Feds knew of suicide threat, didn’t respond: First Nations community
OTTAWA — A remote northern Ontario First Nation where two young girls ended their lives last week warned the federal government in July about a developing “suicide pact,” but their pleas for help went unheeded, indigenous leaders said Thursday.
Last summer’s emergency funding proposal from Wapekeka First Nation, a tiny fly-in community 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, described a number of suicide attempts and fears that a group of young people planned to take their own lives, documents show.
However, the request for $376,706 was never granted.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler, whose organization represents 49 communities in northern Ontario, said Health Canada failed to give a proper explanation for why the money never came through.