The Honourable Senator Landon Pearson received an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa
June 7, 2002
When she was sworn in as a senator in 1994, Landon Pearson had two goals: to advance children's interests through legislation and to open up the political process so that children could participate in the decisions that affect them.
Health Sciences dean Denise Alcock with Landon Pearson
During the eight years Senator Landon Pearson has graced the upper chamber, she has fulfilled these commitments in many ways. In 1996, she was named the minister of foreign affairs' advisor on children's rights. In 1999, Prime Minister Jean Chrtien appointed the senator his personal representative to the United Nations' 2001 Special Session on Children.
Pearson has helped to empower children and young people by giving them a voice. She is genuinely interested and involved in their stories and their lives. And she makes certain, in the forums and conferences that she chairs, that children participate too.
With her husband, diplomat Geoffrey Pearson, she raised her five children in Canada, France, Mexico, India and the former Soviet Union. She was a school trustee in Canada and in India. In New Delhi and Bombay, she participated in Mobile Creches for Working Mothers' Children. As the author of Children of Glasnost, she illuminated the lives of children who grew up under a repressive regime. She is the co-founder of a mental health prevention program, Children Learning for Living, which operated for 23 years through the Ottawa Board of Education.
University of Ottawa
Quebec men more likely to commit suicide than women
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.
The Centre for Suicide Prevention has three main branches:
The Suicide Information & Education Collection (SIEC) is a special library and resource centre providing information on suicide and suicidal behaviour.
The Suicide Prevention Training Programs (SPTP) branch provides caregiver training in suicide intervention, awareness, bereavement, crisis management and related topics. Suicide Prevention
Research Projects (SPRP) advocates for, and supports research on suicide and suicidal behaviour.
Invisible Suicides
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.
by Brian L. Mishara, Ph.D. Past President, Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention and Professor of Psychology at the Université du Québec a Montréal.
CYF project halves child suicide rate
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.
Family Conflict and Suicide Rates Among Men
by Dr. Hazel McBride Ph.D. June 9-10, 1995
Violence and Abuse within the Family: The Neglected Issues
A public hearing sponsored by The Honourable Senator Anne C. Cools on June 9-10, 1995 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Transcript of Dr. Hazel McBride's presentation on the relationship between family conflict and suicide rates among men.