Let’s pull together against suicide, Nunavut and Nunavik!

On Feb. 4, 2011, I was overjoyed to hear Leona Aglukkaq’s announcement that Ottawa will spend $2.4 million over the next five years on mental health projects aimed at Nunavut youth.

When the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth hosted the March 1 to March 3, 2011 conference in Iqaluit with the theme “Inuit Identity Today” aimed at finding out from elders and youth how they define Inuit identity, I was happy to hear they would be facing issues like family relations, parenting, relationships, suicide prevention, and traditional laws and rules.

It brought to mind the suicides in Iqaluit. In August 2010, I was leaving the Sivummut Building when I heard about the third one. As I shed tears, I could feel the heartache and the many emotions that come to those who have lost loved ones to suicide.

I then decided to check the Health and Social Services website which shows an Oct. 31, 2003 report by the Inungni Sapujjijiit Task Force on Suicide Prevention and Community Healing “Our Words Must Come Back to Us.”

The statistical information on this report is outdated but it still shows the shocking statistics on Nunavut’s suicide.

The report can be accessed on the internet at www.gov.nu.ca, then click Health and Social Services under “Departments.” You will find the report on the right-hand side.

It’s no secret — suicide has increased in Nunavut.

I then checked Nunavik’s 2001 Census data. This is what I found on the website. It shows the national Inuit suicide rate to be 135 per 100,000 of population, or more than 11 times higher than the overall Canadian rate of 12 per 100,000 populations. Again, this is outdated information on suicides within Nunavik.

I also checked Health Canada’s website. It showed an estimation of the following suicide rates from 1999 to 2003 to be the following for Inuit regions:
• Nunavik – 181 per 100,000;

• Nunatsiavut – 239 per 100,000;

• Nunavut – 120 per 100,000;

• Inuvialuit – 61 per 100,000.

Although this is an estimation only, note the actual Inuit population of Nunavut is approximately 30,000 to 32,000.

The 2006 census showed the Inuit population in Canada to be 50,485, which included Nunavut, Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, the Inuvialuit Region, and Inuit in urban and metropolitan Canada. It made me wonder about our counterparts in Greenland, Arctic Russia and Alaska.

Two Nunavut MLAs raised questions during the recent Legislative Assembly regarding the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST).

My hats off to them both! I also acknowledge the Baffin Crisis Line, who have helped to prevent deaths because someone cared enough to start a hotline in Iqaluit.

George Arnalukjuaq, who is doing a marathon walk from Baker Lake to Arviat to raise awareness on suicide and substance abuse, also cannot be ignored. Thumbs up to his sensitivity towards our young people.

As caring citizens, we can take at least one tool, the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, to raise our own awareness on suicide. Having taken it, I became aware of what a valuable tool it is in Nunavut.

Let’s pull together against suicide, Nunavut and Nunavik. Let’s not allow suicide to make its home here!

Lizzie Gordon
Iqaluit

Email your letters to editor@nunatsiaq.com.

Nunatsiaq News welcomes letters to the editor. But we are under no obligation to publish any given letter at any given time.

In our print edition, we usually print letters on a first-come, first-served, space-available basis. In our online edition, we usually print letters as soon as we are able to prepare them for publication.

We edit all letters for length, grammar, punctuation, spelling, taste and libel. You may withhold your name by request, but we must know who you are before we publish your letter.