Report: Twenty-one Kashechewan youth have attempted suicide since January

The northern Ontario First Nation Community plagued by contaminated water is now facing a new crisis.

"Kashechewan made headlines in October 2005 after hundreds of its residents were evacuated to several Ontario towns and cities because of drinking water contaminated by E. coli bacteria." A new report suggests that in January alone, twenty-one young people tried to kill themselves in Kashechewan. One child was only nine years old. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine says the situation requires urgent action from Ottawa. A report from federal advisor Alan Pope, last fall, recommended the government move the reserve to within the city limits of Timmins after a series of problems. The reserve is quite small, this is a huge percentage of young people that don't feel like there is any hope for their future. The suicide rate among Canadian Aboriginal people is already five to six times that of non-Aboriginal people. I hope that the federal government acts quickly, or this will just be one more dirty scandal Canada will have to carry into its future.