After a student died by suicide on University of Toronto (U of T)’s campus on March 17, students of the university participated in a silent protest of what they claimed to be the school’s silence on the growing mental health issue on its campus.
Afterwards, a group of U of T students formed How Many Lives?, an online campaign which says it is creating a report for the university on its resistance towards acknowledging “systemic issues surrounding mental health on campus,” according to the Varsity, U of T’s student newspaper.
This was not the first time a U of T student died by suicide. Meric Gertler, the president of U of T, told Global News that there has been a total of three student suicides since June 2018. Carleton has seen at least two student deaths by suicide in recent years, according to previous Charlatan coverage.
Deaths by suicide on campus are a sign that students do not have sufficient mental health support on their campus. This concerning number of student deaths by suicide should make all Canadian universities realize that they need to increase funding towards mental health support—in particular, in-person counselling services that are available to students on campus.
Schools also need to acknowledge that these deaths indicate that Canadian universities have a systemic problem.
Whether or not Canadian universities provide sufficient and quality mental health support for students on campus is—quite literally—a matter of life or death. It is time all Canadian post-secondary institutions fully acknowledge that fact.
