MPP Rickford and Minister Tibollo Tour New Mental Health Facility – Makwa Patrol Receives New Investment to Combat Cyber Crime
October 11, 2022
KENORA – The Kenora Chief’s Advisory Youth and Family Wellness Camp is nearing completion of their expansion of its residential treatment program. With support from a $1.7 million dollar investment made by the Ontario Ministry of Health, this investment will increase the number of on-site intensive treatment beds from 2 to 8, allowing them to service more at-risk youth with complex needs in Kenora and throughout Northwestern Ontario.
“The best care is community-based care, and the Kenora Chiefs Advisory understands this,” said Michael Tibollo, Associate Minister for Mental Health and Addictions. “Through the expansion of these treatment spaces and the Makwa Patrol, they are creating safe spaces where young people can engage with mental health workers, law enforcement and Elders in a manner more conducive to their well-being. Both will help youth reintegrate to their communities and facilitate better wellness for them, their peers and their families.”
“I am confident that youth in the Kenora area will benefit from a safe place to receive treatment, resulting in better outcomes for the entire community,” said Greg Rickford, Member of Provincial Parliament for Kenora–Rainy River and Minister for Indigenous Affairs. “Mental health is health, and our government is focused on making targeted investments that further our collective prosperity and ensure youth have the best opportunity to lead prosperous lives.”
In addition, the Ontario government is investing $110,000.00 over two years through the Safer and Vital Communities (SVC) grant to help Ogimaawabiitong (Kenora Chiefs Advisory) and the Makwa Patrol to increase awareness about cybercrime and take steps to prevent it.
“This support will provide important resources to help raise awareness and prevent cybercrime and hate speech in social media channels and throughout the community”, said Greg Rickford Member of Provincial Parliament for Kenora–Rainy River.
Working with local community service agencies and law enforcement, Ogimaawabiitong and Makwa Patrol create an opportunity for community collaboration to address hate motivated crime and speech within the City of Kenora and nine surrounding First Nation communities.
This initiative is among 18 projects receiving funding across the province. All projects are led by community-based, not-for-profit organizations and First Nations Chiefs and Band Councils, in collaboration with police partners, and focus on preventing online hate crime, human trafficking and fraud.
“As our lives become increasingly reliant on technology, cybercrime continues to grow and affect an ever-expanding range of victims,” said Solicitor General Michael Kerzner. “Our government is committed to finding solutions to help prevent cybercrime – especially crimes such as internet fraud schemes that affect vulnerable seniors; the luring of young people via social media that can lead to human trafficking; online scams that target local businesses; and hate crimes. This funding will support local organizations and their police services to work together to increase awareness about these pervasive crimes and help prevent them from happening in their communities.”
“As we continue to expand and grow our programming to best meet the needs of our community members, I’m grateful we can continue our close partnership with the province and offer programming as you can see from the two announcements today in a wide variety of areas,” said Chief Chris Skead, Wauzhushk Onigum Nation. “By working with Makwa Patrol and providing this funding- it allows for a huge opportunity in terms of battling racism and allowing the public to hear from our most vulnerable, and the very real lived experiences they have. We must take the stigma away from those who are in a tough position right now and show compass, empathy, and support. By enabling us to share those voices and stories I think it will go a long way in terms of public perception and helping educate and teach about the very real system gaps and missed services these people face.”
“The Step-Up Step-Down programming is an amazing opportunity, especially considering this is the first program within Treaty 3 of its kind funded,” continue Chief Skead. “A recurrent barrier we see is what happens to the youth after the immediate service response. Our youth are our future and, youth in trauma, have a very real chance of being retraumatized and we have the responsibility to ensure there are programs in place to support these youth as they heal not only for the immediate but the next steps after that. This program will delivery culturally appropriate programming, through the community lens, and really work with the youth from start to finish to ensure they are not lost in any systems.”
QUICK FACTS
- According to Canadian Addictions and Mental Health, young people aged 15 to 24 are more likely to experience mental illness and/or substance use disorder than any other age group.
- A Statistics Canada survey notes that six in ten Indigenous participants report that their mental health has worsened since the onset of physical distancing.
- According to recent data released by Statistics Canada, the number of police-reported cyber-violations across Ontario increased 201 per cent from 2017 to 2021.
- Further, the rate of cybercrime in Ontario in 2021 was 193.2 out of 100 000 individuals.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES