Sask. child advocate suggests ways to prevent youth suicide

LA RONGE, SASK. • A report about suicide among Indigenous youth in northern Saskatchewan says they feel bullied, sad and alone in their communities.

One youth, who tried to kill himself twice by the time he was 12, told provincial child and youth advocate Corey O’Soup that he didn’t really want to die.

“I was just trying to make everything stop,” the boy named Shane said. “I wanted to quit feeling sad. I wanted to feel like I belonged, or have a place, or no place at all.”

O’Soup interviewed 264 youth, as well as elders and parents of suicide victims in a dozen northern communities over the last year. His report was released Tuesday morning at a high school in La Ronge, Sask., and accepted by the Saskatchewan government later in the day.

“Our young people are amazing kids,” O’Soup said from La Ronge. “They are smart. They are inspirational, but they are also hurting.”

One parent who lost a daughter to suicide told O’Soup the bullying was bad.

“She wasn’t a slim girl, so she was teased about her weight and the way she looked,” the parent said. “Some youth said she was ‘too fat to be their friend.”’

The suicide rate for First Nations boys between the ages of 10 and 19 in Saskatchewan is six time higher than for non-Indigenous boys, while the rate for girls is 26 times higher.

In October 2016, six girls between the ages of 11 and 14 committed suicide. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the time called it a “tremendous tragedy.”

O’Soup’s report said a way must be found to end bullying, increase supports for young people who are physically or emotionally abused, deal with drug and alcohol abuse and help Indigenous youth feel safe in their communities.

He is calling on the province to develop a suicide prevention strategy with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and the Metis Nation -- Saskatchewan.

He also suggests the federal government must end inequity in health-care funding for Indigenous children.