On Indigenous youth suicides in Canada

Prevention as a method of retribution 

Last week, three girls committed suicide in two Indigenous communities in northern Saskatchewan. They were all between 12 and 14 years old.

That’s elementary school age. That’s too young to drive, maybe just old enough to babysit.

Two of the girls were from Stanley Mission, one of the larger communities within the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. There’s one elementary school and one high school.

The other girl was from La Ronge, about 80 km southwest of Stanley Mission.

“Health Canada has sent psychologists and counsellors from Saskatoon…”

Health Canada has sent psychologists and counsellors from Saskatoon, and the plan is to keep those support specialists there until December at the very least.

“Everyone is on edge right now,” said Lac La Ronge Indian Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson in an interview with CBC News. “It’s a lot of pain to take when you lose a child and a family member.”

But what’s so deeply striking about this loss of young human life is that we’ve heard it before. The scene keeps on replaying across the nation in iterations as frequent as they are tragic.

Suicides among Indigenous youth aren’t just about mental illness—they’re about social illness as well. Substance abuse, other types of abuse, delinquency, and mental health and wellness are all interconnected, but they’re all related symptoms of a much larger cause.

“Suicides among Indigenous youth aren’t just about mental illness—they’re about social illness as well.”

As a Canadian and onlooker at the continuous socio-political events in America, I can easily, though lamentingly, admit that America has a gun problem. Rather, America has a problem involving guns, mental health, and public safety.

I can recall the horrendous media barrage North America receives when a shooter commits a mass-murder somewhere in the United States. I say this with a degree of distance because a fraction of these events receive exponential media coverage. Think of the Orlando club, the San Bernardino centre, Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, the church in Charleston, Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and there are so many more.

I am in no way exemplifying American mass-shootings, and it’s unfair to compare gun violence with suicide. However, I want to draw attention to the fact that, like the U.S., Canada undeniably has a sociological problem. I’m talking about a rampant social problem that begins with cultural, political, and economic circumstances, and ends with a very specific social outcome.

“… like the U.S., Canada undeniably has a sociological problem. I’m talking about a rampant social problem…”

There is, and always has been, a controversial issue regarding the self-sufficiency of Canada’s Indigenous groups. Can a given band self-regulate in the social sense? I don’t mean socioeconomic or even sociocultural. Even so, I think it’s more complicated than a yes or no answer.

But when tragedy strikes, and continues to strike, a very specific Canadian demographic in an ongoing political and economic discussion with the national government, it’s time to take notice. For most bands, it’s no longer an issue of political status. Yes, battles are still waged for retribution, not to mention funding for well-being, but the main issue at hand is a now social one.

I think we have to examine the social reality for Indigenous youth in Canada: what it means to grow up identified or self-identified as Indigenous. The relative success of a group of people depends on many factors—the first of which is recognition. In the contemporary world, as in that of the 20th century and earlier, there is an interplay between independence, dependence, and political right.

“…we have to examine the social reality for Indigenous youth in Canada…”

One of the rampant social problems at play here is that it takes dramatic action, as in the taking of lives, for Indigenous communities to get the public’s attention, to get swift governmental action, and to see immediate and lasting programs put in place like community coping strategies across all demographics.

Yes, the government of Canada has a National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy. In its outline, the report pointed out that a large portion of youth suicides are taking place in a relatively small portion of Indigenous communities—an important observation. This reminds us that there is no blanket strategy for all Indigenous groups across Canada.

Maybe this points to the necessity for more mental health and well-being workers present on all Indigenous territories. Even larger, this could be indicative of some cracks in Canada’s very strained healthcare system.

“…a large portion of youth suicides are taking place in a relatively small portion of Indigenous communities…”

Have you ever been to the University of Guelph’s Aboriginal Resource Centre? I haven’t. I’ve never even been through the door. I feel more and more that makes me complicit in what’s going on. I feel uninformed. The only information I have is from each tragic event as is gets championed on the news for approximately 12 hours.

Maybe the media is focusing on the wrong aspects of each of these stories: the coping strategies. Although they’re integral to community health, we must at some point question the scope, immediacy, and longevity of the structures put in place to prevent these tragedies from happening.

Photo courtesy of Kayoty (CC BY-SA 3.0).