Exploring Theme: "Suicide States of Emergency"

NationTalk: Treaty One, Manitoba – Recent data from the annual statistics released by the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth (MACY) has exposed unprecedented levels of youth suicide in Manitoba. In response, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) urgently calls for immediate and comprehensive measures to protect our young people, with a particular focus on...

Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster says declaring emergency would allow government to pull more resources CBC Indigenous: A Nunavut MLA is renewing calls to declare the territory’s suicide rate a public emergency in order to access resources and deploy what she says the government always talks about: a whole-of-government approach.  Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster, MLA for Iqaluit-Sinaa, raised the...

WARNING: This story contains distressing details. NationTalk: CBC News: The public health unit in Sudbury reveals the rate of suicide in the Sudbury area is higher than the Ontario average. According to Public Health Sudbury and Districts, men are more likely to die by suicide than women, and the highest rate of suicide was among people 20 to 44...

A study found significant association between inter-generational exposure to mercury and Grassy Narrows’ high rates of youth suicide attempts. WARNING: This story contains sensitive subject matter, including suicide and self-harm, that could be triggering for some readers. Mercury dumped upstream of Grassy Narrows First Nation decades ago has contributed to the community’s youth attempting suicide...

Manitoba airline pledges to increase frequency of flights to and from community  CBC News: The chief of a northern Manitoba First Nation is sounding the alarm and calling on government to take immediate action to address the remote community’s isolation from the larger world, which he says is playing a role in its youth either...

NationTalk – CKOM News: Chief Margaret Bear of the Ochapowace First Nation remembers sitting in the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations’ previous building three years ago, filled with emotion and sharing much of the plight her community is facing today. “I expressed some tears,” Bear said of that day. The heavy emotions came then as...

Loss of young people in 2021, 2022 ‘shocking’, says Green CBC News: The N.W.T.’s health minister says the territory needs a “whole-of-government” response to address a spike in suicides this year. Earlier this week, chief coroner Garth Eggenberger released data on suicides from 2021 and the first nine months of 2022. In that period, 29 people died...

“Global News – Manitoba’s Tataskweyak Cree Nation declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, after nine young people were lost to suicide in the last 14 months alone. They asked federal and provincial authorities for urgent help and “immediate” supports for mental wellness and long-term solutions for its community. The community, which is connected by...

The Matawa Education and Care Centre (MECC), – formerly, the ‘Matawa Learning Centre,’ yesterday released their report entitled ‘Matawa Education and Care Centre 5th Annual Report on the Seven Youth Inquest – Academic 2020-2021.’ For the first time—it included an alert regarding MECC’s potential inability to meet inquest recommendations 64, 71, 81, 83, 84, 85,...

CTV News – The Chief of Shamattawa First Nation in northern Manitoba has declared a state of emergency following a recent suicide in the community and a subsequent suicide attempt by a child. Redhead said the crisis started when his sister, a mother of four, died by suicide on May 9. He added a seven-year-old...

980 CJME (Canadian Press): Ronald Mitsuing, chief of Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation in northern Saskatchewan says he is disappointed at the lack of long-term help from the provincial and federal governments to deal with what he says is a suicide crisis. The leaders are concerned about what they are calling “cluster suicides” in their community...

Radio-Canada: Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller told Chief Ronald Mitsuing, that Ottawa would financially support the suicide-prevention strategy released last year by the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations in Saskatchewan…billed as the first “decolonized First Nations-led approach” to suicide prevention and intervention in Canada....

CBC: Failure to approve funding requests over 20 years ago to build infrastructure and capacity in mental health counselling, social work, education etc. in a community whose average age is now 21, less that 50% of the average age of the broader population of 46. Chief Eugene Hart declared a suicide crisis in the Labrador...