relationship 
December 18, 2020
TheStar.com | Virginie Ann - The immensity of Canada’s territory has always made it hard for its population to agree on complex issues. One can simply take a look at the last federal election to see the clear division between provinces and partisan lines. When it comes to the state of the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, that same division of opinions applies.

St. Paul’s Indigenous health liaison workers say racism, lack of support are a daily reality
December 17, 2020
TheTyee.ca | Moira Wyton - Almost a most a month after Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital eliminated an Indigenous health and wellness team, three of the terminated workers are speaking out about lack of support from hospital leadership and anti-Indigenous racism they witnessed and experienced.

Family demands answers after frightened Atikamekw man flees hospital, later returns and dies
December 19, 2020
CBC.ca News | Angelica Montgomery - Grand Chief of the Atikamekw Nation Constant Awashish, who is not a close relative, said that George-Hervey Awashish's story highlights the extreme mistrust some Atikamekw people have in those who are supposed to be caring for them.

A brief history of medical racism in Canada
October 21, 2020
The Concordian | Elyette Levy: Though the topic of anti-Indigenous racism in Canada has regained some public attention since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter protests this summer, nothing has served as a more vivid reminder of this reality than the recent death of Joyce Echaquan and Georges-Hervé Awashish. 

Indigenous man dies in Chicoutimi hospital after complaints of racist remarks
October 15, 2020
Montreal Gazette | Jesse Feith: In the wake of Joyce Echaquan’s death, Georges-Hervé Awashish wrote to his cousin from his hospital room in Chicoutimi, where he had told his family he overheard nurses making racist and discriminatory remarks.

Health care system was designed to subject Indigenous people to systemic racism: Hajdu
October 15, 2020
CBC news | Peter Zimonjic: The systemic racism endured by Indigenous people in Canada's health care system exists because the system was designed that way, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said today after a meeting with representatives from the provinces, Indigenous groups and the health care sector.

AHS launches navigation service for Indigenous Peoples
October 14, 2020
Alberta Health Services | Lethbridge: Indigenous Peoples in the South Zone of Alberta Health Services can now receive one-on-one help to access the health services they need with the launch of a new Indigenous Patient Navigation service.

Indigenous nurse who became a cancer patient strongly encourages self-advocacy
October 13, 2020
CBC News:  Lianne Mantla-Look’s experience is not unique. In the past, N.W.T. politicians and health researchers have raised concerns that cultural bias in the health profession may be causing unnecessary deaths. Numerous studies have also shown that Indigenous patients receive a lower quality of care and that systemic racism is commonplace in the system.

• Cultural safety training to begin for some N.W.T. health-care workers in December
  November 19, 2018
  CBC News | Emily Blake: Beginning in December 2018, about 20 staff (including doctors, nurses, social workers and other frontline workers) of the Northwest Territories' Department of Health and Social Services participated in cultural safety training focused on bias in the workplace and positive relationship building.

All Alberta lawyers must take Indigenous cultural competency training
October 8, 2020
CBC News: The Law Society of Alberta has decided that all lawyers in the province must take a course on Indigenous cultural competency starting next year. The new course stems from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Call to Action in 2015, which included a request that Canadian lawyers be educated on the history and legacy of residential schools as well as treaties, Indigenous rights and Indigenous legal issues.

Indigenous leaders, minister to discuss racism in health care as coronavirus cases rise
October 8, 2020
Global News | Maan Alhmidi: Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says he’s convening a high-level meeting with Indigenous leaders to tackle systematic racism in health care as communities brace for the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem gained new attention with the death of Joyce Echaquan, who livestreamed racial slurs directed at her by the nurses in a Quebec hospital last month.

Quebec doctor asks peers to ‘stop dragging our feet’ in fight against systemic racism
October 8, 2020
CBC News | Julia Page: Dr. Pascale Breault, who is white, is a physician at the health clinic in Manawan, an Atikamekw First Nation about 200 kilometres north of Montreal. Her Facebook statement, which calls on all health-care providers to examine their role in perpetuating systemic racism in Quebec and to "stop dragging our feet," has been signed by 257 Quebec doctors.

Joyce Echaquan’s death highlights systemic racism in health care, experts say
October 4, 2020
National Post | Morgan Lowrie and Kelly Geraldine Malone: Yvonne Boyer, a Metis Canadian senator, lawyer, and former nurse, says what happened to Echaquan was in no way a surprise and that discrimination in the health-care system is “pervasive,” spanning every province and territory. As an example, she cited legal actions being mounted in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia by Indigenous women who allege they were forced or coerced into undergoing sterilization procedures.

AMA Facebook posting – Statement from Indigenous Health Committee
October 2, 2020
“Please see the following statement by the AMA Indigenous Health Committee on the death of Ms. Joyce Echaquan, Monday, September 28, at the Centre hospitalier de Lanaudière in Joliette, Québec …”

Criminal investigation needed into death of Joyce Echaquan, say 2 legal experts
October 1, 2020
CBC News | Jorge Barerra: The Quebec medical staff captured in an online video uttering racist insults while treating Atikamekw woman Joyce Echaquan shortly before her death should be investigated by police to determine whether their actions were criminally negligent and motivated by hate, say two legal experts.

Death of Atikamekw woman in Quebec hospital draws comparisons to death of Brian Sinclair 12 years earlier
October 1, 2020
CBC News | Sarah Petz: The tragic story of a Atikamekw woman who recorded nurses' racist comments about her as she lay dying in a Quebec hospital is drawing comparisons to the death of Brian Sinclair, an Indigenous man who died in a Winnipeg emergency room 12 years ago. 

CBC Radio - The Current - October 1 - Systemic Racism in Healthcare and Doctors Leaving AB
October 1, 2020
CBC News The Current | Matt Galloway: Matt talks to professor and Anishinaabe physician Dr. Lisa Richardson about systemic racism in Canadian healthcare.

Opinion: Joyce Echaquan’s treatment wasn’t an isolated incident
September 30, 2020
Montreal Gazette | Nazila Bettache and Samir Shaheen-Hussain: Those of us working in health care know very well that what Echaquan went through was not an isolated incident. Systemic racism against Indigenous people is not simply endemic within the health-care system, it is normalized and perpetuated through the hidden curriculum, an informal set of cultural norms and behaviours.

Indigenous woman records slurs by hospital staff before her death
September 30, 2020
Calgary Herald | Jesse Feith: In her last moments, while tied to a hospital bed, Joyce Echaquan pleaded for someone to help her. Instead, a video she recorded shows she received disparaging and condescending remarks — at a time when Quebec continues to grapple with the larger question of systemic racism.