Ms. Medford‑Williams, thank you for sharing that data. It helps us to be more alert with respect to the imbrication of racism, ableism, other systems of oppression, and the topic at hand today.
To expand on this analysis a bit and enter into more detailed statistics, we have to keep in mind that the most common disability among young people is tied to mental health. According to data gathered by Statistics Canada in 2017, this impairment affected roughly 60% of more than half a million young people with a disability 15 to 24. Young women are overrepresented in that number. Out of a total of 325,670 young people, 213,000 were young women, representing 65% of the sample. That is a lot.
I will not go back over everything that has been said, but I would like to mention something with respect to race and disability. In 2010, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation noted in a report that “a third of all deaths among Aboriginal youth are attributable to suicide”. What is more, a recent U.S. study from 2018 shows that racism has the greatest impact on the health of young black children, whose suicide rate is the highest of all young children.
In 2020, we ran a project with Nelly Bassily at the DisAbled Women's Network of Canada. We focused on the social problems encountered by young girls with disabilities and we paid particular attention to invisible disabilities, including mental disabilities.
There are two problems that I would like to highlight because they rarely receive much attention when this subject is studied.
First, when children are incarcerated, they can develop a mental disability that will have repercussions on their mental health. The Canadian Council for Refugees condemns the presence of children at detention and retention centres. It states that during the year 2018‑19, Canada detained more than 118 children. An open letter signed by more than 2,000 professionals indicates that these detention conditions have adverse consequences to the children's health, especially their mental health.
Second, when we talk about mental health, especially in girls, we are also talking about self-esteem and body image. That is another problem that needs to be addressed. I could provide more details during the period for questions.
Thank you for listening.