First Nations suicide emergency: a symptom of Canada's systemic neglect

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

First Nations suicide emergency: a symptom of Canada's systemic neglect

Influx of mental health services in response to spike in suicide attempts long
overdue for indigenous communities ‘operating in crisis mode all the time’

Ashifa Kassam in Toronto
Wednesday 13 April 2016 17.31 BST

As exhausted community leaders in Canada’s troubled Attawapiskat First Nation declared a state of emergency this week amid a wave of suicide attempts, Chief Cathy Merrick was watching closely.

Just one month ago, the small Aboriginal community she leads made a similar, heart-wrenching call; faced with six suicides in a span of some three months and more than 140 attempts in two weeks, the remote Manitoba community of Pimicikamak Cree Nation declared a state of emergency in early March.

“It’s sad that we had to do that,” said Merrick, whose community of about 6,000 people is also known as Cross Lake. “We needed to tell the world that as Aboriginal people we don’t have a lot of those things that are available to others.”

The events unfolding this week in Attawapiskat are a stark reminder of the suicide epidemic that has swept through some First Nations communities across Canada. “I’m sending prayers to them and hoping they’ll make it through this hardship as well.”

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/13/canada-first-nations-suicide-emergency-systemic-neglect

[Mike__M]

1. They "won an apology" for flooding their land

after a hard fight, then had to declare an emergency to get any help.
The status quo knows no border.

[2naSalit]

2. Sadly

it's also a significant problem, as well as drug and alcohol abuse, on the reservations in the US too, but we rarely hear about it and the abject poverty. And then there are the extractive industries who continue to foul their water and lands. Exploitation has never ended since the "discoverers" showed up.

[Mike__M]

3. Toronto protesters demand action

Black Lives Matter protesters have joined with members of Idle No More to press for action on Attawapiskat's suicide crisis

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/protesters-occupy-indigenous-northern-affairs-office-1.3533662?cmp=abfb