Identifying Contextual Factors associated with Suicide among First Nation, Inuit and Métis adults in Norther Ontario Using Coroner Records (2015-2025) 

Despite growing awareness of suicide among Indigenous peoples in Canada, major gaps remain in the evidence base guiding prevention, particularly for First Nation, Inuit, and Métis (FNIM) adults living in Northern Ontario. Current suicide surveillance lacks disaggregated, region-specific data and case-based analyses, limiting understanding of the key contextual risk and protective factors shaping Indigenous suicide outcomes and constraining service planning and policy design. Therefore, this project seeks to address these gaps by analyzing records from the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario(2015-2025) to identify demographic and contextual risk and protective factors associated with suicide among FNIM adults in Northern Ontario.

The findings will help strengthen culturally safe suicide-prevention strategies rooted in Indigenous understandings of wellness and enhance the quality of public reporting on Indigenous mental-health outcomes. The resulting insights will help healthcare providers and policymakers identify high-risk contexts, target resources effectively, and design prevention strategies. Ultimately, the project removes barriers to care by ensuring that Indigenous peoples are visible in public-health data and that suicide-prevention approaches are informed by Indigenous leadership, cultural safety, and community priorities. 

This project is co-funded in partnership with Mitacs.

  • My name is Tom Willman, and I am a Métis doctoral student in the Counselling and Clinical Psychology program at the University of Toronto. I grew up on the West Coast on the unceded territories of Coast Salish peoples, in White Rock, British Columbia. My Métis lineage traces to the historic Red River communities of Saint-Boniface and Saint-Vital, with kinship ties to the Carrière, Gladu, Huppé, Desjardins, and Leclerc families. My research and career interests focus on advancing culturally grounded Indigenous mental health and wellbeing initiatives aligned with the histories, strengths, and priorities of Indigenous communities.