Mary Simon to help Labrador Inuit

Mary Simon, Canada’s former ambassador to the Arctic and a past head of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and Makivik Corporation, has a new job as well as a new focus for her energy.
Simon will spend the coming year as a special advisor to the Labrador Inuit Association, so their land claim is well understood and supported by lawmakers and bureaucrats in Ottawa.

Reached in Ottawa, where she has been facilitating round tables on aboriginal issues for the prime minister’s office, Simon said her experience implementing the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement will be helpful in making sure the LIA claim gets support it needs in parliament.

At the same time, Simon is devoting time to move the Arctic Children and Youth Foundation ahead.

Simon is the founding chair of the foundation, whose mission is to help Arctic children and youthreach their full academic, social and economic potential.

“We want to target the kids that aren’t high achievers,” Simon said.

The foundation has a high-powered board that includes well-connected former federal foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy.

Simon, who pulled together the Arctic Council in the early 1990s — no easy feat — is putting that organizational experience to work for the fledgling foundation.

“I hope it will be a big success,” Simon said.

Its most visible project to date has been the promotion of so-called “yellow ribbon” cards.

These are small calling cards that can be used as a means of communication and asking for help when youth feel depressed or suicidal.

Each card carries a small message that tells young people there are people who care, and that, if they don’t want to ask for help directly, then they should give the card to a counsellor, teacher, friend, doctor or parent and say “I need to use this card.”

“It’s another tool to help address the problem of suicide,” Simon said. “It allows youth to express their pain without actually speaking.”

The Yellow Ribbon cards have been sent to schools and other organizations where teenagers gather and meet. The Yellow Ribbon cards, are in English and in Inuktitut, and when funds become available, will be printed in other aboriginal languages.

The foundation also plans to collect community data on suicide and learn from communities about suicide prevention.

Youth suicide numbers, noted Simon, are not declining in the North so the problem needs a new approach. She said the foundation’s plan is to work closely with four northern communities that have identified suicide as a major issue.

The foundation, Simon said, will also lobby for improved services for Arctic youth and represent their interests at the national level.

For more information about the foundation or its Yellow Ribbon card campaign, contact:

Arctic Children and Youth Foundation
Room 612, 10
Wellington Street,
Hull, QC K1A 0H4
Phone: 819-997-9480
Fax: 819-953 2590