The people of Haida Gwaii are tortured by sorrow and are grieving beyond words this evening because a young man killed himself. On October 18th, this young man hung himself here in Vancouver.
The young man is a member of the Haida people. My understanding is that he lived much of his life in Old Massett. Speaking with some of his friends I was told that he was an outgoing, sensitive, jovial and thoughtful young man. He was very social. He played basketball and loved the game. He was devoted to the Haida Nation.
Apparently he was working and studying in Vancouver. He was close to completing his studies and apprenticeship training and he was soon to receive his ticket in his trade. He was proud of his accomplishments. He was well-respected in the community for turning his life around and for his many successes on the way.
On Saturday October 18th, he got together with some friends in Vancouver. He was drinking. He told his friends that he would take a taxi home. Perhaps he realized that he didn’t have the money. He drove home.
On the way home he was stopped by the Vancouver police. He went thought the standard drinking-driving investigation and ultimately he was sent away with the standard paperwork. Then he went home and hung himself.
The desperation that he must have felt to have decided to take his own life we can only imagine. The torment that he went through in those final minutes we will never know. He must have felt that there was no way out of his situation.
His family and friends are devastated, as you would expect.
I imagine that it’s impossible to reconcile or make account for the pain people have suffered in this community. The scars are old and deep. Each person, each family and each generation carries with them the repercussions of what has happened to their ancestors, their families, their loved ones. Fresh scars appear as their young people try to find their path.
I was in the Masset airport on October 26th when this young man was brought home to his people. A very moving ceremony was conducted right there in the main hall.
There are people who are to blame for his death. The people who are to blame are those who vilify drinking drivers. The people who are to blame are the ones who call out for inflexible punishment and the harshest consequences for drunk drivers. The people who are to blame are the ones who support immediate punishment without flexibility and without examining the individual case and the individual’s circumstances. The people who are to blame are the ones who think the way to deal with a social problem is to tell everyone that we have the toughest drunk driving laws and to give out disproportionate punishment.
The BC Government, MADD and certain self-interested do-gooders send out the message that getting caught driving after drinking is the end of the world. They want you to think that if you’re caught drinking and driving you can never live down that mistake.
This young man apparently concluded that he couldn’t live down this mistake. For him it was the end of his world.
Right now many people in Haida Gwaii feel that their world has come to an end.