Suicide in Canada
[8] Canadian males experience two periods over their lives when they are most likely to die by suicide—in their late forties, and past the age of ninety—for females there is a single peak, in their early fifties.
Released Canadian Forces males in the 16 to 24 age group showed the greatest deviations, with suicide rates more than two-fold in excess of their general population cohort.
[24] In a 2002 article published in the Emergency Medicine journal, researchers reported that there was a two- to seven-fold differential in suicide mortality rates among Indigenous peoples in Canada relative to the general population.
"[28]: xv In 2013, James Anaya, the UN's special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples,[29] stated he was deeply concerned by the suicide rate in aboriginal communities.
[29] Important books addressing the Indigenous suicide problem in Canada include Dying To Please You: Indigenous Suicide in Contemporary Canada by Roland Chrisjohn and Shaunessy McKay, which was published in 2017; the authors are both academics, and Chrisjohn's earlier work on exposing the violence of residential schools is considered ground-breaking.
[28]: 59 [39] Although many accounts make mention of altruistic suicide by the elderly, incurably ill, injured or disabled in response to periods of starvation or other desperate circumstances, Vogel argued that "its true prevalence is unknown.
"[40][28]: 60 [40] Despair and grief at the loss of camp and family members to epidemics of smallpox, and other diseases introduced by Europeans, may have provoked suicides among Aboriginal survivors.
"[44] High concentrations of air pollutants, particularly nitrogen oxide during the winter months, have been associated with a twenty per cent rise in suicidal attempt presentations at a Vancouver hospital emergency department.
[45] Pathological gambling behaviour has been linked to a threefold increase in the likelihood of suicide attempts from a nationally representative sample.
[46] Unattached Canadians between 45 and 59 years of age were in 2007 found to be 2.6 times more likely than their population share to fall within the low income category as defined by the low income cutoff measure, making them the most at-risk population group; they were followed by recent immigrants (2.0), lone parents and their children (1.9), and persons with work limitations (1.2).
[47] During the period from 2002 to 2005, residents of health regions of Quebec that were in the lowest socioeconomic decile, as defined by average household income, unemployment rate and education, were statistically found to have 85% (males) and 51% (females) higher incidences of suicide mortality than Quebeckers in regions in the highest socioeconomic decile, and these differences have either persisted or worsened since 1990.
[48] A survey of twenty-one advanced, industrialized nations during 2004 found that Canada was among ten lacking "countrywide integrated activities carried out by government bodies" to address the problem of suicide;[49] Canada is in company with Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, while the eleven countries implementing national programs include Australia, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
[52] During 2005–2010, Canada's federal government allocated a total of $65 million to be administered by Health Canada and the Government of Nunavut for the National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy (NAYSPS),[53] and by 2010, two hundred community-based programs including mental health service providers, native elders and teachers had benefited from this initiative.
[59] In October 2011, a day-long debate in the House of Commons resulted in passage of an opposition motion, by a vote of 272 yeas against 3 nays, to "urge the government to work cooperatively with the provinces, territories, representative organizations from First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people, and other stakeholders to establish and fund a National Suicide Prevention Strategy".
[64] As an interim measure, in June 2011, the TTC implemented a "Crisis Link" campaign, with posters exhorting persons contemplating suicide to press an autodial button on one of 141 designated payphones located on 69 stations' platforms to speak directly with a trained counsellor with the Distress Centres of Toronto.
[65] Platform screen doors have already been built in underground mass transit systems in cities in Europe and Asia as a safety measure to stop people falling or jumping onto train tracks.
[66] Analysis of coroners' reports has attributed overprescription practices, and deficiencies in patient screening and prevention by family physicians to recent Canadian suicide trends.
[48] In 2009, 14 of 18 persons who jumped in front of oncoming subway trains in Toronto's mass transit system were killed by the direct impact, electrocution from the high voltage rail, or from entrapment underneath the cars.
