On behalf of the Nursing Undergraduate Society at the University of Toronto
Dear colleagues,
We hope you will join us in our fundraiser that will run from December 1st, 2020 to February 14th, 2021 in support of Joyce Echaquan’s family and her community. Joyce Echaquan was a young Indigenous woman who faced explicit anti-Indigenous racism at the hands of nursing staff and healthcare providers in a Joliette hospital. This led to her untimely death, leaving behind seven children, a partner, a family and a community in mourning. The Atikamekw of Manawan Council and the Council of the Atikamekw Nation created Joyce’s Principle as a measure to hold governments accountable and ensure that Indigenous people have equitable access to healthcare services without discrimination. The current Quebec government has continued to deny the existence of systemic racism and its pervasive role in deadly health outcome for Indigenous people and refused to pass the motion for Joyce’s Principle.
Anti-Indigenous racism within healthcare settings is pervasive across Canada illustrating the insidious nature of racism and the its direct impacts in policies, clinical guidelines, hospital culture and the provision of care that cause direct harm to Indigenous patients and communities. The Nursing Undergraduate Society at the University of Toronto in collaboration with No More Silence, a grassroots Indigenous organization that supports efforts to stop the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people; created this fundraiser as an act of solidarity with Joyce’s family and the Atikamekw Nation. As healthcare providers and learners it is our responsibility to directly name and address anti-Indigenous racism within our institutions, our practices and our networks and apply pressure on governing bodies to adopt recommendations from provision of care from Indigenous communities.
We encourage you to donate directly through e-transfer to No More Silence at nomoresilenceorg@gmail.com. Proceeds will go to the Echaquan family and to the Toronto Strawberry Ceremony on February 14th, 2021 honouring her life and holding government institutions accountable for their role in her death. Thank you for your consideration and participation,
In solidarity,
The Nursing Undergraduate Society (U of T) Email: equity.uoftnus@gmail.com
