Close X
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
ADVT 
National

Foster Teen Deliberately Jumped From Abbotsford Hotel Window

The Canadian Press, 10 May, 2016 01:52 PM
    VANCOUVER — An coroner's report confirms a teenager whose death cast scrutiny on the province's practice of placing at-risk foster children in hotels deliberately jumped from a hotel window.
     
    The BC Coroners Service released its report on the death of Alex Gervais, an 18-year-old who was placed by the Children's Ministry in an Abbotsford Super 8 motel after his group home was closed.
     
    The report by coroner Adele Lambert says Gervais had non-lethal concentrations of cocaine and other drugs in his system before he died after deliberately jumping through a fourth-floor window of the motel in September 2015.
     
     
    Lambert describes the teenager as "very sensitive and fearful of rejection" and says he threatened to kill himself in January 2013 but a hospital assessment concluded he had "zero risk of suicide."
     
    She says in the weeks before his death, Gervais frequently threatened suicide when arguing with his girlfriend, and the day before he had been using drugs, was angry and distraught and was not sleeping.
     
    Immediately after his death, the ministry said it housed children in hotels in only in extreme circumstances, but in January it issued a report that revealed 117 foster children had been placed in hotels between November 2014 and October 2015.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Texting Employee Fired From Surrey Gym After Facebook Video Of Girl Stuck On Climbing Wall

    Texting Employee Fired From Surrey Gym After Facebook Video Of Girl Stuck On Climbing Wall
    The 55-second video posted on Facebook shows a young woman who appears to be on her phone sitting at the bottom of a climbing wall while a girl struggles to climb it and cries 

    Texting Employee Fired From Surrey Gym After Facebook Video Of Girl Stuck On Climbing Wall

    Justin Trudeau Interview To Air On '60 Minutes' On Sunday, Ahead Of White House Visit

    Justin Trudeau Interview To Air On '60 Minutes' On Sunday, Ahead Of White House Visit
    A profile interview with Justin Trudeau is to air Sunday on the iconic CBS program "60 Minutes," just days before the prime minister travels to Washington, D.C., for a state visit.

    Justin Trudeau Interview To Air On '60 Minutes' On Sunday, Ahead Of White House Visit

    Former Flight Attendant Sues WestJet After Alleged Sex Assault By Pilot In Hawaii

    Former Flight Attendant Sues WestJet After Alleged Sex Assault By Pilot In Hawaii
    Mandalena Lewis alleges an unnamed WestJet pilot pulled her onto a hotel bed and proceeded to kiss and grope her during a stopover in Hawaii in January 2010.  

    Former Flight Attendant Sues WestJet After Alleged Sex Assault By Pilot In Hawaii

    Attempt To Create Rare Disease Committee Appears Set To Fail

    Attempt To Create Rare Disease Committee Appears Set To Fail
    A Progressive Conservative attempt to get an all-party committee to develop a rare disease strategy in Ontario appears set to fail today without Liberal support.

    Attempt To Create Rare Disease Committee Appears Set To Fail

    Watch: Modi Takes Dig At Rahul Gandhi, Criticises Opposition, But Seeks Support To Run Government

    Watch: Modi Takes Dig At Rahul Gandhi, Criticises Opposition, But Seeks Support To Run Government
    Parliament is a forum where different view points are put forward, where questions are being asked to the government, where government is made accountable and nobody is spared

    Watch: Modi Takes Dig At Rahul Gandhi, Criticises Opposition, But Seeks Support To Run Government

    Ontario Man's Sexual Assault Convictions Quashed Over Misremembered Evidence About Couch Cushion

    Ontario Man's Sexual Assault Convictions Quashed Over Misremembered Evidence About Couch Cushion
    An Ontario man's convictions in a sexual assault case involving two young boys have been overturned over misremembered evidence about the placement of a couch cushion

    Ontario Man's Sexual Assault Convictions Quashed Over Misremembered Evidence About Couch Cushion