13 Reasons Why

Québec’s largest school board, the Commission scolaire de Montréal, says it will be dispatching counsellors into schools to lead discussions about suicide. The move comes in response to young people’s enormous appetite for the Netflix program “13 Reasons Why” where the central character details the events that led her to commit suicide. Critics have charged the television series is irresponsible in its handling of suicide and the effects its depiction might have on young viewers.

"I do think that suicide discourse is critical but worry that the discussion must be informed, sensitive and responsible, especially here in Quebec where we have one of the highest suicide rates in Canada," says Erin O’Loughlin, a Public Scholar and PhD candidate at Concordia University and a research project coordinator at the Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM).

Erin O’Loughlin, Public Scholar and PhD candidate
erin_oloughlin@hotmail.com
cell: 514-887-2537