Foster teen placed in B.C. hotel deliberately jumped from window: coroner

Eighteen-year-old Alex Gervais, seen in this file photo, died after jumping out of a window at a Super 8 hotel where he'd been placed by the B.C. government after his group home was closed.

VANCOUVER -- A coroner's report has found that a teenager whose death prompted scrutiny of the B.C. government's practice of placing at-risk foster children in hotels jumped from a fourth-floor motel window.

The BC Coroners Service has released its report on the death of Alex Gervais, an 18-year-old who was placed by the Ministry of Children and Family Development in an Abbotsford Super 8 motel after his group home 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 the motel window in September 2015.

Lambert describes the teenager as "very sensitive and fearful of rejection." The report says he came permanently into ministry care at an early age and experienced considerable challenges in his life related to behaviour, mental health, substance use and unstable living environment.

In January 2013, Gervais threatened to commit suicide and was hospitalized for an assessment, according to the report. He denied wanting to die, instead saying he had made the threats as a reaction to an argument. The assessment concluded he had "zero risk of suicide."

In July 2015, Gervais's group home was suddenly closed and he was moved to a motel while attempts were made to find appropriate living arrangements. A case worker was in frequent contact with Gervais, according to the report.

In August 2015, he was receiving services to prepare for becoming independent, but he left his last session abruptly on Aug. 17 after becoming agitated about the discussion, the report says. He was described as having a "very pessimistic outlook" about his life.

"Alex acknowledged that he was having difficulty managing his emotions while using illicit substances but he was not ready to abstain. During this time, Alex frequently made threats of suicide when arguing with his girlfriend," the report says.

Lambert says the day before Gervais's death, he had been using drugs, was angry and distraught and was not sleeping. At about 9 a.m. on Sept. 18, he was on the phone arguing with his girlfriend when he said he was going to jump out the window.

"A couple of attempts to break the window were overheard before the phone went dead," the report says. "A witness outside the motel heard glass break and saw a male falling backwards from a fourth-floor window."

Gervais's motel room had been locked from the inside and police concluded his death was not a result of criminal activity.

Immediately after his death, Children's Minister Stephanie Cadieux said the ministry housed children in hotels in only in extreme circumstances.

But in January the province issued a joint report with children's representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, which revealed 117 foster children had been placed in hotels between November 2014 and October 2015.

Cadieux promised to eliminate the practice of placing vulnerable children and youth in hotels, but couldn't say when that would happen.

Turpel-Lafond said on Tuesday that her office is working on an investigation into Gervais's case and she remains concerned that the ministry will not be able to fulfil its promise of ending hotel placements. Staff are placing youth in hotels because they have nowhere else to put them, she said.

"The young person who gets that message, which is, 'You are now going here because no one wants you, or there's no place for you,' that's a feeling of being forsaken for sure, and we don't want that in our system."