By Canadian Press

Quebec health officials investigate job posting requiring applicants be white women

Mar 17, 2021 | 10:50 AM

MONTREAL — A regional health authority north of Montreal says it is investigating after it was revealed one of its job postings last year for a patient attendant required candidates be white women.

Montreal La Presse reported today that health officials in Ste-Eustache, Que., northwest of Montreal, posted a job last fall seeking only white female applicants to work with a patient who allegedly only wanted to be treated by a white woman.

Quebec deputy premier Genevieve Guilbault told reporters today that any job requiring a certain ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation is unacceptable.

She says she has a lot of empathy for caregivers who work with patients who have cognitive impairment but says that doesn’t allow employees to be selected over others based on skin colour.

The regional health authority in the Laurentians region said in an emailed statement that an internal investigation has been opened to ensure such a situation does not happen again.

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A spokesperson with the authority says the job posting was exceptional and connected to a patient suffering from dementia who was disruptive in the presence of racialized staff.

News of the job posting is the latest incident involving racism in Quebec’s health-care system.

Last September, an Indigenous woman named Joyce Echaquan filmed herself being mocked by health-care workers as she lay dying in a Joliette, Que., hospital. The video went viral.

In a separate incident, two nurses accused of mocking an Indigenous patient last week at a community clinic in the same city northeast of Montreal were fired on Tuesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2021.

The Canadian Press