'Apartheid system' of reserves to blame for Innu suicides: Quebec coroner

Canada's"apartheid system" of reserves shares some of the blame forastring of suicides that devastated an Innucommunity on Quebec's North Shore in 2015, a coroner's inquest has found.

CoronerBernardLefranois was tasked last year by the Quebec government with looking intothe deaths of four women and one manover a nine-month period inUashat-Maliotenam, an Innu reserve nearSept-les, Que.

• Report onInnusuicides hopes to shed light on causes

His report, released Saturday, is scathing in its description of the legal regime that governsIndigenous communities in Canada. The coroner said it contributes to the mental health and substance abuse problemsthat plagueUashat-Maliotenam.

"I believe and see evidence that the great fundamental problem lies with the 'apartheid'system into which Aboriginals have been thrust for 150 years or more," the report reads.

'Apartheid system' of reserves to blame for Innu suicides: Quebec coroner

7 years ago

Duration 2:02

Suicides of five members of the Innu community of Uashat-Maliotenam in 2015 were preventable, a Quebec coroner has found

Lefranois' report also blamed the series of suicides on a lack of mental health resources available to the community of4,000 people.

The local suicide prevention centre only provides services in French, which is not widely spokeninUashat-Maliotenam,Lefranoisnoted. It doesnot provide services inInnuorNaskapi.

• Uashat-Maliotenam inquiry: coroner eager to make recommendations

The shortage of Innu-languages resources extends tosubstance-abuse treatment. The Naskapi have to travel to Montreal, 900 kilometres away, to receive treatment for alcohol or drug issues in either Naskapi or English.

"Overall, I believe that these five suicides were avoidable," Lefranois concluded .

"Besides the profound personal discontent of the five persons considered by this inquest, there is the backdrop of profound collective discontent experienced by the community as a whole or by a group of individuals belonging to the community."

'Naming the things that should be named'

The coroner's findings were welcomed by the Innu leaders, who said they felt Lefranois listened closely to their testimony during a visit to the community last year.

"We knew before what was the problem, but today, Canadians and Quebecers know a little bit more about the situation and what is going on inside the community," said Jean-Claude Therrien Pinnet, a political adviser to the band councilin Uashat-Maliotenam.

Pinnet added that Lefranois was right to use the charged term apartheid invoking the system of racial discrimination that existed in South Africa between1948 and 1991 to describe Canada's reserve system.

"We are naming the things that should be named," Pinnet said.

"I think that with the kind of situation that we are living and passing through, we should use the good words, and I think that is the best word I saw in the report today."

• Facing suicide rates on remote First Nations: Why leaving may not be an option

Recommendations for both Quebec and Ottawa

The report contains more than 40 recommendations, directed at all levels of government. They include:

• Ottawa create an Aboriginal suicide prevention centre, with Indigenous staff, on Quebec's North Shore.
• A regional task force to fight the drugtrade on Quebec's North Shore, with the RCMP, the Sret du Qubec and Aboriginal police forces as participants.
• More programs in Uashat-Maliotenam offering family therapy and extended stays in nature.
• Federal and provincial funding for an English addiction treatment facility that can be used by Aboriginal populations in the area.

Quebec's Minister for Public Health and Healthy Living, Lucie Charlebois, said her government will ask Ottawa for help implementing some of the proposals.

"What we find in the recommendations ... is that sometimes people don't get services because they [fall between] provincial, federal or local governments," Charlebois told CBC News.

"We know they have difficulties and we've got to help them."

When pressed for concrete commitments, Charlebois said the coroner's report was likely to be discussed at an up-coming cabinet meeting.

She also pointed out her government recently committed to holding a multi-year inquiry into thetreatment of Indigenous people in the province.

• Quebec premier announces 2-year inquiry into treatment of Indigenous people
• Val-d'Or is forcing Quebec to think about big problems