Madam Speaker, in this Suicide Prevention Week, I would be remiss if I did not mention my son David, who left us on February 10, 2025. He was 28 years old.
His case is not unique. Every year in Quebec, more than 1,000 people choose to take their lives. There are nearly 4,000 hospitalizations for attempted suicide. I would like to say to all their loved ones that my family and I share their grief, their distress, their anger, and above all, the great void left by the suicide of a loved one.
Today, I want to send a message to the health care system that mental health issues—those that do not bleed, those that eat away at you from the inside—should be recognized in the same way as a broken leg or cancer. The resources and energy we devote to treating the body should also be used to help people who are suffering inside, before their pain reaches a terminal stage. In an emergency, we would not let a person bleed to death by putting them on a six-month waiting list for a transfusion, so why do we let patients with injuries that can be as fatal as cancer suffer in silence?
This is for my son David, for our family, for all his friends, for those who suffer and their loved ones.