Suicide Skyrocketing In Davis Inlet
GOOSE BAY, Newfoundland (AP) -- Suicide attempts by adults
skyrocketed in the Labrador village of Davis Inlet after 11 native
youths complained of sexual abuse this summer, Chief Katie Rich said
Sunday.
"I think the disclosures of the children were part of the reason. In
the month of July we were seeing one a day. Women and men. One weekend
we saw five," she said.
Surveys conducted last year indicated there were an average of four
suicide attempts a month by adults and children in the village of 500
Innu.
The sex-abuse allegations have darkened homecoming celebrations for
17 Innu youths from the remote island plagued by poverty, alcoholism
and violence.
The youths -- one as young as seven -- have spent months in Alberta
battling chronic addiction to gasoline.
The federal government agreed to pay for treatment for the youths
and their families after six teenagers were found last January sniffing
gas in an unheated shack and screaming they wanted to die -- an
apparent suicide attempt that captured international attention.
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BRIAN W. KWONG (bkwong@unixg.ubc.ca) Department of Zoology
The University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada
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