From CBC News–The Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth is demanding the province focus more resources on Indigenous boys to prevent more deaths by suicide and homicide.
For a new report released Thursday morning called Finding the Way Back, staff with the advocate’s office researched and reviewed 45 cases involving boys between 12 and 17 years old who died by suicide or homicide between 2009 and 2018.
Of the 45 boys whose cases were reviewed, 37 were Indigenous — 35 were First Nations and two were Métis. About half of the boys lived in the Northern Regional Health Authority and about a third lived in Winnipeg.
“Preventing suicide and homicide of boys in Manitoba requires an understanding of the early life experiences through a socio-ecological model” — one that focuses on the connections between individuals, relationships, community and societal levels, the report says.
That includes understanding how colonization, intergenerational trauma and poverty affect youth, it says.