By Pamela Fuselli
President and CEO, Parachute

Your child shouldn’t drown because I know how to prevent drownings.

Your teenager shouldn’t die in a speeding car that crashed because I know how that crash could have been avoided.

Your parent shouldn’t fall, break their hip, suffer a concussion and die or move to a long-term-care facility because I know how they can live longer independently and enjoy life.

But despite what I know, drownings, crash deaths, debilitating falls and other injury deaths continue to occur.

I don’t want any of these serious injuries or deaths to happen because of the devastation, guilt, grief, endless “what ifs” and “I wish I could turn back time” that follow, the impacts rippling out over years and decades of lives irreversibly changed.  

Think injury harm won’t affect your life? Unfortunately, that’s not true. 

I know that, right now, if you or your loved one is between the ages 1 to 44 you, or they, are more likely to die from a preventable injury than any other cause: Not heart disease. Not cancer.

Preventable injury. 

Today is National Injury Prevention Day. Health Canada recognizes it as a national health promotion day. Hundreds of organizations will post messages about injury awareness. You’d think that, given this support, the high numbers of injury-caused deaths and serious injuries, and the fact that we know how to keep people from dying, people and companies would be banging down the door of the charity I lead, Parachute, which is Canada’s national charity dedicated to injury prevention. I’m sorry to say that is not the case. 


The fear of our family and friends being injured or killed is a top concern. We’ve all experienced that dread in the pit of your stomach when a curfew is missed or there’s an unexpected phone call from the police or a hospital. And too often, that fear is fulfilled: you discover that someone you care about has been hurt or, worse, killed.

I’m tired. Maybe feeling defeated is a better description. I, my team, and colleagues across the country work tirelessly to try to get the solutions we know will save lives implemented. For more than 20 years, I’ve been working with funding partners from governments, corporations, and foundations to match our goals with theirs so we can work together on this important social issue. We have had fantastic funding partners, such as Desjardins Insurance, who have invested in preventing particular categories of injuries for many years. Unfortunately, there are too few of these kinds of companies, governments and foundations and there is not enough sustainable, long-term and core funding. Because, as with other social issues, changes that reduce injuries take time. And prevention isn’t sexy. We’re not in white lab coats finding a cure. We don’t need to be. We know what works. You’d think this would be a selling feature. 

I said I was tired, and maybe even defeated. That’s because no matter how many times or ways I share our social impact potential, how many personal stories of lives destroyed by injury, how avoidable these injuries are, or even how economically sound prevention is, there is always a reason or another priority about why the funding is not available.

If no one cares about this issue, should I? 

The reality is that I can’t turn away. I think about those families whose hearts are broken, whose grief is overwhelming, who spend their time thinking “what if” and “if only” and I don’t want anyone else to have to experience the same feeling, especially when I know they don’t have to. When I read the news about the regular occurrences of car crashes, cyclists being run over, children falling out of windows or drowning, I think, who is next? Whose life will be changed in an instant? And what will it take to break through so preventing these tragedies becomes a top priority in our country?

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