The Current for Oct. 6, 2021
Today on The Current:
Quebec's coroner thinks that if Joyce Echaquan were white, she'd be alive today. The Atikamekw woman died in a Quebec hospital last year, after recording hospital staff using racial slurs against her. Coroner Géhane Kamel explained the findings of her inquiry Tuesday, including her recommendation that the province recognize systemic racism within its institutions, something Premier François Legault has refused to do. Matt Galloway talks to Senator Michele Audette, who is Innu, from Quebec and served as a commissioner on the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls; and Daniel Beland, professor of political science and director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.
Plus, Wendy Mendez's mother was tortured and disappeared by the military during the Guatemalan civil war — when Mendez was just nine years old. Now, with a trial of 12 alleged death squad members underway in Guatemala City, we talk to Mendez about the chance for justice, and hear about the need for a full account with Kate Doyle, a senior analyst of U.S. policy in Latin America at the National Security Archive in Washington.
Then, as Ontario launches a rapid COVID-19 testing program for some students younger than 11, we talk to Dr. Barry Pakes, of University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, about the pros and cons of this approach.
And when we last spoke to NFL offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, he had skipped a football season to join the front lines of COVID-19. Now he's on the offensive again — both on the field and in schools against poor nutrition and fitness.