Office of the Chief Coroner

Publications & Reports

The Office of the Chief Coroner’s Death Review of the Youth Suicides at the Pikangikum First Nation

2006 – 2008

Part H: Advocate For Children and Youth’s Report

The following report is printed in its original format as submitted to the Office of the Chief Coroner by the Office (OCC) for the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth (OPACY) to provide their perspectives and contribution to the OCC’s Death Review of the Youth Suicides at the Pikangikum First Nation 2006-2008 Report. The OPACY submission has been edited by the Chair for the purposes of publication only.

H1. Introduction

The 2007 Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights report, “Children: The Silenced Citizens,” observed that FN children are disproportionately:

Informed by the voices of First Nations young people and their communities we met with over the last year, we enter the discussion of suicide from the bleak landscape noted by the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights. The voices reflected in this work represent a cross-section of First Nations young people aged 15 – 18 from across the province of Ontario. These young people live on reserve, some attend schools in their communities, some leave their communities and fly to communities like Thunder Bay to attend high school and others attend colleges and universities in and beyond the north. These young people have taken the time to meet with us as part of group and individual discussions.

Almost uniformly, they express that they want to be a key part of identifying and participating in the development of resources and services needed to build and strengthen the capacity of their communities. They want to push back against what is often accepted as the common place reality of life on reserve. They want to be part of tackling the issues that drain hope and vitality and seem so insurmountable that many end their lives rather than live without the hope that is needed for their future. But this is not new, the same sentiments were expressed by young people in the 1995 report, “Horizons of Hope: An Emerging Journey, Youth Forum Final Report”.² At that time, young people noted the time for talk was over and that it was time to put their ideas into action.

Four years later, in 1999, the inquest into the hanging death of Selena Sakanee drove home the impact of inaction and, once again, the importance of the recommendations made in the Horizons of Hope Report. In the subsequent Coroner’s verdict explanation “the report was recognized and the jury endorsed its recommendations.”³

In 2000, an Intergovernmental Committee was formed. The Committee is currently comprised of representatives from Provincial and Federal levels of government and leadership and staff from Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN). The Committee has since evolved into the Intergovernmental Network (IGN) and retains central responsibility for implementing the recommendations of the jury from the inquest into the death of Selena Sakanee. The Advocate’s Office, in its current form and in its former manifestation as the Office of Child and Family Advocacy, has long been part of the IGN.

This history highlights that young people have been here before. They have attended meetings, they have made recommendations and they have been part of recommending changes that involve them. It also reinforces the fact that more than 16 years after the NAN report was released, the same circular discussions are taking place. Young people still live in communities without resources or opportunity. Hope continues to be lost and young people continue to die from suicide. Young people die while adults continue to talk.

The content of this submission is based on notes taken over the last year as the Advocate’s Office met with young people, community leadership and service providers in Ontario’s northern on-reserve communities. The purpose of our discussions was to listen to young people and their communities as they identified the issues they are dealing with as part of their day to day lives across the spectrum of their social, economic and community lives.

Whether at the Regional Multi-Cultural Youth Centre, Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School [in Thunder Bay], provincial gatherings in Toronto or in fly-in communities, young people have had a great deal to say to our Office. They have talked to us about the need for resources, opportunities and schools in their own communities; the importance of recreation and leisure programs and having healthy active communities where parents and community members are engaged in activities and planning, and look out for them. They want the same educational and social opportunities as young people in the south without losing their connection to their communities, their language and their friends.

These articulate and passionate young people have a strong vision for their future and speak of the need for a greater role and voice in moving forward with actionable activities on the issues that they are facing in their day to day lives. As a result, we are focusing on the solutions young people desire and the role they want to play in creating real and lasting change in their communities.

This submission is organized around thematic highlights that emerged from discussions with First Nations young people and communities we have visited over the last year. Our discussions touched on the impact of history, colonization, the treaty system, residential schools, language, culture and the impact of isolation. These young people and their communities have spoken to us about the endless discussions of change that never seem to get traction and the ongoing patterns of substance abuse and physical and emotional abuse and neglect that dominates many communities.

Some of the young people we met with have spent up to 15 years of their lives listening and participating in engagement activities with funders and government. What they take away from these discussions is the sense that the funding associated with the limited programs they receive in their communities are unused revenues, time limited or in year funding, from across varying departments and ministries of government.

Programs are short-lived and often under resourced. This leaves these seasoned youth leaders feeling that they are not a priority in the planning activities of the various levels of government or their communities. It is with this feeling that hope becomes lost and is replaced with frustration, apathy and distrust of all levels of government, including their own.

H2. Resources and Opportunity

If young people are to begin seeing themselves as valued and important within their communities, they will need to see this value reflected in the resources and opportunities available to them on their reserves.

They want the opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, programs that invest and strengthen their skills and abilities and provide them with the chance to take on mentorship and leadership roles that are valued and resourced, supported and championed locally and provincially. They have told our Office they want to see an investment in training around program delivery that they can shape, influence and deliver locally. They want employment opportunities that support and provide opportunities for them to test their skills and abilities while contributing to the wellbeing of other young people in their communities. They believe strongly that with resources and opportunities they benefit in two ways. First, they are the leaders of today shaping leadership for those coming up behind them, and second, the leadership roles they have as young people are preparing them to be adult leaders of their communities in the future.

