The Legault government is renouncing its promise to include the notion of cultural security in the Act respecting health services and social services, as it had undertaken to do after the death of Joyce Echaquan at the Joliette hospital.
“Right now, I wouldn’t be in a good position to tell you that it would be realistic to do it before the end of the session. [en juin] “Agreed Wednesday morning the Minister responsible for Indigenous Affairs, Ian Lafrenière.
The elected official had formally committed, in March 2020, to including this notion in the law “very soon”. He then reacted to the testimonies of Atikamekw women who had told of having suffered racism at the Joliette hospital, where Joyce Echaquan died under the insults of the nursing staff.
During the fall parliamentary session, the government took the first step back from this promise. On Wednesday, Minister Lafrenière acknowledged that the last weeks of parliamentary work would not allow him to respect his commitment. The inclusion of cultural security in the Act respecting health services and social services is one of the recommendations of the Viens report, submitted at the end of the Commission of Inquiry on Relations between Aboriginal Peoples and Certain Public Services in Quebec.
“No, absolutely not,” said the minister when he was reminded that the notion was still not in the law. But it is extremely important,” he insisted. “Does it matter? Yes. Do we do the same? The answer is yes,” he also said.
Last week, The Press reported that the government would also break its promise to train half of the employees of the health network on Aboriginal realities by March 31. As of March 22, 30% of workers had completed the mandatory training, which was ordered in the wake of Ms. Echaquan’s death.
The government also rejected on Tuesday a proposal to strengthen the protection of indigenous students. The Viens commission had recommended that the authorities “make the implementation of support measures for school perseverance and the educational success of Aboriginal students and children a priority and [d’]devote the necessary funds to it”, by consulting the First Nations.
The Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, said he believes that the solution does not lie “in the creation of a national or regional protector exclusively for the Aboriginal nations”. “I think that the solution is in training, in awareness, in the mandates that will be given,” he said.