Senate committee calls for children's commissioner to protect rights
Canadian Press, November 2, 2005
OTTAWA (CP) - A Senate committee says Canada needs a children's commissioner to
protect the rights of young people.
In an interim report Thursday, the human rights committee recommends that a commissioner monitor Canada's
progress on implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The independent
appointee, reporting annually to Parliament, would conduct ongoing reviews of federal legislation, services,
and funding for programs affecting children and their rights.
Senator Raynell Andreychuk, who chaired the committee, says a commissioner is essential so children can tell
their true stories to Canadians.
"We have come to the conclusion from our studies that children are without voice and without vote and
consequently their rights have been impaired," she said.
The senators also call for an interdepartmental working group for children's rights to co-ordinate
activities, policies, and laws.
The senators plan to continue hearings across Canada next year, focusing on children who are medically
fragile, disabled, exploited and caught in conflict.
BRANDON, Man. - Thirty-five years ago today, Lillian White gave birth
to her youngest son. Yesterday, she knelt down and kissed his coffin
at his graveside.
Darrin White committed suicide two weeks ago in Prince George, B.C.,
after a judge ordered him to pay his estranged wife twice his take-home
pay in child support and alimony each month.
In death he has become a poignant symbol of family courts gone awry,
of a divorce system run by people with closed minds, hard hearts and
deaf ears.
More and More teens are becoming depressed. The numbers of young people
suffering from depression in the last 10 years has risen worryingly, an
expert says.
BBC, UK, August 3, 2004
Government statistics suggest one in eight adolescents now has depression.
Unless doctors recognise the problem, Read More ..uld slip through the net,
says Professor Tim Kendall of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental
Health.
Guidelines on treating childhood depression will be published next year.
Professor Kendall says a lot Read More ..eds to be done to treat the illness.
PA News, U.S.A., By John von Radowitz, Science Correspondent, September 28, 2003
Broken marriages, living a single life and lack of income are
the three factors chiefly to blame for a surge in suicides
among young men, a new study has shown.
Suicide rates in England and Wales have doubled for men under
45 since 1950, but declined among women and older age groups
of both sexes.
Researchers trying to discover why found that between 1950 and
1998 there were worsening trends for many suicide risk
factors.
These included marital break up, birth and marriage declines,
unemployment and substance abuse.
But those most associated with young men aged 25 to 34 were
divorce, fewer marriages, and increases in income inequality.
The National Post, The Gazette, Montreal, Lynn Moore, Monday, February 15, 1999
Women in Quebec talk Read More ..out it, but when it comes to doing it -- committing suicide -- it's men who
actually do the deed. It's a gender gap that needs explaining, say suicide prevention experts who point to
statistics that show 80% of Quebec suicides are male.
"The high rate of male suicide is becoming a pressing public heath issue," Louise Levesque, head of the
Association Quebecoise de suicidologie, said yesterday during a press conference to launch Suicide
Prevention Week.
Of the 1,351 Quebecers who committed suicide in 1997, 1,071 were male and 280 were female, said Pierre
Morin, Quebec's chief coroner, citing the most recent figures available.
Especially alarming is the high suicide rate among male "baby boomers," Mr. Morin said. Almost 2,000 men,
aged 35 to 50, committed suicide during the last five years for which statistics are available, he said.
StatsCan recently reported on a 10% increase in suicides. But StatsCan persists in ignoring the
group of Canadians at greatest risk for suicide, as do the media and professional reports.
Suicide is a microcosm for those most under stress and most at risk of unresolved crisis in society. Suicides may logically be categorized
as 100% citizens of Canada, and then as 79% male. The most critical measure of depression - suicide - is counted
overwhelmingly in male corpses. For over 23 years widespread media and professional attention concentrated on 12,500
AIDS deaths, compared to little concern with 92,000 suicides.
Presentation to the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs of the House of Commons concerning Bill
C-68 - Firearms Act.
by Brian L. Mishara, Ph.D. Past President, Canadian
Association for Suicide Prevention and Professor of Psychology at the
Université du Québec a Montréal.
The New Zealand Herald, BY LEAH HAINES, October 10, 2004
A three-year project by welfare and health agencies has halved the rate of
suicide among some of the country's most at-risk children.
Researchers say the project has the potential to put a massive dent in New Zealand's youth suicide rate - currently
the highest in the developed world.
The results of the Towards Well Being suicide monitoring project were due to be presented to an international
conference on youth suicide this weekend and are expected to gain global attention.
