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Northern Ontario FN Communities Facing Suicide Crisis

Monday, 10 July 2017 08:44

Four suicides in northern Ontario First Nations communities this week

A spokesman for several Indigenous communities in northern Ontario says four people, including three children, have committed suicide within the last week.

Michael Heintzman of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation says a boy between the ages of 10 and 12 and a 12-year-old girl died over the weekend in Pikangikum, Ont., a First Nations community near the Ontario-Manitoba border.

On Tuesday, a 15-year-old committed suicide in Summer Beaver, Ont., north of Fort Hope.

And a day later, a 21-year-old man from the Fort Severn First Nation died in a Thunder Bay, Ont. medical centre.

Heintzman says there have now been eighteen suicides within the Nishnawbe Aski Nation's territory since January 1 of this year.

The Canadian Rangers, an organization within the Armed Forces that typically serves remote areas, have been in the region to assist several communities affected by the suicide crisis.

(The Canadian Press)

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