Landsberg reaches out to Battlefords in wake of suicides

He recorded hundreds of episodes of TSN’s Off the Record while privately suffering from crippling depression.

Now, Michael Landsberg is reaching out to the Battlefords after two teenage boys and a 21-year-old woman took their own lives in the last few weeks.

He said the tragedies highlight how depression can hide in people who might seem fine.

“Depression and suicide have one ally – and that’s silence,” he told Gormley Friday.

“When you don’t talk about it, when it gets buried, you increase the chances of it happening.”

Landsberg, an active mental health advocate, took to social media and has reached out to the families in the Battlefords.

While he’s about as Toronto as it gets, Landsberg said his friendship with Saskatchewan NHL star Wade Belak introduced him to the community.

“I feel like it’s the one small community in Canada that I actually have family in,” he said, adding he hopes his charity, Sick Not Weak, can do some good.

“I want to go and I want to go to all the places people don’t always want to go.”

Landsberg said he’s still working to plan dates for the Battlefords.