Canada holds emergency debate on aboriginal suicide crisis

[webfact]

Canada holds emergency debate on aboriginal suicide crisis
ROB GILLIES, Associated Press

TORONTO (AP) — Canada's Parliament held an emergency debate Tuesday on a suicide crisis in a remote aboriginal community after 11 people, nine of them minors, attempted suicide over the weekend and more than a dozen youths were overheard making a suicide pact.

Lawmaker Charlie Angus, who represents the northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat, said in Parliament that the crisis has shocked the world and people are asking how Canada can leave so many people behind. Attawapiskat, population 2,000, declared a state of emergency Saturday. There have been about 100 suicide attempts since September and at least one death.

Anna Betty Achneepineskum of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents 49 aboriginal communities in Northern Ontario, said police brought 13 youths, including a 9-year-old, to a hospital on Monday for an evaluation after they were overheard making a suicide pact.

The crisis spotlights the often bleak conditions for Canada's indigenous peoples. Chiefs have often complained about a lack of money for tribal education and the poor conditions on reserves. Indigenous people are angered by the disparities between their standard of living and that of the rest of the country.

Health Minister Jane Philpott said the suicide rate among Canadian aboriginal young is among the highest in the world, noting young aboriginal males in Canada are 10 times more likely to die by suicide than other young Canadian males and that the rate for aboriginal females is over 21 times higher . New Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the Attawapiskat news "heartbreaking" and said the government will work to improve living conditions for all indigenous peoples. His recent federal budget promised billions of dollars.

"It is completely unacceptable that in a country as rich in resources as Canada that young people should get to the point where their life seems worthless and they want to end it. We must respond to this," Philpott said in Parliament.

She said the aboriginal suicide rate is a "staggering reality and completely unacceptable."

Officials said 18 additional people — including a crisis coordinator, two youth support workers and a psychologist — have been deployed as temporary crisis relief. Philpott said the government is investing more than $300 million per year in mental wellness in aboriginal communities.

Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Zimmer said fly-in communities, which can be reached only by air, present their own long-standing issues.

"They are very, very remote, they're small, there's no economy, there is a sense — especially among the younger people — of despair, a lack of opportunity and it leads to depression and anxiety and these sorts of things," Zimmer said.

Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation said in a telephone interview that Canada needs to move beyond these crisis declarations and begin to work toward longer-term solutions. Fiddler noted things are so bad that half of the communities he oversees don't have clean drinking water.

"We have to look at the underlying issues," he said. "For example, 22, 23 communities on any given day are under some boiling water advisory. There needs to be access to cleaning drinking water, adequate housing and health care, the basic necessities of life."


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-04-13

[Scott]

An off-topic post has been removed. This topic has nothing to do with refugees.

[HLover]

2,000 aborigines and a 300 million dollar budget for mental illness programs?

Sounds like a well funded start.

[Scott]

Off-topic, offensive post removed.

[Fookhaht]

Canada? Lack of clean drinking water?

I thought that was an oxymoron-ish sort of concept. Or at the least, indefensible predicament.

Edited April 13, 2016 by Fookhaht

[ggt]

I feel your pain...indigenous people in the US and Australia are often shoved to the fringes of society and expected to fend for themselves...sad commentary on equal opportunity for all people...

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

Conqueors rarely care about those they steal land and life from. Give them a plot to die on and they never look back.

[BritManToo]

I used to spend time in (London) Canada, the local white folk hated the indians, called them worthless drunks living off state handouts. I was amazed at the racism, hatred and bile directed at these indians by people I thought to be decent individuals. A true w.t.f moment in my life. Canadians are usually so gentle and polite.

Edited April 13, 2016 by BritManToo

[Prbkk]

Conqueors rarely care about those they steal land and life from. Give them a plot to die on and they never look back.

Probably true in previous times but in the countries most affected by these issues: US, Australia, Canada, NZ more money has been spent on indigenous community support than any other sector of society, at least in recent decades. Most efforts have failed, some notable exceptions.

In the case of Australia, the indigenous population had an EXTREME connection to land. Their societies were quite sophisticated, culturally rich, well developed language ( although though not written), harmonious existence with the environment.

Alcohol, disease, drugs, religion and dispossession of land has taken so much from them and although Australia spends BILLIONS on strategies, plans, policies , the situation is not improving much, if at all. I suspect the same is true of those other countries.

[ChoakMyDee]

The adults in those communities need to put the bottle down, stop raping their kids, stop beating their wives etc. etc. etc. They are being funded by liberal white guilt but all the money being thrown at them hasn't helped at all. I'm pretty sure if the welfare state was taken away they would get off their lazy asses and solve their own problems. Why is the government always the one responsible for solving everyone's problems?

If they want to live in their own communities and practice traditional culture then they need to get off the government teat. They will have dignity, pride and a strong community. On the other hand, if they want to depend on the white man they need to move into the cities and integrate into society. They can't have it both ways.

The reason you see so much vitriol directed at the natives by white Canadians is they are sick of being demonized and blamed for everything that is wrong with the native community. Enough is enough. All the crimes that were done to them were years ago....they've been playing the victim for far too long.

What the <deleted> are the adults in the native community doing about their suicidal youths?

[chilli42]

Money is not going to fix this problem. These kids grow up in a place that any sane person would run from ... dull, lifeless and remote. Internet and TV shows them what life in the real world is like. Yet all they see ahead of them is a repeat of their parents. They see no hope and in their mind there is no escape. It's a soul crushing existence that they see no way out of. The only way out is in fact education and assimilation into the mainstream culture ... something native people struggle to accept.

[maoro2013]

In Australia, in North Queensland for instance, aboriginals are treated differently by police than others. What I mean is that in many cases the police won't touch them, but if you were not aboriginal you would be arrested. Police are concerned about the intervention of the Depart

[maoro2013]

In Australia, in North Queensland for instance, aboriginals are treated differently by police than others. What I mean is that in many cases the police won't touch them, but if you were not aboriginal you would be arrested. Police are concerned about the intervention of the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. A bad state of affairs that gets the other Australians off side.

I have had personal experience of holding an aboriginal who gate crashed, with his mates, and assaulted people at a party I was running. The police turned up and refused to do anything, just said 'we know who they are'. Therefore this guy and his cohorts get away with trespass and assault and battery. The police did seem pretty ashamed when I told them they were useless.

[Scott]

Young people are more susceptible to cluster suicides, suicide contagion and suicide pacts than older people. Suicide rates among native people is higher than the general population to begin with, especially between the ages of 15 and 24.

With young people, it is important that there be strong intervention to prevent these copy cat suicides. Young people are really not cognizant that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. In the case of some young people, it is not even accompanied by the ordinary indicators of suicide.