Aboriginal people represent less than 3% of the total population in BC. However, they account for over 9% of all suicides in BC (Chandler). The number of suicides among Aboriginal youth is even more alarming: nearly a quarter of all youth suicides in BC are committed by Aboriginal people, and more than half of all Aboriginal suicides are committed by youth (Chandler). The fact that Indigenous communities in Canada have the highest suicide rate of any culturally identifiable group in the world implies that these alarming statistics may not just be the result of Aboriginal communities belonging to a minority cultural group. I will attempt to construct a speculative hypothesis behind the significantly high suicide rates among Aboriginal youth in Canada. I will do this by examining three factors that I believe are the most important of several factors that may come together and play a role in the high vulnerability to suicide among Aboriginal youth. I believe this is important because the more accurately we identify the causal factors that may be responsible for Aboriginal suicide, the more specific suicide prevention programs can be implemented. This set of factors must include those common to all suicidal behavior, those responsible for suicidal behavior in marginalized communities, and those that may be specific to the history and context of Aboriginal people in Canada. In this commentary I have chosen one factor from each of these three groups of factors: one, interpersonal-psychological theory to explain suicide in general; two, the loss of personal identity, which may be a major cause of Aboriginal suicide worldwide; and three, the impact of residential schools on the psychological structure of Aboriginal people in Ca...... middle of paper ......l these communities by providing them with material, social and emotional support. Works Cited Bechtold, D.W. “Indian Adolescent Suicide: Clinical and Developmental Considerations.” Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research: Journal of the National Center Monograph 4 (1994): 71-80. Print.Chandler, Michael. “Self and cultural continuity as a hedge against youth suicide.” University of British Columbia, February 7 (2012).presentation.Kirmayer, Laurence, et al. "Suicide among Aboriginal people in Canada". Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation, (2007).Joiner, TE “Why people die by suicide. Cambridge." MA: Harvard University Press (2005). Joiner, Thomas E. et al. "Major predictions of the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior: Empirical tests in two samples of young adults." Journal of Abnormal Psychology 118.3 (2009): 634–646.