Young people in these communities are realistic about the opportunities they seek. They have told our Office they want access to the recreational resources of their local schools during the summer months when the teachers are not in the community. They want summer camp programs for children and youth that bring young people together in an organized way with the financial, physical and human resources that urban communities are able to provide. On a slightly larger scale, they have talked about linking communities. In one case, they went as far as calling for partnering opportunities across the most northern coastal communities and building on the connections that have been forged through the existing relationships of school sport activities. They want to find ways to come together to talk about issues and create programs, like the photo-voice project that our Office had the opportunity to view during our visit to Kashechewan and the passion for hockey that played out on Northern radio during our visit to Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI).

During our discussions with young people in the fall of 2010 in Toronto and in Thunder Bay, they repeatedly reflected that they want to stop the endless cycle of discussion. They want to focus their efforts on developing actionable solutions that provide them with opportunities to lead, mentor and guide younger peers within their communities and demonstrate the power and ability of young people to build and strengthen their communities.

Recommendations of Young People

H3. Schools and Education

The education of FN youth and the condition of many of their schools are in a state of crisis across the north. They are also the source of the largest child and youth driven advocacy movement in Canada. Perhaps the most powerful voice on the status of First Nations education and schools is that of Shannen Koostachen, a 15 year-old young Cree woman from Attiwapiskat, Ontario. Shannen and her sister, have led the movement to have a permanent school built in her community. Shannen lived to see the promise that a school would be built but, unfortunately she died before construction of the school began. It still awaits building. Her comment below is an invitation to others to try and understand the impact not having a school has on the hopes and dreams of children and young people.

In its article “Still Waiting in Attiwapiskat”⁴ Canadian Geographic asks if “Indian and Northern Affairs (INAC) will fail the next generation.” Based on Shannen’s account of her discussion with INAC Minister Strahl about funding for a permanent school in her community, the Advocate’s Office wonders if another generation of First Nations youth may suffer the pain of INAC’s failures. Rather than paraphrase Shannen’s reflections on her meeting with the INAC minister they are included here in their entirety:

“When we met up with him, Chuck Strahl told me he didn’t have the money to build a school,” Shannen later told a gym full of high school students. “I looked at the rich room he sat in with all his staff. I told him I wished I had a classroom that was as nice as the office he sat in every day. He told me he couldn’t stay for more of the meeting because he had other things to do. We were very upset. The elders who were with us had tears in their eyes. But when he was about to leave, I looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘Oh, we’re not going to quit. We’re not going to give up.’” (Canadian Geographic, 2010)

Young people like Shannen have demonstrated their effectiveness as leaders. It is through her efforts that the importance of community schools and education were driven home. For the Advocate’s Office, this heightens the importance of the role of youth as advocates for issues of importance to them.

Many on reserve communities struggle to provide basic education in buildings without heat, without proper classrooms or stable teaching staff; and as noted in the case of Attiwapiskat, any real school at all. Of grave concern to our Office, is the number of young people who each fall pack up their belongings and leave their families and communities to fly into urban centres like Kenora, Sioux Lookout, New Liskard and Thunder Bay to attend high school. These children live with host families and often lack the family support and guidance they require to adjust and adapt. The cultural overload and shift in academic expectations these young people face has significant impact on their coping abilities. Without the support of family these young people are often placed at increasing risk for depression, engagement in at-risk behaviour and suicide.

In our discussions with young people they have raised concerns about having to leave their communities to attend high school and the lack of employment opportunities they have in these new communities. They are concerned about the conditions in schools on reserve and limited employment opportunities resulting from their educational efforts. Finally, the lack of access they have to their schools after the schools close for the year leaves them with few recreational alternatives during the summer and holiday periods.

Recommendations of Young People

H4. Recreation and Leisure

There is a need to create safe spaces and opportunities for First Nations children and youth to participate in recreation and pro-social activities that include sports, and other ways to develop their physical, social and communication skills. Poverty, poor facilities, and the absence of a provincial First Nations sport and recreation policy pose significant barriers for on-reserve children and youth to participate in activities that invest in their health, teamwork and social skills. While youth outreach worker positions exist in many communities, they are often single focused positions that are unable to respond to the wide range of interests of youth that exist in the community.

The role of recreation and leisure programming is in many ways as vital as education in that it provides a safe place for young people to come together and spend time.

Recommendations of Young People

H5. Culture and Language

In almost every discussion our Office has had with First Nations young people and their communities, the importance of culture and language is brought forward. Young people do not separate language and cultural practices from their identity, but rather see them as central. What they want to be able to do is find a way of integrating the traditions and ways of their communities into an identity that also finds a place for friends and social behaviour that is a part of the mainstream communities they enter when they leave the reserve.

To do this they need the assistance of the elders and community members to guide and support them. But they need more than the traditional teachings if they are to survive as they live in what are two very different worlds on and off reserve. They see the elders as a key resource for guidance and they want to see the elders reach out more to understand the struggles they are managing on a day to day basis without judging them or negating the realities they are growing up with.

