Surgeons perform an operation at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children on Nov. 30, 2022.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
The number of children in Canada experiencing abuse, poverty, mental illness and other serious problems is on the rise and Indigenous youth face some of the highest risks, according to a new report on the top 10 threats facing young people across the country.
The report, published Tuesday by national charity Children First Canada, is based on research from experts at the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto and McGill University, who used Statistics Canada data and published studies to arrive at their conclusions.
The report also used interviews with young people, parents and several dozen experts in child health. The report is focused mainly on the past year, but also incorporates data and research published during the height of the pandemic or before it.
About 60 per cent of children in Canada say they experienced some form of abuse before the age of 15, including emotional abuse, neglect, physical abuse, witnessing violence and sexual abuse. That number came from Statistics Canada’s 2019 General Social Survey.
And about half of young people aged 12 to 18 say they experienced depression, while nearly 40 per cent of them developed anxiety during the height of the pandemic.
Canada’s infant mortality rate is another risk cited in the report. In 2021, it was 4.3 per 1,000 live births, making it one of the highest compared with other countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
“It defies what most Canadians think is true,” said Sara Austin, chief executive of Children First Canada. “When it comes to our children, we are falling short and children are suffering in grave ways.”
The report adds to existing concerns over the health of children as shortages of health professionals and backlogs at hospitals are forcing pediatric patients across the country to wait months or even years for necessary surgeries, diagnostic tests, assessments and treatments for a host of ailments.
For instance, in June, Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children reported that its surgical wait list had soared to 6,509, with more than two-thirds of those on the list waiting beyond the recommended window for surgery.
A Unicef assessment published in 2020 found that Canada ranks near the bottom compared with other wealthy countries in terms of child well-being. It highlighted Canada’s infant mortality rate, teen suicide rate and incidence of obesity as among some of the top reasons the country ranked so poorly.
Some of the other top threats to child health it identified included racism, bullying, risk of vaccine-preventable diseases and limited physical activity.
The new report released Tuesday found that Indigenous children faced some of the highest incidences of serious threats to their health. For instance, Indigenous children make up about 3 per cent of the pediatric population in Canada, but account for more than 30 per cent of deaths from unintentional injuries.
This is a long-standing trend highlighted more than a decade ago by the Canadian Paediatric Society, which noted that car accidents and fires are some of the most common causes of unintentional death in Indigenous children. But there’s no national surveillance system for tracking such injuries or deaths, which hampers efforts to address these issues, according to the society.
Evidence shows that Indigenous children are also more likely to suffer from emotional and physical abuse, bullying, poverty and other risks.
Children First Canada says it wants to see new policies created to address the serious problems in childhood well-being across the country. The group is calling for the creation of a federal commissioner for children and youth, the creation of a national youth strategy, and a plan to collect more robust data about the health of children. The group is also calling for an investment fund for children and a dedicated children’s budget.