Critics are accusing the Liberal government of failing to address mental-health concerns in Canada’s aboriginal communities.
Federal NDP indigenous and northern affairs critic Charlie Angus was in Saskatoon Friday alongside NDP MP Georgina Jolibois and other leaders to call on the federal government to immediately increase funding for mental-health services and to commit to a long-term plan to address mental-health issues in indigenous communities across the country.
“Until we start to see that willingness to move, a major, major response, and a commitment and an engagement with the communities to put children first, we're just repeating the '60s scoop, we're repeating the residential schools, and we're repeating the failure in this generation in community after community,” said Angus.
His comments followed the recent suicides of four young girls in three northern Saskatchewan communities.
A 10-year-old in Deschambault Lake died most recently, while two girls from Stanley Mission and another from La Ronge — all between 12 and 14 years old — died earlier this month.
“At what point do we, as Canadians, say ‘Enough. It has to stop,’” Angus said. “All children have to be counted as the greatest resource in this nation.”
Angus and the other leaders accused the government of spending less on mental-health services for indigenous communities than the Conservatives spent last year.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau commented on the deaths earlier this week, calling the rash of suicides a tragedy.
Health Canada said it has since deployed two nurses and seven mental-health therapists to Stanley Mission to provide counselling to at-risk youth until the end of December. The department also launched a telephone crisis intervention line, which has received 44 calls since the start of the month.
