Northern Ontario First Nations, federal NDP leader, renew calls for national suicide prevention strategy – CBC

Treaty organization representing 49 First Nations met with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh in Thunder Bay

Sep 24, 2018

Canada needs a national initiative aimed at preventing suicides, say Indigenous leaders representing dozens of First Nations across northern Ontario.

The renewed call comes in the wake of New Democrat MPP Sol Mamakwa rising in the Ontario legislature and speaking about a 13-year-old girl in Bearskin Lake First Nation who took her own life on Sept. 19. Mamakwa called the issue of Indigenous youth suicides a “pandemic.”

Those calls were echoed by the leadership of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and the federal NDP on Sunday after a meeting in Thunder Bay between NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, New Democrat MP Charlie Angus and Mamakwa. The Nishnawbe Aski Nation represents 49 First Nations across northern Ontario.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/nan-national-suicide-prevention-strategy-1.4835307