With interim leader Bob Rae at the helm, the Liberal Party of Canada is pushing to introduce a suicide prevention program in Canada, aiming to lower the rising rates of suicide, according to The Globe and Mail.
Rae spoke out about the necessity for the issue to be dealt with in an opinion piece published in The Globe Oct. 4.
“Suicide is not just a personal tragedy, a life cut short, an existential decision that leaves disbelief and devastation behind. It has become far more,” Rae wrote.
This is a topic that has long been stigmatized and surrounded by secrecy, according to the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention (CASP).
“In the past three decades, more than 100,000 Canadians died by suicide. Every year in Canada, an average of 3,750 people die by suicide,” according to the CASP’s website.
A national suicide prevention strategy has been put forward by Liberal MPs, and the Conservatives have backed the motion, according to the CBC.
"Obviously, we will look at any specific ideas to see how we can improve on this particular national health problem," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in response to a question posed by Rae during question period.
Rae said suicide prevention needs to be addressed on a political scale.
“When I say that suicide has now become a political question, I do not mean that it is in any sense partisan,” he wrote.
“But we do have to admit that, if people were better housed, and less poor, and more able to be accepted for who they are, they would be less likely to allow setbacks to become a reason to end it all.”
“We’re the only country in the industrial world that doesn’t have a national strategy,” Rae told the CBC.
Dammy Damstrom Albach, president of the CASP, told CTV he hopes that Canada will be able to declare that it has put together a national strategy before the next World Suicide Prevention Day Sept. 10, 2012.
“We have been calling for a national suicide prevention strategy for well over a decade. It often felt like no one in Ottawa was listening,’ said Tim Wall, executive director of the CASP in a release from the Canadian Mental Health Association.
The release called for greater governmental involvement in order to set the strategy in motion.
“We need leadership from our federal politicians to advance good health policy . . . It is astonishing that more hasn’t been done to stop this serious yet often preventable public health problem,” said Nizar Ladha, president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association in the release.
Suicide is an issue that has directly or indirectly affected the lives of many young people around the globe.
In 2008, Nadia Kajouji, a first-year student at Carleton drowned herself in the Rideau River, after suffering from depression and many other struggles. She was encouraged to commit suicide in an online chat room by Minnesota nurse William Melchert-Dinkel.
Some students acknowledge the necessity for suicide to be recognized as a dangerous consequence of various factors.
“[Suicide] has become an issue because of bullying, stress, home life and other things that can pile on,” said Edward Seymour, first-year computer science student at Carleton.
Others believe that with modern technology, suicide has become an even more prevalent issue.
“Technology, the Internet and social networking have opened an entirely new door to bullies,” said Mykola Hughes, first-year political science student at Carleton.
Hughes said if a program were to be introduced to fight increasing suicide rates, he said it would have to include social interaction.
“Talking is the answer. The trick is getting teens and people in general to open up,” Hughes said.
Rae said he wants to establish change through political action.
“In asking Parliament to debate this question, we are encouraging Canadians to share their stories and perspectives, what it will take to save lives, and hope; how to make the love we owe each other something real and practical.”
