The videoconference interview was about to end on Monday evening when I asked Carol Dubé how he was doing after two years of mourning. He paused. “Nothing has changed for two years. Nothing has changed… ”
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
He paused, unable to say more. He swung his chair around to cry. After a while, he came back to face the camera and told me softly, his eyes full of tears: “It still hurts me very, very badly. I feel the same as when I saw her, in the video…”
He speaks to me, of course, of Joyce Echaquan. The love of his life, the mother of his seven children, whom he saw die live on Facebook, September 28, 2020.
Like a recurring nightmare, the atrocious scenes go over and over in his head. Joyce dying, watered with racist insults. Joyce struggling, screaming, calling for help. And him, in front of his screen, who feels helpless. Terribly helpless.
Carol Dubé is a broken man. When he heard François Legault affirm, Thursday evening at the leaders’ debate, that “the problem that happened with Mme Joyce at the Joliette hospital is now settled”, he had the impression of falling into the void, without a parachute.
“In Joliette, [le problème] is set ! I just spoke to her husband. It is settled! “, insisted the Prime Minister in front of 1.5 million viewers.
Paralyzed in front of her screen, Carol Dubé felt helpless. Terribly helpless. Once again.
Two years that he hopes for a meeting with François Legault. Two years that he has come up against a wall. Despite the extent of the scandal, the Prime Minister has never requested an official meeting with the spouse of Joyce Echaquan. Never, in two years.
“It was in the plans, wrote me the spokesperson for Mr. Legault, but the right moment never presented itself because of the pandemic. »
Mr. Legault met Mr. Dubé during the visit of Pope Francis to Quebec. The two men chatted for less than a minute. How is it going ? How are the children? Oh, by the way, Mr. Dubé, do you find that there have been improvements at the Joliette hospital since the appointment of an Atikamekw to senior management?
Carol Dubé politely answered yes.
He never said the problem was solved. Because he wasn’t.
We still receive a lot of complaints about the hospital. Even I am afraid to go there. I’m waiting for an operation and I’m afraid to go.
Carol Dube
There is no doubt that the CIUSSS de Lanaudière worked hard to restore bridges with the Atikamekw community after the death of Joyce Echaquan.
In particular, we hired Atikamekw liaison officers at the hospital. Employees were forced to take training on the reality of Aboriginal people.
These initiatives were welcome and necessary. But they did not make prejudice disappear as if by magic. Distrust, either. There are still Atikamekw people who are reluctant to seek treatment. Because they are afraid.
Two years that Carol Dubé tries to rebuild somehow. And now François Legault proclaims on TV that everything is fine, it’s settled! The husband said it! Move along, nothing to see…
Mr. Dubé is angry with him for having put words in his mouth. Since the death of his wife, he has not had the strength to make too many waves. This is why, he believes, that Mr. Legault allowed himself to speak in his place.
He took advantage of my silence. This silence, I needed it to heal myself, to heal my children and my community.
Carol Dube
The father of the family wants an apology.
A good time to present them would be September 28, during a ceremony organized in memory of Joyce Echaquan. Mr. Dubé also invites Mr. Legault to Manawan, “with sympathy”, to take part in the commemorative day.
That’s good: Mr. Legault’s spokesperson wrote to me that he wanted to meet Mr. Dubé “soon”.
For the apologies, however, it’s off to a bad start.
In the cacophonous chaos of a televised debate, one can understand that a leader commits a blunder, and even two or three. Subsequently, this leader usually tries to correct the situation. But Saturday, two days after the debate, François Legault rather gave a layer.
Far from expressing his regrets, he reproached the Atikamekw for not wanting to solve the problems of racism of which they are victims…
“They want to come back to the issue of systemic racism,” said Mr. Legault. So they want to debate words instead of ensuring that the problems on the ground are resolved. »
Carol Dubé does not budge: we must name the evil to better fight it. We must adopt Joyce’s Principle, which aims to guarantee fair access to health care for Aboriginal people throughout Quebec.
But Mr. Legault refuses to do so, since it would force him to recognize systemic racism, a concept that goes badly with a good part of his electorate.
PHOTO FROM SHIRLEY TOLLEY’S FACEBOOK ACCOUNT
Joyce Echaquan
For Carol Dubé, this is not just a semantic debate. These words, “systemic racism”, are not just a more or less hermetic theoretical concept. “These are facts. This is the reality that Joyce lived and that other Aboriginal people still live. »
These words are the reason he lost the woman he loved. And why this loss remains so painful. “Mr. Legault reopened a wound that had not yet healed. Before ending the interview, I ask him if he has a final message for the Prime Minister. He takes time to think. “I ask him not to use my silence anymore. »