Dying woman records racist insults
It’s not a Montreal story, but it’s unignorable: an Atikamekw woman recorded racist insults thrown at her by nurses as she lay on her deathbed in a Joliette hospital Monday night. One of the nurses has been fired, but François Legault still won’t say the phrase “systemic racism.”
I see there’s to be a protest march at 1 pm Saturday starting at Émilie-Gamelin.
Meezly 09:15 on 2020-09-30 Permalink
“..but François Legault still won’t say the phrase “systemic racism.”
He really dug himself into a hole. To say it would be to admit he had been completely wrong to deny systemic racism from the start. But to keep denying it now makes him look like a provincial fool, as this story has made national, if not international, news.
Jack 09:18 on 2020-09-30 Permalink
It’s been a year since the Viens Report came out describing how Quebec’s First Nations are systemically sh_t on by pretty much every institution that purports to protect them in Quebec. Viens’ report called it systemic racism. That report of course has already been shelved and systemic racism exists everywhere in Canada except here. Isabelle Hachey writes it better than I could.
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/2020-09-30/7-minutes-12-secondes.php
Meezly 12:09 on 2020-09-30 Permalink
It made international news.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54350027
Kevin 18:09 on 2020-09-30 Permalink
Amir Khadir shredded MBC today in a panel on LCN. Even the moderator had to tell MBC’s strawmen arguments were silly.
Ian 18:10 on 2020-09-30 Permalink
When you pair this with Bill 21 and inconsistent covid-19 messaging, Legault’s daddy knows best act is starting to wear kind of thin. I hope that he steps up. We need a leader, not a paternalistic, dismissive chauvinist.
Tim S. 19:59 on 2020-09-30 Permalink
Isn’t this just straight up racism? Wouldn’t systemic racism be more like underfunding health care for First Nations, or discouraging them from entering health care professions? I bring this up because systemic racism, as I understand it, is really hard to deal with – solutions often take a long time and might be subtle and indirect. By focusing on things that should be ‘easier’ (like getting people to stop using insults) we get to pat ourselves on the back and let the harder stuff fester.
Not that this excuses Legault or anything.
MarcG 20:42 on 2020-09-30 Permalink
For anyone interested in what Kevin is referring to https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/videos/6196173082001
Ian 20:52 on 2020-09-30 Permalink
Thank you, I was looking for that.
Wow, MBC the “intellectual”. Transparently fallacious.
Tim S. 21:42 on 2020-09-30 Permalink
And now I watched the video and realize that the point of the exchange is that the terms don’t matter.
Meezly 22:06 on 2020-09-30 Permalink
@Tim, think of it this way. If Joyce Echaquan did not live record what happened, those nurses would have gotten away with killing her. The ‘system’ would have protected those nurses, and Echaquan would have been another statistic.
“Wouldn’t systemic racism be more like underfunding health care for First Nations, or discouraging them from entering health care professions?”
A history of government sanctioned racism (thank you JAM) against First Nations people has resulted in our current system where First Nations people are discouraged from being healthcare professionals and are afraid to enter hospitals as patients. It has also allowed white people like nurses and the police to mistreat First Nations people with impunity.
If you can’t properly identify a problem, you can’t fix it.
If you can’t properly identify a problem, you can’t fix it.