Ontario has yet to release data on suicide among the Black population, despite worrying signs. But a professor’s ambitious project could shed light.

April 18, 2026 Toronto Star By Daysha Loppie Staff Reporter

Watching her younger brother cycle in and out of the hospital, Samantha Viarruel had to ask him one question that felt unavoidable.

Did he want to live?

He told her yes. But only a few months later, Viarruel’s father came to her door to tell her that Branden, who was Black, had died by suicide. He was 18.

That was 2009. There wasn’t any published data on the prevalence of suicide in Black communities then, and, more than 15 years later, that hasn’t changed.

“Are we slipping through the cracks? Yes,” said Viarruel. “They’re not cracks. They’re chasms.”

Suicide is a leading cause of death in Canada, with thousands recorded in 2024 — 1,540 in Ontario, according to Statistics Canada. The coroner’s office in Ontario only began comprehensively collecting race information for the deaths it investigated in 2024, when it became mandatory, and any data the province does have on Black deaths has not been released, with officials citing privacy concerns. In the U.S., extensive collection of death data shows increases in suicides among Black people, particularly ages 10 to 24, over time.

While the Canadian government has published reports on suicide rates in Indigenous communities and immigrant communities, there is no single dataset that fully captures Black communities in Canada, as available data is fragmented and does not consistently track race or ethnicity. The result is a major blind spot — one that leaves Canada without official data showing the risks for Black people, and why.

“I just want our kids not to die. That’s it,” said Beverly-Jean Daniel, an associate professor in the School of Child and Youth Care at Toronto Metropolitan University.

She’s leading a first-of-its-kind study on self-harm and suicidal thoughts among young Black people ages 15 to 29, with research underway in Halifax, Windsor, Montreal and Toronto. Daniel said the project aims to identify attitudes toward and experiences of suicide, to document the prevalence of suicide, and to examine what suicide risk and protective factors look like, as they pertain to Black communities. She wants to know how suicide risk can be expressed in ways specific to Black cultures.

“I started doing the research and I found nothing, not even a newspaper article,” she said. “There was nothing on suicide in Black communities in Canada. I had this sick feeling.”

In 2020, Daniel sought to gather some data of her own. She held virtual town halls across the GTA, bringing together about 20 people from about 10 organizations to discuss what they were seeing on the front lines.

“It was like the floodgates were open,” said Daniel. “If we’re seeing it at a community level, it’s showing up in my research, where is the data?”

What’s missing in suicide data.

Canada does not track death data like the U.S., where statistics show some alarming trends. While overall suicide rates for Black people in the U.S. are lower than for white people, specific age groups in Black communities are of concern.

From 2001 to 2015, Black children ages five to 12 were nearly twice as likely to die by suicide as their white peers. From 2018 to 2023, data showed suicide rates for Black people rose about 25  per cent, with an increase among those ages 10 to 24, even as rates for white people declined. A similar increase of suicides between 2018 and 2023 was also seen in the Hispanic population.

Some researchers argue the total number may be higher, as deaths among Black individuals are more likely than those among white individuals to be classified as “undetermined,” potentially obscuring suicides.

It’s hard to tell how Canada compares. In Ontario, the Office of the Chief Coroner told the Star it did not “consistently” collect race or identity data before 2024, though other institutions may have.

In 2024, it became mandatory for the chief coroner’s office to collect race-based data for deaths it investigates — about 20 per cent of all deaths in the province. Under the Anti-Racism Act, public sector organizations in Ontario, like the coroner’s office, have an obligation to collect de-identified race-based data and publish it in a “timely” manner. But the office has not yet released the 2024 data it has gathered, citing privacy concerns. 

The numbers of suicide deaths, the chief coroner’s office says, when sorted by race, may be so small that individuals could be identified — breaching privacy. The office did not say if that specifically meant the numbers in Black communities were small or when it expects to publish race-based data on suicide deaths.

“Canada has a long-standing history of not collecting race-based data,” said Claire Perry, a member of the national roster of suicide prevention experts for the Public Health Agency of Canada.

“That has implications for being able to have appropriate information that can guide us to addressing social inequities in areas such as suicide prevention.”

Perry said with data, the government and other organizations can be held accountable to specifically address and prevent suicide in Black communities.

“A lack of race-based data doesn’t mean that there’s a lack of a problem in this area,” said Perry.

Pressure for high achievers

In her town halls with Black-led organizations, Daniel said many people wanted to talk about suicide among Black youth who would be considered “outgoing, high achievers.”

The Star spoke to Shaya Ishaq, 32, who said her most intense experience of suicidal ideation — thoughts about death or suicide — was in her late twenties as she juggled being one of few Black people in a prestigious academic fellowship and her art career, all while trying to make her Kenyan and Ugandan parents proud. While she was doing well, it came at a cost: her mental health.

“I didn’t want to feel that pressure,” said Ishaq. “I definitely think it was partly shaped by being a Black woman, trying to be a version of ‘Black excellence.’”

Daniel said it’s important to explore the complexities of how suicidality, or suicide risk, presents itself in different Black communities.

“If we use sort of the mainstream narratives around suicidality, we’re going to miss most of our kids,” said Daniel.

Viarruel described her brother, who died in 2009, as smart, defiant, funny and wise beyond his years. He loved soccer and wanted to become a lawyer.

“Then it was almost like all of a sudden, there was this shift in him where he became very unwell,” said Viarruel. “Within six months, he had taken his life.”

Branden had several suicide attempts for which he was briefly institutionalized — he said that felt like prison. On his second attempt, he was told he’d be institutionalized for 30 days if it happened again.

“There was a little stretch of time where things seemed more balanced,” said Viarruel. Her brother was finishing his high school equivalency and was in a loving relationship.

Viarruel said that at the time, the health-care workers who interacted with her brother were not Black and that other options for treatment weren’t provided.

Based on his behaviour before he took his life, she thinks something important was overlooked by health-care professionals, a common experience for Black patients.

“If you look at his age, him being 18, why was he not screened for schizophrenia when he was in the hospital?”

When speaking to young people for the project, Daniel said racism was the first topic to come up, “Literally, figuratively and metaphorically, racism is killing our children. Which means suicide then becomes extremely preventable in Black communities.”

The Star talked to several people who cited anti-Black racism as a factor in declining mental health that led to a desire to end their life.

But without race-based data, Daniel said it is difficult to know how many Black people may have experiences similar to those of Branden, or Ishaq.

“The main goal of this project is to ensure that we do not lose any more Black youth to an extremely preventable crisis,” said Daniel.