Doherty outlines next steps for National Suicide Hotline to get up and running

Dec 15, 2020 | 7:03 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – MP for Cariboo- Prince George, Todd Doherty is celebrating after his bill to get Canada a three-digit National Suicide Hotline was passed unanimously in the House of Commons.

Doherty says getting the bill passed unanimously is a big deal, but he won’t rest until the 9-8-8 number is up and running.

When that may be is unknown, Doherty saying “there is a lot more work to do, we’ve got the opioid crisis that is absolutely ballooning being overshadowed by COVID, so there is a lot of work ahead.”

Doherty says the next steps involve working with the CRTC, and the Liberal Government to have the line connected, saying it is just in the early stages.

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While work overall on the project is just getting underway, it is a project Doherty holds very close to his heart.

“I worked in crisis and suicide intervention back in the ’80s,” says Doherty. “My best friend committed suicide when I was 14, and that was really the first time that I had an experience with it.”

“I think about the last time I saw him every day, the pain doesn’t go away. As you get older, the pain, the guilt, the anger, and the questions, you wish you could replay the last time you saw them over and over again,” says Doherty.

The bill for a 9-8-8 three-digit National Suicide Hotline was passed on December 11.

by Caden Fanshaw

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Doherty outlines next steps for National Suicide Hotline to get up and running

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