The ugly truth of Canada's First Nations teen suicide

posted on February 25, 2010

Written by Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Stretched thinner and thinner across Canada’s North, the church is losing touch with First Nations communities as First Nations communities lose touch with hope. Another wave of teen suicides in the James Bay region has left church leaders wondering how they can offer hope to young aboriginals when they have so little contact with them.

“It used to be that the churches had a real big involvement in the communities," said Bishop Vincent Cadieux, bishop of the Moosonee and Hearst dioceses. “That’s less and less now."

With seven young suicides this winter in Moose Factory, Ont., and surrounding communities alone, church leaders have been left trying to console families and pray for the affected communities. But with no programs to try to prevent more suicides. The suicides in Moose Factory highlight a stubborn, enduring and ugly truth about First Nations communities. For as long as people have studied suicide in Canada, aboriginal suicide rates have been at least double the national rate.

Of course the church still offers a message of hope. Hope is fundamental to the Christian message, said Cadieux. But the message isn’t getting to the people.

On the positive side, First Nations communities are building up their own capacity to deal with the crisis with their own schools, counselling services and health centres. But new First Nations institutions don’t have any silver bullets. They are as heartsick and confused as the rest of the community.

“In these communities, there’s not much work and there’s no great future for people, especially the young generation," said Cadieux.

Native communities on Manitoulin Island have had their problems with suicides, but they don’t face it in waves or as a constant crisis, said Fr. Doug McCarthy, pastor of Holy Cross parish in Wikwemikong, Ont. That may be because there are jobs at a couple of different sand and gravel operations on Manitoulin Island, and good access to jobs off reserve in southern Ontario. The reserves on the island are host to a vibrant cultural life and the art galleries spread across the island are also a source of employment.

But in many communities a cycle of despair takes over, said Ursuline missionary Sr. Bernadette Feist in Lebret, Sask. Spread between three reserves and constantly on the road, Feist said she would need a corps of committed people living and organizing in the community to have any real effect on young lives in the Qu’Appelle Valley.

“What is it saying?" asked Mary Kapashesit, director of service for Peyakoteno, the aboriginal children’s aid agency in Moosonee. Kapashesit complains of the same problem as Cadieux. She doesn’t have enough trained people who can run programs and work in counselling services to deal with the problem. Kapashesit has a proposal in to the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services seeking more frontline workers to confront the suicide crisis, but there’s no certainty that a government running a $24-billion deficit is going to find the money.

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