Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
Canadian coroners and families warn of risks associated with pro-suicide forum.
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
Federal officials have repeatedly ignored calls to restrict access to an online forum linked to multiple deaths in Canada, according to coroner reports, mental health advocates and families who have spoken to CBC News.
Labelled a “dedicated suicide promotion website” by mental health organizations, the platform remains available on the open internet in Canada, while it’s restricted in countries such as Australia, Germany and Italy. British internet service providers recently blocked access to the site.
“I have sent information to many people who could have acted to save lives,” said Maryel Bousquet, who lost her son in 2018 after he visited the forum.
“Despite the horror of this website,” officials “did nothing,” she said.
Forum users anonymously discuss methods of suicide and even encourage others to take their own lives. Typically, members use coded language — such as “CTB” or “catch the bus” — rather than “suicide.”
“I understand why you’d feel comforted by having a plan to leave this existence,” one user recently wrote, referring to another member’s suicide plan. “I wish you the best.”
CBC News is not naming the site, to avoid promoting it. Web traffic data suggests the platform, which is registered in the U.S., receives some 10 million page views a month.
‘In their most vulnerable state’
Two separate Quebec coroner’s reports from 2021 and 2022, both obtained by CBC News, recommended the CRTC find ways to restrict access to such sites.
Ontario forensic pathologists warned about an unnamed online forum in a 2021 research paper. They noted “promotion and support” of one particular method of suicide “appears to be largely via online information-sharing.”
The website came under renewed scrutiny earlier this year, when a Toronto-area man was arrested and charged with abetting multiple suicides. Families suspect many of Kenneth Law’s clients — who bought a potentially lethal substance from him — were directed to Law through the forum.
The case prompted a group of mental health organizations to write to the federal government in June, demanding action to block the online forum. They said it’s having “a devastating impact on families in Canada today and contributing to an unsafe online environment for children and youth.”
The letter, signed by the leaders of six organizations including the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) and Children’s Mental Health Ontario, was sent to then-mental health minister Carolyn Bennett and then-heritage minister Pablo Rodriguez.
The groups received no response, said Camille Quenneville, CEO of the CMHA’s Ontario division.
“Individuals who would look for that kind of information are in their most vulnerable state and are easily persuadable into conducting acts of self-harm,” Quenneville said in an interview.
Warned at least four years ago
Kelli Wilson’s son Junior was 18 when he took his own life in April 2020. Wilson said she found his body, and then found a digital trail leading back to the suicide forum.
Wilson told CBC News she found Junior’s smartphone after his death, with multiple web browser tabs open on that site. “I went to go look at what was going on, on that website and couldn’t believe it,” she said.
Wilson, who lives in New York City, has since launched an online campaign to have the forum shut down. “There is no reason why anybody should ever end up on a site like that,” she said.
The website’s users consider it a “pro-choice” forum — as in, a place to discuss suicide without being talked out of it. Its members often complain of a lack of adequate mental health support services.
A Quebec coroner wrote in a January 2021 report that a Montreal-area man posted suicidal thoughts on an online forum on Dec. 6, 2019, the same day he died. He was 30.
Another coroner described how a 22-year-old Montreal man who died Feb. 24, 2021, was found near a computer screen that was still displaying posts on a suicide forum.
Maryel Bousquet’s son Alex was 22 in 2018 when he ingested a toxic substance in Sherbrooke, Que. His mother said Alex learned “where to get the product and how to use it” on the suicide forum.
Bousquet sent multiple emails, which she shared with CBC News, to government officials in Quebec and Ottawa, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
She said it shows officials were warned “since at least 2019.”
“I think I did everything I could to alert the authorities,” Bousquet said.
CRTC, telecoms say they can’t act
A CRTC spokesperson told CBC News the federal telecommunication regulator “does not have the jurisdiction to order internet service providers to block particular websites.”
Telecom companies say they can’t act on their own, either.
The Canadian Telecommunications Association, which represents telecom companies, said “Canadian carriers are prohibited from unilaterally controlling content unless approved by the CRTC or the courts.”
The fight to block a suicide forum linked to multiple deaths
An online suicide forum is being blamed for deaths around the world, including in Canada. CBC’s Thomas Daigle breaks down the controversy and why officials have resisted calls to shut it down.
The Liberal government has since 2019 promised a bill to improve online safety. The suicide forum, however, does not appear to be covered by the forthcoming legislation.
A spokesperson for Justice Minister Arif Virani said the bill would “combat serious forms of harmful online content, hate speech and hate-motivated crimes and acts of violence.”
The spokesperson, Chantalle Aubertin, pointed to existing legislation that bans abetting suicide.
“Section 241 of the Criminal Code makes it a serious offence to counsel anyone to die by suicide, or to aid someone to die by suicide,” Aubertin said in an email.
Quebec provincial police (SQ) have suggested restricting the site may also raise concerns related to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, according to a 2021 coroner’s report, which cited the SQ.
The Charter guarantees Canadians the right to free expression.
However, “this right … is not absolute,” coroner Lyne Lamarre noted. “Limits to freedom of expression are justified when it comes to counselling suicide, or assisting in it,” Lamarre wrote.
Connection to Kenneth Law suspected
In posts on the forum since 2021, CBC News has seen multiple references to Kenneth Law and his online businesses, long before his arrest last spring.
Staff at the forum told CBC News in an email they found no evidence Law “used our platform to sell or promote any products or services.”
Ontario police charged Law earlier this year with 14 counts of counselling or aiding suicide in connection with deaths across the province. Investigators said that for more than two years, he sold a toxic salt and other suicide paraphernalia to vulnerable clients around the world.
Law, 58, has denied wrongdoing.
Families who lost loved ones have suggested forum users seeking to end their lives were directed to Law’s websites. Users openly discussed ordering from him and in some cases, they posted about plans to end their lives with his products.
Noelle Ramirez, 20, shared a “timeline” of her death the night she took her own life in Colorado last March, her father David said. He later found two invoices linked to Law in Noelle’s email inbox.
David Ramirez said many users supported his daughter in her suicide attempt “and not a single one tried to convince her to seek help.”
“It’s sick,” he said, “and I can’t believe a site like this is allowed to operate.”
If you have a news tip related to this story, contact CBC News senior reporter Thomas Daigle by email: thomas.daigle@cbc.ca.
If you or someone you know is struggling, here’s where to get help:
- Suicide Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988
- Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 (phone), live chat counselling on the website.
- Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: Find a 24-hour crisis centre.
- This guide from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health outlines how to talk about suicide with someone you’re worried about.
*****
Credit belongs to : www.cbc.ca
