Jocelyne Ottawa Quebec racist joliette Indigenous

Quebec nurses suspended for racism: “I think we’ll just call you Joyce”

The Native Women’s Association of Canada is calling for an investigation.

An Atikamekw woman named Jocelyne Ottawa was “the subject of intimidation, mockery and harassment” at a CLSC in Joliette, QC on Friday. Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Ghislain Picard made the incident public over the weekend.

https://www.facebook.com/ghislain.picard.7/posts/3854656081247364
Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Ghislain Picard on another racist incident in a Joliette healthcare institution

According to CTV, the nurses involved in the incident have been suspended without pay and may be fired. The interim head of regional health authority CISSS de Lanaudière, Caroline Barbir, said she was “shaken” and “deeply shocked” by news of the incident on Monday.

Jocelyne Ottawa interviewed by CBC/Radio-Canada

The Native Women’s Association of Canada is calling for a full investigation into the incident:

We know this sort of thing goes on still it is shocking that healthcare professionals would behave in such a blatantly and openly racist manner so soon after the condemnations that followed the release of Joyce as a Quan’s video. And while the hospital has asked it’s cultural liaison to take action it is not enough we need a full scale investigation.”

—Native Women’s Association of Canada President Lorraine Whitman
Chief Executive Officer of the Native Women’s Association of Canada Lynn Groulx shares a press release about the Joliette incident

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