Globe and Mail (Toronto) Editorial

CRISIS IN CAPE DORSET










Answers for Cape Dorset’s violence

The rampage of violence that caused Cape Dorset's entire RCMP detachment to be sent on stress leave this month is a symptom of a greater ill afflicting Nunavut. The federal and territorial governments are already armed with proposed solutions that could offer hope to those in despair. They have a responsibility to act.

Young men in Cape Dorset, a Baffin Island community of 1,200, are charged with two murders and are involved in a suspicious death, as well as in a series of shoot-'em-ups on the streets. In each case, they demonstrated a wanton disregard for the well-being of others. More often, though, young men in small Northern communities turn guns on themselves.

The federal government, and the government of Nunavut, must confront the underlying cause of their despair, and address the complex mental health issues that drive youths to self-destructive acts. Nunavut not only has a rate of sexual offences 10 times higher than the rest of Canada, and the highest homicide rate in the country, but its suicide rate for 15- to 24-year-old men is 28 times higher.

In any other part of Canada, these dismal outcomes would be declared a national emergency. Yet there has been little public outrage, or political will to deal with the crisis. Nunavut has no alcohol treatment centre – or suicide prevention strategy. Some community leaders are loath to speak of suicide.

The government of Nunavut has an opportunity now to do the right thing. A special committee spent 18 months researching how others treat the underlying causes of self-harm. They found that by investing in mental-health services, Australia managed to reduce by half some types of suicide among men.

The committee's suicide prevention strategy recommends: building mental-health treatment and addiction centres; providing parenting and anger management classes for youth, and early childhood development programs; training people in suicide intervention. “We are not yet addressing the underlying causes,” says RCMP Chief Superintendent Steve McVarnock, a committee member, along with government officials and members of the land claim organization.

All societies have a base level of suicide, caused by mental illness. When the rate spikes in a sub-population, the causes are socially determined. Fifty years ago, suicide among the Inuit was almost nil. Rates began to climb when the Inuit way of life was disrupted through a coerced movement into settled communities, and the imposition of residential schools, says Jack Hicks, a suicide researcher at the University of Greenland. While today some Inuit are excellent parents, others never had the opportunity to learn this skill, resulting in an intergenerational transmission of historical trauma.

Canada has the resources to reverse these shameful outcomes. The government must overcome a historical reluctance to acknowledge the significance of mental health, and swiftly implement a suicide prevention strategy. The youth of Nunavut must know they are not forgotten.