September 23, 2015
B.C. teen in provincial care dies in fall from hotel window
Children’s representative denounces use of hotel to house 18-year-old
Alex Gervais, courtesy Dylan Pelly.
Photograph by: Dylan Pelly , Handout
An
18-year-old in the care of B.C.’s child welfare system fell to his death
last week from a fourth-floor window at an Abbotsford hotel, where he
had been living for at least a month after the province shut down his
group home, The Vancouver Sun has learned.
Both the B.C. Coroner’s Service and the Representative for Children and Youth are investigating the death of the young man, whom the Ministry of Children and Family Development placed in the hotel instead of with a foster family or group home, sources have told The Sun.
None of those agencies would release the teen’s name, but The Sun has learned he was Alex Gervais. A family member and a friend have posted messages of condolence on Facebook.
There was a national outcry over placing foster kids in hotels after the 2014 death of Tina Fontaine, 15, who was murdered after she disappeared from the Winnipeg hotel where she was lodged by Manitoba’s child welfare system. That province has since phased out using hotels as overflow housing for older foster kids.
“I want to know why he was living in that hotel when he was a child in care and should have been living in a family setting. ... And what relationship did his living in that hotel have to his mental health and his well-being?” children’s representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said Tuesday.
“No parent in B.C. would place their child in a hotel to be raised. ... That cannot be a care system. That is not appropriate.”
The coroner’s service confirmed that an 18-year-old man fell from the window of his fourth-floor room at the Super 8 hotel in Abbotsford last Friday at 9 a.m., said spokesperson Barb McLintock. The death is being investigated as possibly being suicide, and the coroner is waiting for test results to determine if the teenager had been using drugs or alcohol.
Abbotsford police do not suspect foul play. “We did investigate, but after consulting with the coroner it was ultimately determined the death was not suspicious and no one else was in the room prior to the tragic event,” said Const. Ian MacDonald.
Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux said in a statement she was “deeply concerned” by the case but would not answer specific questions, citing privacy concerns and it being “a police matter.”
Starting in 2014, she said, ministry staff had to get high-level permission to place foster kids in hotels, and the provincial director of child welfare monitors such arrangements. The director is not aware of any other children in hotels, Cadieux added.
“It is the ministry’s stated policy and practice to place children and youth in care in foster homes and residential resources that match their needs and minimize the possibility of further moves. Hotels are — and should only be — used in rare occurrences and as briefly as possible in between or prior to other more appropriate placements,” her statement said.
The young man who died in Abbotsford was one of 33 teens living in group homes run by an agency whose contract was cancelled by the province earlier this year because of health and safety concerns raised by Turpel-Lafond and others. The representative said she sought a guarantee from the ministry when the group homes were closed that those kids would not be moved to hotels.
Both the B.C. Coroner’s Service and the Representative for Children and Youth are investigating the death of the young man, whom the Ministry of Children and Family Development placed in the hotel instead of with a foster family or group home, sources have told The Sun.
None of those agencies would release the teen’s name, but The Sun has learned he was Alex Gervais. A family member and a friend have posted messages of condolence on Facebook.
There was a national outcry over placing foster kids in hotels after the 2014 death of Tina Fontaine, 15, who was murdered after she disappeared from the Winnipeg hotel where she was lodged by Manitoba’s child welfare system. That province has since phased out using hotels as overflow housing for older foster kids.
“I want to know why he was living in that hotel when he was a child in care and should have been living in a family setting. ... And what relationship did his living in that hotel have to his mental health and his well-being?” children’s representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said Tuesday.
“No parent in B.C. would place their child in a hotel to be raised. ... That cannot be a care system. That is not appropriate.”
The coroner’s service confirmed that an 18-year-old man fell from the window of his fourth-floor room at the Super 8 hotel in Abbotsford last Friday at 9 a.m., said spokesperson Barb McLintock. The death is being investigated as possibly being suicide, and the coroner is waiting for test results to determine if the teenager had been using drugs or alcohol.
Abbotsford police do not suspect foul play. “We did investigate, but after consulting with the coroner it was ultimately determined the death was not suspicious and no one else was in the room prior to the tragic event,” said Const. Ian MacDonald.
Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux said in a statement she was “deeply concerned” by the case but would not answer specific questions, citing privacy concerns and it being “a police matter.”
Starting in 2014, she said, ministry staff had to get high-level permission to place foster kids in hotels, and the provincial director of child welfare monitors such arrangements. The director is not aware of any other children in hotels, Cadieux added.
“It is the ministry’s stated policy and practice to place children and youth in care in foster homes and residential resources that match their needs and minimize the possibility of further moves. Hotels are — and should only be — used in rare occurrences and as briefly as possible in between or prior to other more appropriate placements,” her statement said.
The young man who died in Abbotsford was one of 33 teens living in group homes run by an agency whose contract was cancelled by the province earlier this year because of health and safety concerns raised by Turpel-Lafond and others. The representative said she sought a guarantee from the ministry when the group homes were closed that those kids would not be moved to hotels.
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