FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Jun 8

Children as Young as 9 are Attempting Suicide in North America

by bcurry

In Southern Ontario, the small town of Woodstock, with roughly 38,000 residents, had five young people 19 and under commit suicide since the beginning of 2016. Local authorities noted that another 36 teens were known to have expressed suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide in neighbouring communities. How can this be?  Where are we as a society going wrong?

Well, the issue of youth suicide is nothing new in both Canada and the U.S.  Indeed, according to a 2011 U.S. study by the University of Washington, children as young as nine years old are attempting to kill themselves every year. Nearly 40 per cent of those who attempted suicide first tried to kill themselves in elementary or middle school.  Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Canadians between the ages of 10 and 24.  According to Statistics Canada, 25 people in Canada aged 10 to 14 committed suicide in 2008. Girls are more likely to commit suicide than boys, and the proportion of girls dying by their own hand is increasing.  Depression was detected in 40 per cent of suicides. Cyberbullying may play a bigger role in youth suicide today than it did a decade ago.  These are not simply statistics, each number represents someone’s child.

According to recent research, teens who had a schoolmate die by suicide are more likely to consider or attempt taking their own lives than those who haven’t lost a peer to suicide — and the fallout can be longer lasting than once thought. That effect, known as “suicide contagion,” can last two years or longer.  Some believe that this form of contagion may have happened in Woodstock.

Whatever the causes, societies have to seriously begin tackling this issue. Resources have to be allocated to deal with youth mental health issues, reducing the daily pressures and stressors affecting young people, better educating the general population and instituting a comprehensive national strategy to address the issue.  Suicide prevention programs need to focus on elementary and middle school populations as well as high school populations.  The number of youth suicides, especially among girls, has been increasing in recent years. We cannot afford to continue to needlessly loose our children and adolescents to suicide.  The time for talk is over.  The time for action is now.

Health Care Mental Health Uncategorized Youth Suicide

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Apr 14

The Great North — Strong, Free and Mostly Poor for Native Populations

by bcurry

Attawapiskat is a remote community of roughly 2000 people, mostly comprised of first nation folks, and led by the reserve’s band council. It is located in the Kenora District in northern Ontario, Canada, at the mouth of the Attawapiskat River on James Bay. Like other remote northern communities, it is connected to other towns along the shore of James Bay by the seasonal ice road/winter road constructed each December. Otherwise, people and supplies have to be flown into and out of the region.

We have just learned that Attawapiskat has suffered from an epidemic of suicide attempts, including eleven young residents last April 9th involving what is believed to have been the result of a suicide pact.  Subsequently, the community’s dire situation was exposed by national media.  The province of Ontario and the Federal Government admitted that they haven’t done enough in the past to help such communities. Housing is inadequate, the local elementary school is falling apart, substance abuse is high, young people have little to do on the reserve, mental health and other social services are totally lacking, and poverty and high unemployment is rampant.  In this environment of hopelessness, it is understandable why the suicide rate for such communities is roughly eight times the national rate.

In Canada, Aboriginal kids drop out of school at a rate three times the national average. A larger number of Aboriginal children die in infancy than among the rest of our population’s newborns.  Aboriginal children and Aboriginal women continue to be sexually assaulted and violently victimized at higher rates.  Aboriginals are murdered at a rate almost seven times higher than the national average.  In 2013, the Correctional Investigator reported that Canada’s prison population has grown by 2,100 inmates — a 16.5-per-cent increase — in the last 10 years. In that time, the overall Aboriginal population in the prisons grew by 46 percent, while the number of Aboriginal women increased by 80 percent and now accounts for one in three women under federal sentence.  Something terrible has gone wrong.

These appalling statistics and numbers represent real people. Every once and awhile, tragic stories like those in Attawapiskat make the headlines. Governments are forced to react in the short-term until the headlines fade from our memories.  Recognizing the complexities, cultural issues and history behind the problems, what we really need are long-term solutions in consultation with these communities.  Just throwing more money at the problem may not be the answer.  What is needed are on-going comprehensive and holistic approaches involving access to better education, social and health services, as well as innovative socioeconomic initiatives.  We have to stop simply reacting from one crisis to another.

Canada Native Issues Uncategorized Youth Suicide

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Apr 14

Let’s Not Play Politics With Tragic Suicides Like that of Rehtach Parsons

by bcurry

Once again, I’m astounded that Canadian politicians would politicize such tragic events as that of 17-year-old Rehtach Parsons.  Allegedly, her suicide was driven by repeated bullying stemming from an apparent sexual assault by several young boys in 2011.  Allegedly, pictures were taken during the incident and subsequently posted on the Internet.  This in turn led to her becoming a victim of bullying at school and elsewhere in her Nova Scotia community.  Following an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) of the alleged sexual assault, the prosecution determined that there was insufficient evidence to lay charges against the attackers.  Needless-to-say, while this case is indeed sadly another symptomatic example of cyber and other forms of bullying leading to a tragic ending, we need once more to take a hard look at surrounding causes.  We need to look at possible prevention and assistance elements in such cases.  However, once again we have politicians who are singling out one unfortunate case to promote some kind of a political agenda.  Prime Minister Stephen Harper should have stopped his media comments at his words of condolences for the family and friends of Rehtach Parsons.  Recognizing it for its tragic circumstances.  Instead, he continued on to frame certain alleged events in the context of criminal acts, stating that the very word “bullying” cannot be used in cases where a criminal act has taken place.  Yet, we have in place a justice system that is based on evidence and the principle that persons are innocent until proven guilty.  The system is driven by adherence to the Canadian Criminal Code, and is meant to be impartial and without undue political interference.  Yes there was a public outcry in this case and even the threat of vigilante actions both from within and outside the aggrieved community.  Interestingly, the investigation into the original assault has since been reopened by the RCMP, apparently based on new-founded information.  My point however is simple.  On the one hand, the justice system has to be allowed to function independent of any outside pressures, political or otherwise.  On the other hand, the whole matter of “bullying” in this country has to be approached in a much broader social context in order to develop good proactive prevention strategies and effective assistance programs and campaigns.  Let’s not confuse the two.  The suicide rate among young people in Canada is far too high as it is.  Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Canadians between the ages of 10 and 24. According to Statistics Canada, 25 people in Canada aged 10 to 14 committed suicide in 2008.  Bullying may be one contributing factor, but not the only one.  However tragic each youth suicide is, each is one too many.  Let’s not play political games when real solutions need to be continuously examined.

Canada Youth Suicide

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