Recommendations of Young People

H6. Family, Community and Leadership

The most difficult part of our discussions with communities and young people were the ongoing impacts that the silence and pain associated with the ongoing legacy of being First Nations in Canada continue to hold for past and present generations of parents, elders and the leadership of their communities. In our discussions, we have come to see the gaps in knowledge many young people have about the histories of their communities, their families and more broadly First Nations peoples in general. In turn, young people want to understand how the past influences their present circumstances.

They know the value of having healthy parents who are able to help and guide them in their development and learning. They have told us time and again they know their parents have had difficult lives and alcohol, drugs, depression and abuse are often their way of coping with their own history, but they need them to get healthy and protect them in their community. Many have told us they would rather be out with their friends than at home watching their parents self-destruct. In turn, many of them also reflect how hard it is to stay hopeful and look forward to the future when they see so many families in their communities dealing with the same issues. Young people note over and over that their parents are so caught in their own issues that they do not see their kids are falling apart, until it is too late.

Recommendations of Young People

H7. Final Reflections

After more than a year travelling throughout the province, the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth is only beginning to understand the tremendous social capital that exists in on-reserve communities across this province. Young people are saying they want to be part of creating change and opportunity for themselves and those who are growing up behind them. Council members and elders who time and time again have spoken passionately about the children of their communities have stated that they do not want this generation of children to experience the pain and despair they live with.

The youth of these First Nations communities have noted they do not see their communities and governments doing a great deal to prioritize and address the issues that impact their lives directly. They have expressed that promises are often made and yet nothing materializes. They feel little priority is given to their needs because “they are just kids.” They are tired of being invisible in their homes, invisible in a system that deems it acceptable that they receive their education in unheated, mould contaminated, soil contaminated classrooms while refusing to build schools where none now exist. They feel invisible in the decisions of the governments of broader society and of their own communities as they sit and watch year after year as more young people lose hope and are left unable to cope with the devastating conditions that exist in their communities.

The very things they have spoken to us about are the key to resilience for themselves and their communities. We, the OPACY, use the term resilience in the context of investing in the ability of young people to be part of change and knowing there will be setbacks as they move forward, but supporting them always to move forward. They need to have a “reason to live.” This point resonates eleven years after it was first made by Nodin Youth Services in, Pikangikum First Nation Report on the Increase in Suicidal Behaviour.⁵

First Nations youth are in the best position to articulate the many challenges in their lives, the challenges that lead some to suicide. Young people are mobilizing and are becoming increasingly politicized. They also continually face an adult culture that questions their ability, maturity and knowledge to bring about solutions. Our Office continues to work as closely as possible with communities and young people to challenge a mindset that continues to quietly hold that children and youth are to be seen and not heard when it comes to the forum of public and social policy discussions.

Young people from across this province have told our Office they want to be part of building partnerships that allow them to act as mentors and leaders for those growing up behind them. They do not see this as their work alone; they need their elders and community leadership to invest in their development. They want to find ways to tie the traditional with the new, provide programs and resources that are supported and attended by their communities and they want to be a priority of government tables across federal and provincial jurisdictions and within their own band, provincial and national First Nations leadership.

Sustainable long-term investments in young people are central to any strategy aimed at targeting suicide by investing in the social and mental health of First Nations youth. They have told us they know many of the resources directed to them are time limited, surplus revenue-generated and in the end, never last long. Investments need to be real, long-term, focused at the local-community level and flexible so as to be adaptable to the varying cultural, spiritual and religious orientations of communities.

There are challenges that lay ahead for all of those involved, this includes all levels of government, young people, their communities and their families, toward developing lasting solutions. As an independent voice for First Nations children and youth, the Advocate’s Office is aware that there is a long history of broken promises to previous generations of First Nations children and youth of this province. As I noted at the beginning of this submission, it has been sixteen years since the first report and the communities with the highest rates of suicide continue to struggle with the same issues that existed 16 years ago. Advocacy is about leveraging change. Long-term, stable programming and services that support young people and their communities are the keys to any solutions put in place.

Mr. Irwin Elman, Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth

H8. Bibliography

¹ Canada, Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights, “Children: The Silenced Citizens: Effective Implementation of Canada’s International Obligations with Respect to the Rights of Children” (2007), online: Standing Committee on Human Rights http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/Come/humae/repe/rep10apr07e.htm#_Toc164844427

² Nishnawbe Aski Nation, Youth Forum on Suicide. ”Horizons of Hope: An Enpowering Journey Final

Report. (1995)

³ Ontario, Ministry of the Solicitor General and Correctional Services, Office of the Regional Coroner, Verdict Explanation: Selena Sakanee Inquest (1999)

⁴ Linda Goyette, Canadian Geographic, (December 2010)

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/dec10/attawapiskat.asp

⁵ Pikangikum First Nation Report on the Increase in Suicidal Behaviour in 2000: Barbara Jo Fidler for Nodin Counselling Service, Sioux Lookout, Ontario