Any difficult loss we experience in life comes at an emotional cost. Feelings build up. You have to take the time to let those feelings out into the open. The human mechanism includes safety valves: venting is in our nature. Frustration, anger, feelings of abandonment […] See more
My biggest sticking point was with society. I idealized society. I saw my city, my community, my province as a place where every citizen could fit in and play their role, from the greatest to the least. My Quebec society was an equitable, just place: […] See more
People from different schools of thought within the suicide prevention community have various methods of operating, but we all agree on one thing: young people contemplating suicide don’t use suicide hotlines. They usually don’t reach out beyond their peer group at all. Amongst the young, […] See more
I have had the great privilege of working as a suicide prevention counselor among the Inuit of Quebec. Their 14 villages are strung along a thousand kilometers of some of the most desolate-looking land on planet Earth, in Quebec’s far north. In conjunction with McGill […] See more
In the face of this distress, we couldn’t continue our intervention efforts without trying to discuss the matter with the proper authorities. Band-aid solutions wouldn’t do. My colleague met with the Casino’s management. We offered to work on the premises to help compulsive gamblers directly, […] See more
This line of questioning could well have led me to get involved in politics. But I am a hands-on type. I neither like nor understand the political world. I got involved with a community newspaper aimed at troubled youth in Canada’s poorest federal riding, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve […] See more
He describes his journey… I began my working life in the field of biochemical engineering. My life was not glamorous. I spent my days sealed away in a laboratory, slicing rats. I felt isolated. I soon switched to the more dashing field of aviation. For […] See more
It is break time at the prison upholstery shop. We work in a large, brightly lit room with a high ceiling and concrete floors. Along one cinderblock wall, chairs are lined up, mostly facing outward. This is where we sit for the 15 minutes we […] See more
My father, deceased for some years already, would have been very happy being in prison. Not because of the food, the filth or the confinement. But because in his salad days he was a crime reporter for the Montreal Star, a daily newspaper that closed […] See more
I awake in a sweat, dazed and disoriented. I turn my pillow over to the dry, cold side underneath, and think: a few seconds ago, I was walking along Sherbrooke Street on a sunny summer’s day, rummaging through second-hand bookstores. Not now. My eyes adjust […] See more
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