La Loche Dene High School. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski.
La Loche community members are in mourning as they prepare funerals for three people who died on the weekend, including two Dene High School students.
One teen lost his life to suicide on the weekend, another died of a drug overdose, and an older woman from the nearby Clearwater River Dene Nation also died after what Mayor Robert St. Pierre calls long-time alcohol use.
Mayor Robert St. Pierre said most residents are in a state of grieving, as the bodies started returning to the community on Wednesday after being prepared for upcoming wakes and funerals.
St. Pierre is a driver trainer in the community, and said he knew the boys who died.
“Everyone’s affected because we all know each other and everybody’s connected, like family-wise, and friends. These are young men that even my wife and I personally just finished driving with in the past year,” St. Pierre said.
The Dene High School has issued a statement to guardians on how to help their children deal with sudden death. The statement also says the school is in the process of receiving additional counseling services from the Northern Lights School Division and the Keewatin Yatthe Regional Health Authority.
The boys who died over the weekend were students at the same school where last year’s mass shooting in La Loche concluded. Educators Adam Wood and Marie Janvier lost their lives within the building and teen brothers Dayne and Drayden Fontaine were killed at a home in La Loche.
“We’re dealing with trauma after trauma,” St. Pierre said.
“Our young folks are feeling hopeless and they’re self-medicating, like alcoholism, drugs, they’re self-medicating because they don’t know how to deal with all these traumas compounding on them… if you don’t know how to deal with issues or deal with what’s going on on the inside, it’s going to have an impact on you throughout your life and unfortunately these types of consequences are a final stage. It’s too final and I don’t think people really understand that once you’re gone you’re gone.”
He said counselling services will need to be available for years to come.
In Regina on Thursday, Rural and Remote Health Minister Greg Ottenbreit said he recently became aware of the suicide, and extended his condolences to the community.
“It’s obvious when we have suicides that do continue to happen that there is need for more work to do and continued communication and planning,” he said.
Ottenbreit said last week he spoke with northern mayors at a New North executive gathering, and they discussed the ongoing issue of suicide in the north.
“We can’t do something to them or for them: they have to be a part of it, they want to work with us. And it’s an encouraging conversation we did have is working together with them to develop a plan, allocate resources maybe better if that’s the case or whatever needs to be done to try and minimize or eliminate this terrible issue,” he said.
The area’s Member of Parliament Georgina Jolibois weighed in on the topic Thursday afternoon, taking a critical lens on both federal and provincial response. Before her 2015 federal bid, she had been the mayor of La Loche for 12 years and said she dealt with many suicides.
“I remember asking when I was in my first term, asking the minister… to come visit us and to help and to provide assistance. And she got back to me and she said she couldn’t come to the funeral or she couldn’t come, because the premier had said no. I think it’s a little too late to make comments of sorrow and of feeling sorry for what is occurring,” she said.
Ottenbreit said his office was made aware of two suicide attempts, and one suicide that occurred in the community in the past week. La Loche community members and the mayor maintain there was a drug overdose, suicide, and a woman who died after a life of alcohol use.
In regards to the discrepancy, the Executive Council communications office said “Minister Ottenbreit was speaking to the incidents as they have been reported to his office” and that any reports are taken seriously, but added the government is still awaiting confirmation from the coroner’s office.
“Regarding suicide attempts, individuals may have identified the attempt or the plan was indicated in another form, such as a note or conversation.”