Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the members of the West Ottawa Rotary Club for their generous donation to research on schizophrenia.
They follow the fine example of Dr. Michael Smith's donation of half his Nobel Prize, $.25 million, to schizophrenia research and the $775,000 announced in his honour by our industry minister.
Schizophrenia strikes one in a hundred Canadians, usually in their late teens or early twenties. Forty per cent will attempt suicide. Ten per cent will succeed. The rest will occupy one in 12 of our hospital beds, live homeless on the streets, or represent a disproportionate share of the prison population. Yet schizophrenia receives only a small fraction of the research funds of many less prevalent diseases.
I wear this iris today as the symbol soon to be adopted by the Canadian Schizophrenia Society in support of more awareness and research.