A very interesting article both for its content and the comments it has provoked.

Six years after Vince Li beheaded a Greyhound passenger, another death: Mountie at the scene commits suicide

Notice how the article makes no mention of the gender of first responders nor those who have committed suicide recently for PTSD.
We see some astute comments at the bottom of this article, starting with:”The mental health of men (the majority of first responders) must become a cause as big as breast cancer…”This reasonable comment that we should invest more in men’s mental health shockingly  provokes responses that blame men for creating a “first responders” culture that intimidates women from being recruited into the profession and that the lack of female first responders is the real problem. Talk about blaming the real victims while undertaking a transparent attempt to recast your own group as victims.

Nevermind that all three of the large mental health facilities in Ontario – CAMH, the Ottawa Royal and Ontario Shores – all have women specific programs in mental health while there are none that specifically deal with male depression or addiction. It is impossible to argue for  the need to help desperate men without being seen as somehow threatening women’s programs.