Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to join in today's debate. I will be splitting my time with the member for St. Paul's.
It will be 11 years next month that I have been in this chamber. I have had the opportunity to join in many important debates in this place but I see none more relevant and more important than the debate we are having here today.
I commend my leader, the member for Toronto Centre, for bringing this motion forward. It is a topic that people want to gloss over, talk around or not get too in depth on because it has such an impact. If anybody engaging in today's debate, whether on the floor of the House of Commons or watching it at home, has not been touched by suicide, whether a family member, a friend or someone close, then that person has lived a blessed life.
We have heard a number of stories and very personal accounts today of having known or having been close to someone who has taken his or her life. It is an emotional and confusing time. We as legislators and lawmakers must do all in our power to ensure that everything that can be done is being done to lessen the numbers and save lives. The purpose of today's debate is just that, and I appreciate the fact that this was brought forward.
Coming up to the Hill this morning, I saw two old friends of mine, one being Francis Leblanc, the former member for Cape Breton Highlands—Canso, and the other being Stephen Hogg. We chatted a bit and they asked me what was on tap for today in the House. I told them about the subject matter of the motion coming forward and it seized both of them. Obviously, Francis understood the importance of it and Stephen, for the most part, choked up. He said that it meant a lot to him because his dad took his life. I asked him if the signs were there and he said that, of course they were and, in retrospect, he could see them in the rear view mirror. He said that it all made sense when his family reached back and followed it up to the final account. They were seized by the anguish and torture that their dad must have felt. They did not understand where he had gotten the unregistered gun that he had used. The planning leading up to the suicide must have been a tumultuous time emotionally and mentally for the man.
There have been accounts shared here today, along with the account that I heard on the way in this morning. My son's young friend took his own life. He came from a strong, supportive family. He was very engaged in sports and was a successful athlete. He was pursuing an education and seemed to have a great number of supportive friends. Then we got the phone call that he had taken his life. When we lose somebody through suicide, it impacts on all of us. It is very easy to stigmatize those who take their own lives and it leaves us sort of reaching for answers.
We are great hockey lovers in Canada. We think that those who take part in our national sport are almost invincible. They are big, physical creatures and we think about them as being pretty tough to play in the National Hockey League. We think they are physically tough, mentally tough, emotionally tough and they need to be to compete at that level. That is the reality.
However, the hockey community was shaken and the country was shaken over the course of the last number of months when we saw three very high-profile professional athletes take their own lives: Derek Boogaard, from Minnesota Wild; Rick Rypien, a former Canuck; and most recently, Wade Belak, a former member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. If anybody followed the careers of those three, they saw that they did have some common past. The link was made to the fact that they played a very physical role throughout their NHL careers. They were enforcers. They were the guys who dropped the gloves. They were the guys who picked up for their other teammates. If the tempo had to be changed, they were the guys who took that upon themselves. All three of them were very physical and certainly not shy to drop the gloves and become involved. I think Belak had 145 fights in his NHL career.
So, automatically, they sort of linked that together and asked whether the NHL was doing enough to address fighting in hockey. It all became about fighting. However, they missed the whole point in narrowing it down to the commonality of being fighters because, as things played out, we realized that all three suffered from depression.
What about a guy like Belak? I have a piece that Michael Landsberg from Off the Record put together in the wake of Belak's death, which I will read later. However, when we saw Belak on television or anything like that, the guy was a big, handsome farm boy with a beautiful wife and two kids. He was loving life, living large and all those things and we have to wonder, why him. However, in the wake of it, we realize that he had a nemesis and that nemesis was depression.
I did not realize my time was going that quickly but I do want to get Mr. Landsberg's comments on record when he talked about depression. He also suffered from depression. He stated:
We can't see depression. We can't biopsy it. Blood tests don't show it. Neither do x-rays. ... Depression is a disease. It's not an issue or a demon, although it may act like one. ... Start accepting depression as a serious and sometimes fatal illness.
I think that was very poignant.
Aaran Sands also wrote about Belak's death. Aaran Sands is a reporter who covered crime stories for a number of years. He talked about the stigma of depression, the stigma of mental illness and the cruel social stigma that comes with mental illness. He said:
Coming forward to seek help for my illness amounted to career and social suicide for me – it's been an extremely painful experience, worse than any nightmare I’ve ever had.
I hope things eventually change for the better. But until people start to look at mental illness differently, the suicides will continue, not just among suffering sports stars but in all walks of life.
The reason for today's motion, the reason to bring this issue to the fore of the House is to have that open debate on what it is we can do as a nation, what it is the government should be asking itself. Yes, it is taking steps and it is taking measures but is it doing all it can? Is there a better way to deliver services? Is there a better way to share information? What is it we can do? Are we doing the best we can as a nation?
That is the purpose of today's debate and I hope all members in this House see the merit of that, contribute to this debate and support this motion.