Community must respond to tragedy: psychologist

Jun 15, 2017 | 6:00 PM

Community members in La Ronge are still trying to piece together the incidents that led to two children being set on fire near the community. All included in the incident, including the alleged offender are under 12 years of age. 

Lloyd Robertson, a psychologist in La Ronge, said in similar cases members of the community are quick to point fingers to find fault and usually land on parents or the system. Robertson said instead, locals should focus on the community itself. 

He said issues of youth violence force a community to intervene, often whether they feel they should or not.

Although he could not comment on this specific case, Robertson said some youth may never be taught the difference between right and wrong, an issue that could go back generations. He called the phenomenon a ‘lack of intergenerational transfer of values.’

“Children learn from the experience of the interaction of what is permissible and expected, and what’s not permissible and they internalize that. Now, some families are dysfunctional and can’t do that and need the community to intervene,” Robertson said.

He said, often, the knee-jerk reaction after a tragedy is for a community to decry a lack of special service funding from governments. He recalled his time in Stanley Mission in the early 1990s during a suicide crisis. He believed what mitigated the issue at the time were the community members who gave their time and a volunteer steering committee dedicated to tackling the issue. He said each community has the resources within it – whether professional or not – to solve its own issues.

“One of the problems is an over reliance on outside sources. Traditionally, there weren’t counsellors and psychologists particularly in Indigenous communities…they did it on their own,” he said.

In Stanley Mission, Robertson said the steering committee thought a youth centre could help abate its own crisis and community members took on the project themselves. Local carpenters helped renovate an existing building free of charge, companies like Cameco donated exercise equipment, and health care professionals donated their time to the centre.    

“There is a sense of responsibility of our action to our own children,” he said of the build.

On Tuesday, June 13, La Ronge RCMP and EMS said a child under 12 doused two other children – an 11-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy – with gasoline and lit the pair on fire. The eight-year-old was airlifted to hospital in Saskatoon, while his sister was taken to hospital in La Ronge. Both have since been released.

The mother of the youth accused of commiting the offence said her son is now in the care of social services.

–With files from the Canadian Press.

 

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