Families coping with suicides treated poorly
Government paid lip service, but did nothing for them
Most would prefer to grieve in silence, but some just can't.
For some, the grieving process includes a need to publicly share their pain — their stories — in the distant hope they will be heard by someone in authority so the next mom or dad won't have go through the same thing.
These were the moms and dads that came to the legislature this week to tell their stories of sons and daughters lost to suicide.
There is not enough space in this column to do justice to the stories we heard from these parents this week at the legislature. Nevertheless, let me briefly retell these stories that surely need to be heard
Marilyn Irwin held a picture of her son Macrae who died May 1, 2018, leaving behind two children. She said her best memories of him were when he was a little boy and would ask to be held in his mom's arms.
“I knew he was dying. I knew it,” Irwin said. “I asked for help. I took him to the hospital. We got no help. I'm still asking for help for other people. I see that this government, this province, is failing.”
Chris and Wanda Ball of Indian Head held a picture of their son Kye in his football uniform. “That was his thing,” said dad Chris. “That, and hockey.”
Kye was in high school on March 20, 2017, when he took his own life in his bedroom just as his buddies entered the room. It has gutted the Ball family, who have since vowed that no family should ever have to endure that sort of anguish.
Frannie Ratt clutched a photo of her daughter Betty. The 32-year-old mother who took her life last December left behind four children.
“It's heartbreaking,” father and husband Jude said. “She (Frannie) had to bury her only child on my wife's birthday.”
These are very ordinary people who came from all corners of the province and walks of life to the legislature this week to share stories of their extraordinary sadness in the hope it would make a difference.
They left feeling they didn't make a difference because they felt they weren't heard. This has added to the tragedies. It clearly could have been avoided. And, frankly, it's really why politicians wind up being held in disdain.
“I'm very angry,” Jude Ratt later told reporters, adding his anger was directed at government members and MLAS who didn't meet with the parents. “My wife couldn't even join us here (for the media scrum) because she's so hurt. She's so broken about it.”
This is what's wrong with the legislature in general, but it's specifically what's wrong with a 15-year-old Saskatchewan Party government. It's growing out of touch with not only its roles and responsibilities, but with the very people it's elected to serve.
The government may have paid lip service to the families, but it clearly acted like it didn't want to bothered by their unpleasantries.
Neither Addictions and Mental Health Minister Everett Hindley nor any government MLAS met with them. Why not? Why not offer personal condolences to them? Isn't that just common courtesy?
If government wants parents to participate in its suicide prevention expert panel, shouldn't that panel be easily found on the internet? Might parents going through these horrific tragedies not be considered “experts” who could contribute something?
Wouldn't these be the very people Hindley want in his Roots of Hope program the government is considering expanding to additional communities?
Really, what possible reason could government MLAS have for not holding a non-partisan, all-party initiative outside of partisanship, stubbornness, indifference or laziness?
New Democrat MLA Doyle Vermette — whose tearful emotional outburst over the issue got him kicked out of the assembly Wednesday — did absolutely everything in his power this sitting to bring forward the families in a non-partisan way.
Did government do anything? Does stubbornly vowing not to do more help anyone?
Did these moms and dads deserve better?