Thank you, Madam Chair, and my thanks to all the witnesses for your expertise and for being here today.
You folks are the ones who have been on the front lines of this for years. I simply have the honour of being the parliamentarian who happened to be in the draw of private members' bills in the order of precedence.
Dr. Mishara, one of your concerns was that if there isn't a specific para-government agency charged with the responsibility of taking this task on, it might get lost again. I share your concern, but I need to make you aware that a private member's bill doesn't have teeth. A private member's bill cannot compel the government to spend money. I was trying to get a foot in the door. I am saying this is something the Government of Canada, through one of its agencies—perhaps Health, perhaps the Mental Health Commission—needs to take responsibility for. At some point, the government will charge a specific subagency within that responsibility. That's my hope and my goal. Just to clarify, we're not able to actually set up a commission from a private member's bill.
Jennifer, I share your concerns about not having identified specific groups. I need to tell you it was my intention not to do that, primarily because I was concerned that somewhere down the road we may have neglected a number of groups that were at significant risk. We all know that the aboriginal community is at high risk. You mentioned the LGBT community. We know that the military, and in fact my former profession of dentistry, is at very high risk. We did not address some of those, but we share your concern and we're hopeful that the group who is charged with this will put into place targeted initiatives that will be of help to those specific communities.
Denise, I wanted to thank you for being here. Thank you for talking about your journey and mentioning hope. I certainly agree with Dr. Margaret Somerville, who said,“Hope is the oxygen of the human spirit; without it our spirit dies.” I want to applaud you for talking about it. I can say that speaking openly about our grief is one of the most healing things. I think it's counterintuitive for everybody: they don't want to talk about it. We can say this is one of the most healing opportunities we have, so thank you for that.
Dr. Mishara, you mentioned a number of public health initiatives that could be helpful in reducing suicide. You mentioned Tylenol packaging as an example. You mentioned drugs in the home. I was interested to hear Dr. David Goldbloom say that something as simple as eating with your family can be a long-term protective factor. I think these are the kinds of stories we need to be sharing in our research, in looking at how to carry our long-term strategies into effect.
Dr. Mishara, you mentioned Tylenol and drugs in the home. Could you share two or three other quick examples of public health initiatives that we could be implementing to reduce the incidence of suicide?