No, I'm not going to.... Yes, I will. It's a very real and personal issue for us. I've stood in the House, and people know already that I worked with at-risk youth and at-risk adults in the late 1980s, in suicide counselling and in crisis intervention. Over the course of my lifetime, I counselled those who were having troubles. I've sat across the way with family members of those who don't see any option other than committing suicide, ending the battle. I've sat with family members who are asking why and whether there was something more that they could have done. You see, suicide is a pretty final task, and in my opinion, it's a selfish task, because those who are left behind are left wondering why. But those who are in the thick of their fog can't see any light beyond what is bothering them that day. Mental health injuries are all-encompassing and they don't enable those who are struggling with them the ability to see the light.
Without going into any more details than that, it is seeing those around us, whether in my community, whether in death by cop as we've seen, whether it is colleagues who have had friends or family members who have taken their lives, or whether it's just the personal experience of there being those who have ended their lives. As Mr. Davies mentioned, it's shameful that it's taken this long to actually have a coordinated plan in place. That's why I put so much emphasis on this. I've been working on this for three years. There was no guarantee that I would ever get the nomination for the Conservative Party in my riding. There was no guarantee that I'd win the election in 2015. But I knew that, given the opportunity, I wanted to try to move mountains and leave that legacy of action.
I think we've done some good work to this point. All we've done at this point though, really, is to create more hope, and I think we can do better.