Suicides rocking N. Ont. reserves

TORONTO (CP)— Three children and a 21-year-old man have committed suicide in a number of Indigenous communities in northern Ontario since last Friday.

Deputy Chief Anna Achneepineskum of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation said that two 12-year-olds from Pikangikum, Ont., a First Nations community near the Ontario-Manitoba border, committed suicide.

On Tuesday, a 15-year-old girl committed suicide in Nibinamik, Ont., north of Fort Hope. And a day later, a 21-year-old man from the Fort Severn First Nation died in a Thunder Bay medical centre.

There have now been 18 suicides, including the most recent deaths, within the Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s territory since Jan. 1,.

Health Canada said it’s reached out to Pikangikum, Nibinamik and Fort Severn First Nations to offer its support. Local authorities are also sending in teams of support workers and clinicians to monitor communities who’ve lost members to suicide.

They’ve also enlisted the help of the Canadian Rangers a military reserve unit that works in remote regions. The Rangers, alongside volunteers, provide a 24 hour watch to try to locate people in distress. But according to First Nation officials, the support they have received from provincial and federal authorities isn’t enough.

“It’s always a very short-term solution, responding to the deaths,” said Achneepineskum. What is required, she said, is a long-term vision to get at the root problems of the suicide crisis.

Health Canada said Saturday in an email that close to $1 million has been spent on providing health services to Wapekeka. On top of that, the community received $380,000 last May to fund four youth mental health workers.

It will receive $380,000 annually to pay for them until March of 2019.