Lucinda.
A Slap in the face of every Canadian Meet Lizabell
In Margaret Philp’s article A Slap in the Face of Every Canadian, she talks about high suicide rate among First Nation young adults in Northwestern Ontario. Furthermore, Ms. Philp’s explained about the extreme poverty, poor living conditions and abuse especially among young people. Canadians must do our part to help First Nation living right here at home, with better living conditions.

Ms. Philps explains that there are several reasons why the suicide rate is so high among First Nation young adults. Extreme poverty has caused a sense of hopelessness in young adults. Parents are unable to work, social supports do not provide enough for the family to live on. There is not enough subsidized housing available, funding isn’t adequate for safe and decent housing. Unfortunately there are not enough community centres, organized sports or clubs for teens. She continued to say that there is not enough access to healthcare providers, or facilities to educate young people on how to deal with depression, anxiety and grief. Most of the young adults have experienced a significant amount of trauma from losing their loved ones through suicide. Therefore, they turn to drugs, like cocaine, alcohol and other dangerous chemicals.
Parents are scared to discipline the children fearing that they might commit suicide. Also, young adults think that they have a lack of privacy, so they refuse to talk to someone about their problems, because they feel they are being sabotaged by their problems and are treated with no dignity. They don’t feel comfortable talking to councillors in a room full of complete strangers.

As Canadians, there is more that we can do to reduce the catastrophe of the lives of the first Nations people. Canada is a great country which has helped many third world countries in difficult times, and we can take action now by investing some of those big cheques we donate to other countries, right here at home. By providing better living conditions to the First Nations, similar to that of the middle class. The government