Content Warning: Mentions of suicide
Mabel,* U0 Arts, woke up in her shared dorm room in La Citadelle Residence on Jan. 11 and realized something was seriously wrong. In the moment, Mabel wasn’t sure who to turn to. With her friend Alex,* U0 Arts, Mabel decided to go down to the lobby of La Citadelle to ask for help at the front desk. After police arrived, they found that her roommate had passed away. As Mabel tried to recover in the coming weeks, she found herself tangled in bureaucracy and felt unsupported by McGill’s response to her needs.
Alex described the man at the front desk of La Citadelle who called the police as inconsiderate and said he didn’t seem to be taking the issue seriously.
“When he called the police, he said, ‘These girls are complaining that their roommate is unresponsive in the bathroom,’” Alex told The Tribune. “He just did not take it seriously at all. [He wasn’t acting like] he was calling the police about somebody’s life. And then he was saying, ‘You guys should have come down earlier.’ He was just being so insensitive.”
The McGill Media Relations Office (MRO) did not respond to The Tribune’s request to comment on this interaction.
When the police arrived at La Citadelle, they found that Mabel’s roommate had passed away. The Quebec coroner’s office has not confirmed the cause of death.
Mabel was connected with McGill’s Suicide Case Manager, and they spoke over the phone.
“At that point, I really didn’t want to talk about it because it was a few hours after it happened, and I just kind of wanted to, I don’t know, sit, just be able to process my feelings,” Mabel said.
Mabel told The Tribune that she never met the Suicide Case Manager in person, but they kept in contact through email.
Since her room had to be treated as a crime scene, Mabel received a key card from the Building Manager to room 2503 in La Citadelle, where she could move her belongings over the next few days.
On Jan. 11, Mabel was allowed one trip to retrieve essentials from her room. She claims she was not told when she would be able to retrieve the rest of her belongings and had to reach out to McGill Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS) by email multiple times before she received a response.
Room 2503 had a different layout from the room she was living in before, and Mabel said she was surrounded by friends and had the space and stability she needed to start to heal. However, 10 days after she moved in, Mabel reported receiving an email from SHHS telling her she had to move out.
In an email exchange acquired by The Tribune, Mabel explained to SHHS that she thought she would be able to stay in room 2503 for the remainder of the semester.
“At the time of receiving this room, I was under the impression that this room was a permanent solution, as communicated by the Building Manager, who assured me it would not be rented out to anyone else and stated that offering me this room was the least he could do under the circumstances,” Mabel wrote to SHHS.
Mabel claimed that prior to being offered room 2503, she was told she could consider living with a friend. She said if she had known her stay in room 2503 would only be temporary, she might have chosen the option to move in with a friend instead.
In her email, Mabel expressed her desire to stay in room 2503, saying it gave her a sense of safety she did not want to lose.
“When I moved into this room, it became a space of stability for me after a deeply traumatic experience,” Mabel wrote. “The prospect of having to move again is overwhelming and disruptive to both my academic and personal life [….] All of this combined has caused considerable physical and mental distress, including nightmares and difficulty focusing on my studies.”
Mabel wrote to SHHS that she was distressed by the prospect of having to move into a room that had a similar floor plan to the one she woke up in on Jan. 11.
“Moving to a room with a similar setup and bathroom as my previous one would be particularly traumatic given what I witnessed there firsthand [….] Being placed in a similar environment would trigger those memories, severely affecting my mental well-being,” Mabel wrote to SHHS.
According to an email obtained by The Tribune, SHHS offered Mabel accommodation in other residences, and the option of moving into a single room in La Citadelle. However, Mabel wanted to stay in La Citadelle in order to remain close to her friends and was wary that a single room would be too isolating.
“Throughout this process, McGill administration has repeatedly assured me that they would help me with anything I need to recover from this experience,” Mabel wrote to SHHS. “The support I require is to remain in the space where I feel safe and can begin to rebuild after what I went through. This room has become a place where I can grieve and process what happened, with the support of friends. ”
In the email communications, a spokesperson for SHHS expressed their sympathies and recommended Mabel reach out to the Suicide Crisis Manager she had been put in contact with. However, they made it clear that Mabel was expected to move into a room reserved by SHHS by the end of the week, despite her concerns.
“When I reached out to [the Suicide Case Manager], hoping to hear about the situation, she didn’t really support me through it,” Mabel told The Tribune. “She was like, ‘Yeah, I’m sorry, you just have to move out.’”
In an email acquired by The Tribune, SHHS explained to Mabel that room 2503 is not a permanent rentable space for students, and was only made temporarily available under exceptional circumstances.
The Tribune reached out to the MRO to inquire whether any steps were taken to make 2503 a workable space for Mabel to live in for the rest of the semester but was not provided any specific answers.
“As a matter of respect for the privacy of those grieving, as well as for the protection of personal information – consistent with McGill policy and in accordance with the law – we will not comment on details of services offered or rendered to any individual student,” MRO wrote to The Tribune.
Six days after being told she had to live in a different room, Mabel moved her belongings into room 1803 of La Citadelle. McGill offered to provide her with boxes and tape for the move, which she refused. McGill’s response to her needs following the passing of her roommate left Mabel frustrated and questioning McGill’s care for students’ mental health.
The MRO maintained that McGill is committed to supporting students living in residences, particularly those impacted by the passing of the student on Jan. 11.
“Our principal focus is on efforts to extend concrete support to members of our campus community who were close to the deceased student,” the MRO wrote. “This occurs through our Student Wellness Hub, the Office of the Dean of Students, and the Residences team.”
For Mabel, these existing supports are not enough.
“[McGill is] such a bureaucratic system,” Mabel told The Tribune. “It’s very much a whole facade, I think, the whole support thing. They’re here to talk. They’re here for therapy or counselling, but in a situation like [this one], you need to be very much aware of specific people’s needs.”
If you are in distress, or need someone to talk to, support is available through the Student Wellness Hub. If you or someone you know needs immediate help, call 9-8-8, Canada’s suicide crisis line, or 9-1-1.
*Mabel and Alex’s names have been changed to preserve their anonymity.
