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Fallen RCMP peace ofcers honoured in Yellowknife Ofcers who made the ulti- mate sacrice to keep us safe were honoured in a ceremony in Yellowknife Sunday. See page 6. Hay Rivers nifty farm institute is focused on feed There is more than one way to feed a farm animal North- ern Farm Training Institute director Kim Rapati writes. See page 15. CHECKING OUT TECH High school students converge at Aurora in Fort Smith. See page 8. He thinks he is turning Vietnamese he really thinks so Fort Smith teen Ty Marten shares his second epic birth- day trip a month in Vietnam and Cambodia. See page 9. First Order of the NWT recipients announced Ruth Spence and a handful of other community leaders have been inducted into the Order of the NWT the terri- torys new top honour. See page 7. V IS IT W W W .N O R J.C A A national award winning independent newspaper serving northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories since 1977 1.00 September 29 2015 Vol. 39 No. 22 By CRAIG GILBERT Withthreemonthsleftintheyear already 27 Nunavummiut have died by suicide. Itisapacethatshouldjustifyastate of public health emergency and it shouldinspireamorerobustresponse fromgovernmentandotheragencies than it has according to Nunavuts chief coroner Padma Suramala. On Friday Suramala nished ob- serving the two-week coroners in- quest into suicide in Nunavut that she called in 2013 when a record 45 Nunavummiut took their own lives. She said Monday the more than 30 witnesses who testied including families who have lost children as young as 11 and 12 years old social workers psychologists and other professionals shed light on how the slow-motion crisis has been allowed to continue seeing dozens of people die every year. The action plan is only missing one piece implementation. Itishightimeweneedtodosome- thing Suramala said. I know it Nunavut suicide inquest jury ndings an urgent call for action coroner takesalongtimebutweneedtostart doingitnow.Savingalifeshouldtake precedence over all other projects. Both of the jurys key recommen- dations declaring a state of emer- gency and designating a cabinet minister responsible for suicide prevention would be the responsi- bility of the territorial government. Theyaredesignedtodrawattention tothecrisisandinspiresupportfrom all levels of government since fund- ing is the major obstacle to putting theactionplantoworkbutSuramala said there has to be buy-in from ev- eryone for it to work and that starts at the community level. When an 11-year-old takes his own life it is a wakeup call to all of us she said. We have done enough research on the matter. We have very effective recommendations and weve done an evaluation of the action plan. What is lacking now is implementation - thats what we found out in the inquest. Inajurisdictionwherethesuicide rateis10timesthenationalaverage front-lineworkersaregettingburned outtheresponseeffortisstymiedby a high turnover rate among health care professionals and contributing factors such as child sexual abuse are intensied by overcrowded liv- ing conditions and substance abuse. The bottom line however is the effort to save lives has to start within families with support from each home community. One person cant be accountable for the whole issue Suramala said. The jury made several other rec- ommendations for various depart- ments of the territorial government health family services education otheragenciessuchastheRCMPand the federal government including Create a secretariat to spearhead suicide prevention activity for the territorial cabinet by April 2016 Immediately embark on a pub- lic awareness campaign to de- normalize suicide Include material on creating safe environmentsinschoolcurriculaby theendofthecurrentschoolyear Develop an action plan to address thehighrateofstudentdrop-outs Pilot community-based grief sup- port networks Create a public service campaign against marijuana and alcohol abuse targeted at youth and staff positions for youth and addic- tions counselling by Sept. 2016 Establish a formal protocol for following up with people who have attempted suicide Change the territorys Mental Health Act to allow family mem- bers to be connected and imme- diately involved after a suicide attempt regardless of the per- sons age Develop culturally relevant pro- gramming around relationship- building coping and parenting skills and anger management by Sept. 2016 Boostfederalfundingtofast-track the Nunavut Housing Corpora- tionsactionplantoreducesuicide Develop a national suicide pre- vention strategy by 2017. PhotocourtesyofAuroraCollege Aurora College student Tina Bruha holds a duck she learned to pluck at the schools rst-ever day on the land last week. See story page 13.