As Expert Witness in the Ms. Joyce Echaquan Inquiry

Dr. Annette J. Browne, a professor in the School of Nursing, served as an expert witness in the 2021 Quebec Public Inquiry into the death of Ms. Joyce Echaquan, an Atikamekw woman who died on September 28, 2020, after posting a livestream video of hospital staff making racist comments about her instead of attending to her needs.

As a member of the Sinclair Working Group, Dr. Browne is also familiar with the details of the Mr. Brian Sinclair inquest. In 2008, Mr. Sinclair was sent an emergency department for treatment via taxi. He remained in the waiting room until, after 34 hours of being ignored, he died of a treatable condition. In that instance, the presiding judge ruled (according to the Canadian Bar Association) that “issues of race, racism, poverty, disability, and substance abuse were beyond the mandate of the inquest.” In other words, there would be no analysis of how systemic racism played a part in Mr. Sinclair’s death.

In contrast, according to the CBC, the top recommendation made by coroner Géhane Kamel in the Quebec Public Inquiry is for the province to acknowledge that systemic racism exists and “make the commitment to contribute to its elimination.”

Following the Quebec Public Inquiry, Dr. Browne and her colleagues Mary Jane Logan McCallum, Josée Lavoie, and Christa Big Canoe wrote a comparison of the two events. Read the full CBC opinion piece entitled “Mr. Brian Sinclair, Ms. Joyce Echaquan died years apart in hospitals. Only one of their inquests points to change.” In Ms. Joyce Echaquan’s case, Quebec coroner Géhane Kamel sought to understand “how systemic racism influences the assumptions and treatment provided by staff in relation to Ms. Echaquan’s health needs.”

Dr. Browne’s full report to the Quebec Public Inquiry is publicly available. She concludes that some progress is being made, but notes that although these two incidents made headlines around the world years apart from one another, they are not isolated events. For many people who identify as Indigenous, these reflect common, everyday experiences. Nurses must work to recognize and mitigate the ongoing effects of systemic racism in healthcare.