“Young people who are struggling are not always visible. We wanted to boost our efforts to help them.”

Television and radio show host Stéphane Bellavance says he’s lucky his family is doing well, but should something go amiss, he would love for his boys to have a door to knock on, a door like Fondation Jeunes en tête. Jeunes en tête is the result of two organizations joining forces to support youth in the field of mental health, said spokesman Bellavance, noting that the two groups — the Mental Illness Foundation and the Fondation Québec Jeunes — currently help more than 70,000 children each year.  Read the rest of this article at The Montreal Gazette…

“We learned we don’t need to put up with the dogmatic approach,” said Mr. Knight, a member of the Unitarian church. “It’s unnecessary and unhelpful.”

TORONTO — In 1934, Bill Wilson guzzled four beers on his way to a hospital where he saw a Godly light and swore off alcohol for life – a spiritual awakening that would form the foundation of his 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program. Until this week, the Toronto-area umbrella organization that co-ordinates Alcoholics Anonymous in the region sought to uphold Mr. Wilson’s holy vision by ostracizing groups that offered a secular interpretation of the 12 steps.  Read the rest of this article at The Globe and Mail…

Sexual abuse is a “dehumanizing and demoralizing” root cause of the youth suicide crisis that has been ravaging remote northern outposts in recent years

Some nights, Susan Aglukark still wakes up drenched in sweat. It’s been 42 years since the acclaimed Inuk singer endured sexual abuse, including being photographed naked, as an eight-year-old girl living in remote Rankin Inlet — a trauma from which she now considers herself about 80 per cent healed. The rest, she knows, will never be completely gone. “I’ll always have triggers,” Aglukark, 50, said in an interview. “Being photographed is a trigger.”  Read the rest of this article at The Toronto Star…