Canadian Armed Forces members are no more likely overall to die by suicide than Canadians in the general population, according to the military's latest annual review of more than two decades of data.The Report On Suicide Mortality In The Canadian Armed Forces 1995 To 2024 found no “statistically significant” overall changes in suicide rates and said rates among Regular Force members were generally comparable to those of other Canadians after accounting for age and sex.“We do not identify a single predominant reason that we would attribute to the suicide deaths,” said the Surgeon General Report.Blacklock's Reporter said military members who died by suicide were typically men younger than 45 who had a psychiatric diagnosis, a history of addiction or substance use and an acute life stressor such as divorce, according to the report.Most had no history of military deployment. Hanging was the most common method of suicide.“The Regular Force and Canadian general population suicide rates from 1995 to 2023 were similar after adjusting for age and sex differences,” said the report.Researchers identified statistically significant differences in only three individual years. The Regular Force suicide rate was lower than the general population in 1996 but higher in 2011 and 2023.The report did not identify a reason for the variations in those years.The findings come after the Commons veterans affairs committee called on the Department of National Defence to publish annual reports on suicide deaths.The committee's April 30 report, Suicide Prevention Among Canadian Veterans, cited “critical data shortages” surrounding military and veteran suicides and recommended National Defence “release an annual report on deaths by suicide.”“A detailed and nuanced understanding of the epidemiology of suicide is essential in order to come up with effective prevention strategies,” the committee wrote.It also recommended that, “in the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary,” officials presume suicides occurring during military service are service-related.Concerns about suicide among military personnel and veterans have repeatedly been raised at parliamentary hearings.“We had a raft of suicides,” retired lieutenant-general Roméo Dallaire told a committee hearing in 2010..However, a subsequent 2019 Veteran Suicide Military Study described suicide among male veterans as “relatively rare.”“Over the 37 years of data less than one percent of male veterans in the cohort died by suicide, and therefore suicide remained a relatively rare event,” researchers wrote.Separate research commissioned by Veterans Affairs Canada in 2020 found mental health remained strongly associated with military service in the minds of Canadians.Asked to identify the biggest issue facing veterans, 24% of respondents cited mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder, while 19% pointed to a “lack of support from government,” according to the Evaluation Of The 2019 Remembrance Advertising Campaign.
