Mr. Speaker, I have listened to my colleague and others and it is the first time in the 12 years I have been here that we all seem to be talking to each other about something that is really important. It is nice to hear that we all care and we are all saying the right things, but where do we go after today? Will we vote on the motion and pass it after saying nice things, and then wake up tomorrow and go our own way again?
We have been talking about this issue for many years. Never have we talked about it in the context of an opposition day motion that the Liberal leader put forward. I am grateful he did that because it gives us an opportunity to talk about something that nobody wants to talk about. Nobody wants to talk about the suffering that is going on in the streets of our cities, in our houses and our families. The suffering is taking place, but nobody tells anybody else what goes on in their houses.
We all keep it hidden because nobody wants to talk about the difficulties, whether it is a child suffering from a drug addiction or a child with schizophrenia. Nobody wants to talk about that. Everything is wonderful in this world we live in. There are a few people who do not have places to live and a few people that go to food banks, but otherwise everybody in the world is good. It would be great if we could solve all those problems when there are so many people in this country suffering from mental illness in one capacity or another. We heard the numbers today. Another 10 people will die today by suicide because of a feeling of hopelessness and none of us seem to be able to see it.
There was a young man who was part of my extended family and grew up with my son. He was fine and just like any other kid. He did not cause any trouble and went to school. He did not get great marks, but he was doing okay. He was 20 years old in the second year of college and had challenges with his parents because he was not doing well enough. He had been at my house for supper and he and my son did their homework together. We said goodbye and that we would see him on the weekend.
The next day his mother called to see if Shawn happened to be at my house. I said no, he was not at my house, he was at her house. She said he did not come home the night before and she thought maybe he had stayed at my place. We all called around and could not find him. Then we realized his backpack was gone from his bedroom, so we did what people do. We called the police and everybody else there was to call, but there was no locating Shawn.
Some months later his shoes were found on the side of the Niagara Escarpment. His parents had found a prescription for anti-depressants in his drawer at home. The doctor had said that he was being treated for severe depression, which none of us had any idea of. The doctor could not tell his parents because he was 20 years old and he needed their son's permission to tell them. Needless to say, that is how we found out that he was suffering from severe depression. Otherwise, none of us had any idea.
From the day they found his shoes until today, which is 14 years, a day does not go by that I and my family do not think about him and wonder why we did not see any of the signs of depression that he was suffering from. How did we miss it? It is a mistake for all of us. We need to be able to see the signs and know that there are services available to help people when they are suffering from that level of depression. I am sure that as long as I, my husband and especially my son and his family are alive, we will think about him often and blame ourselves for not seeing the signs.
That is only one section of all of this because the problems are severe. If we can find money for everything else in this world of ours, why can we not make it a priority to find money to have a serious mental health strategy, which would include a strategy to prevent suicide?
Look at how many times in the last couple of weeks we have heard about young kids committing suicide because they were gay, or because they were being bullied and could not handle it anymore. It is way over the hill with these things that are happening, and we are allowing them to happen.
With all the great things we talk about in this House, yet we cannot deal with the issues of mental illness in this country. We must begin to come forward and talk about it as Canadians and find answers.
Those answers are there. It is encouraging to know how much everyone cares today about this issue, and hearing my colleague talk about his own personal problems in his family. What happens to the families that do not have a support system, who do not know where to go, and who have no where to go?
These young people, and these older people, end up on the streets. When we see people begging on the streets, they are not there because they want to be there. They are there because they are not well. They are not mentally or physically well or they would not be sitting on a street corner in the middle of winter begging for money. However, we walk by them and do nothing. To me, it is a major problem when we walk by and do nothing. That individual is one of God's children, just like we are, and deserves help and assistance to move forward.
I would hope that as a result of this discussion today we actually do more than just adopt our opposition day motion, but that we truly make a commitment physically, financially, and mentally that we are not going to stop. We have four years ahead of us before we have to worry about elections. Maybe the one thing that the House could do in the next four years is actually put forward a mental health strategy for the country and put the dollars behind it. I think if we could do that over four years we would leave here feeling as if we actually are accomplishing something.