First nations protesters block stretch of Highway 1 east of Winnipeg

By Zahra Premji, Global News, June 30, 2017

First Nations activists are blocking a portion of Highway 1 east of Winnipeg.

The protest is happening on the Trans-Canada Highway at Deacon’s Corner.

RCMP is now diverting traffic onto a service road that runs parallel to the Trans-Canada to move cars and trucks through the area. Reports say traffic was backed up for at least one kilometre.

Cry for help after four teens take their own lives on Manitoba First Nation

An estimated 1,000 people from the Pimicikamak Cree Nation (Cross Lake First Nation) attended a suicide prevention walk Thursday. (Facebook)

Most recent victim will be buried Sunday on what would’ve been her 15th birthday

By Karen Pauls, CBC News, March 04, 2016

Young people on the Pimicikamak Cree Nation are crying out for help after four teenagers killed themselves in less than three months.

“There’s so much of it happening,” said Amber Muskego, 17, who was close friends with some of the young people who have died since just before Christmas.

Family of teen who hanged herself in jail cell sues Manitoba Child and Family Services

The family of ‘Gracie’ Daniels is suing the province of Manitoba and Child and Family Services after the 16-year-old, who was in the care of CFS at the time, hung herself at the Brandon Correctional Centre in 2013. (CBC News )

‘Gracie’ Daniels, 16, was in CFS care when she died in correctional centre Oct. 2, 2013

CBC News, Oct 7, 2015

The family of a troubled girl who was under the care of Child and Family Services when she hanged herself from a ceiling vent at the Brandon Correctional Centre is suing the province and Dakota Ojibway CFS.

Roberta Grace Daniels, who was Gracie to her family, was 16 when she died Oct. 2, 2013.

An inquest in her death, mandated when a person in custody dies, was ordered in August 2014.

Alberta: Dramatic rise in Maskwacis suicide rate creates ‘critical crisis’

“Death wish” graffiti in Maskwacis, formerly known as Hobbema, near Edmonton, Alberta. Photo: CBC News.

‘It’s beyond crisis. It’s an epidemic,’ says Cree culture and education teacher

By Terry Reith and Briar Stewart, CBC News, May 20, 2015

On the hilltop beside a tiny chapel, Rick Lightning gazes at the fresh grave of his 20-year-old daughter.

The youngest of 11 children, Amber Lightning died March 4, one in a series of suicides that has shaken the small Cree community about an hour’s drive south of Edmonton.

Manitoba: 17 have committed suicide as Lake St. Martin evacuees remain in limbo

Alexis Sinclair with her daughter, Danielle, before Alexis committed suicide. Victoria Ptashnick/Torstar News Service

By Victoria Ptashnick, Metro News, Jan 4, 2014

WINNIPEG—Diane Sinclair often has the same nightmare.

In her home at Lake St. Martin First Nation reserve, there is water everywhere. It flows through the cracks of her family’s trailer and washes out the old dirt roads and hunting trails around it.

The water winds through a graveyard where she buried her 20-year-old daughter, Alexis, in the prettiest white dress she could find.

3 suicides in Maskwacis, Alta., in a week prompt calls for hotline

Theresia Boysis, a resident of Maskwacis, formerly known as Hobbema, is pushing for a 24-hour suicide hotline for the central Alberta community after three women took their own lives last week. (CBC)

Central Alberta community, once known as Hobbema, reeling over deaths

CBC News, March 13, 2014

Some members of the First Nation community of Maskwacis say they will push for 24-hour suicide hotline following the suicides of three women last week. 

Cowichan band declares emergency over suicides

Cowichan Chief says sense of hopelessness leads to suicides, alerts

By Dirk Meissner, Canadian Press, May 14, 2012

A pervasive sense of helplessness among a Vancouver Island first nation has spawned suicides and attempted suicides, says the chief of the Cowichan Tribes.
Since January, four people have killed themselves and another 52 so-called suicide alerts have been issued in the community.