First Nations group turns to Quebecers to help fight discrimination

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Tired of waiting for the provincial government to act, an important First Nations group is appealing directly to Quebecers to help combat racism and discrimination in the province.

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Ghislain Picard, head of the Quebec-Labrador Assembly of First Nations (AFNQL), held a press conference on Wednesday to mark a year since the group presented its action plan on the matter.

Picard said support for the plan has been overwhelming, listing universities, unions and municipalities that have committed to implementing its recommendations. But the same level of commitment has yet to come from the Quebec government.

“We realized over the last year that it is directly with Quebecers that we must work, without waiting for government action,” Picard said.

“This human wave (of support) that we’ve seen over the last year,” he added later, “maybe it’s time for it to turn into a tsunami, for governments to finally do the right thing.”

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The AFNQL represents 43 First Nations chiefs in Quebec and Labrador. Its action plan included 141 recommendations on how to address racism and discrimination in the province.

The plan coincided with the death of Joyce Echaquan, Atikamekw’s 37-year-old mother who died in a Joliette hospital after filming an aide and a nurse insulting her.

Picard said he believes Echaquan’s death was a wake-up call for many in Quebec over the past year, and served as a striking example of the discrimination that indigenous peoples continue to face.

Emphasizing the need for action, he pointed to a recent Léger poll conducted for the AFNQL that suggests that 41 percent of Quebecers believe the province has not done enough to combat racism and discrimination in the past year.

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More than three-quarters of those surveyed also said they are ready to act for reconciliation, Picard added, highlighting the support the cause has garnered in Quebec.

As a first step, the group is inviting people to show their commitment by attending a march in Montreal on Thursday to mark the first National Truth and Reconciliation Day. Those who do are asked to share their photos and videos online using the hashtags #ActAgainstRacism and #FirstNations. The march will start at Place du Canada at 1 pm and head towards Place des Arts.

The day has been named a federal statutory holiday, but has not been recognized as such at the provincial level in Quebec.

When asked about the holiday, Picard said it’s hard to understand why the Quebec government chose not to observe it, noting that it could have done a lot to raise awareness in the province.

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“But having said that,” he added, “beyond the question of whether it is a legal holiday or not, we cannot forget that (September 30) is above all a day of reflection and commemoration.”

When AFNQL first unveiled its action plan last year, it had been a year since Prime Minister François Legault formally apologized to indigenous peoples for the discrimination they have faced at the hands of public services in Quebec.

The apology came after the Viens Commission, a three-year investigation into the matter, called the way First Nations and Inuit have been treated in Quebec as “simply unacceptable” in a developed society.

But since then, Legault and the government of the Avenir Québec Coalition have continued to deny that there is systemic racism in the province.

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Last November, the government refused to adopt a set of measures aimed at improving health care for indigenous people, known as the Joyce Principle, in honor of Echaquan, due to a reference to systemic racism in the document.

On Wednesday, AFNQL said it remains disappointed by the government’s refusal to acknowledge the problem.

Nadia Robertson, co-spokesperson for AFNQL’s council of elected women, noted that systemic racism has already been explored by various investigations and has been denounced by communities for years.

But even so, he said, it is important that the government recognize that it exists.

“Because how can you say you’re going to change things,” Robertson said, “when you don’t recognize the problem?”

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