By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer

Content warning: mentions of suicide and impacts of colonialism on Indigenous Peoples.

In most of Turtle Island (specifically in Canada and the US), June is designated as Men’s Health Month. In Canada, this year’s iteration was marked by an update from the government concerning a new initiative, the Men and Boys Health Strategy. Starting in February, the government held various public and professional consultations to build a foundation for the project. The announcement shared some results of the three-month consultation process and highlighted that “Health Canada will analyze the findings from the national conversation” to create a strategy focused on uplifting men and boys’ health. Movember, a charity organization focused on men’s physical and mental health, also joins the project as the country’s independent partner in this endeavor. The Peak corresponded with Mark Johnson, media relations for Health Canada, for more information.

“The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that men and boys across Canada receive the support, care, and opportunities they need to thrive,” noted Johnson.

Such an effort has included input from experts, officials, and international partners, as well as an online questionnaire for members of the public. The survey included questions like, “How can we support boys and men in understanding and dealing with traditional ideas about masculinity in healthy ways?” and, “How do we help men build healthy relationships and adopt healthy habits that improve their overall well-being?”

While the exact results and strategy details are yet to be released, data from over 5,000 responses “reinforced the importance of creating supportive environments where men and boys can thrive, seek help when they need it, and achieve their full potential,” noted Canada’s Minister of Health, the honourable Marjorie Michel, in the June 2 Health Canada press release.

“Improving men’s mental and physical health is not only a health priority, but a social and economic imperative.” — Catherine Corriveau, Movember director of policy and advocacy 

In 2025, Movember released their own report which detailed the challenges men face in Canada today. The government shared that they will be using this report, among other countries’ national men’s health strategies, to guide the strategy’s development. Canada will be one of the first countries in the world to develop a men’s health strategy. Canada joins Australia, the UK, Ireland, Iran, Mongolia, the Philippines, South Africa, Malaysia, and Brazil.

According to Movember’s report, those with marginalized identities are more likely to struggle with mental and physical health. Specifically, “Indigenous men have the worst health outcomes of any group in Canada,” with “suicide mortality data” showing that Indigenous men under 30 “are particularly high risk, accounting for up to 85% of suicide deaths in some locales.” The report shared, “Indigenous men are dying younger than non-Indigenous men and living longer with debilitating illness.”

The report also spoke to the gender-based challenges of long-term colonization. In Indigenous communities, “women and men have experienced avalanches of imposed norms and social codes and beliefs from newcomers in territories who brought with them heteronormative ideas based in Judeo-Christian foundations,” noted the summary. As Parks Canada noted, “Catholic religious congregations ran the majority of residential schools and were essential to their day-to-day operation. In doing so, their intention was to convert Indigenous children and assimilate them to Euro-Canadian culture. The residential school system was imposed on Indigenous Peoples by the federal government for over a century as part of a broad set of assimilation efforts to destroy Indigenous cultures and identities and suppress their histories.” 

Movember’s report said of these Judeo-Christian foundations, “These were turned into practices and policies with the goal of undermining traditional notions of gender and sexuality while invading and assimilating communities and reshaping identities.”

These ideas, according to the report, changed the power dynamics within Indigenous communities, wherein Indigenous men were incentivized to take positions of power, as was expected within Western society. “Or, worse, being punished if they resisted and rejected Western notions of manhood,” explained the report. “For all Indigenous men, a great deal of healing has been necessary to become the fullest sons, nephews, fathers, uncles, and grandfathers they can be.”

For widespread gender differences in accessing care, Movember noted that men “tend to be estranged from healthcare, and their health literacy is often underdeveloped.” 

In the report, Movember highlights that for men, language barriers and lack of knowledge regarding specific stigmas may represent a lack of cultural competence within healthcare, further alienating many marginalized men from treatment. 

Such lack of care has sweeping effects, impacting social and economic sectors of life for men and those around them. The report shared, “In 2023 alone, Canada could have saved up to $12.4 billion on avoidable cases of the five conditions causing the most years of life lost in men (i.e., coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and suicide).

“Our research indicates the scale and significance of the costs that could be saved through health promotion, early detection, and disease prevention interventions.”