The parents of Nadia Kajouji, the first-year Carleton University student who committed suicide in March 2008, are now trying to find out why they were not informed when the university had received at least one report that Kajouji was exhibiting suicidal behavior, the Ottawa Citizen reported last week.

Minnesota police discovered that a Minnesota resident had encouraged Kajouji to commit suicide through an Internet chat room. William Melchert-Dinkel, a 47-year-old male nurse, presented himself as a 28-year-old woman and formed a suicide pact with Kajouji. He has been named as a suspect in at least four other similar cases. Minnesota police are considering pressing charges.

Ottawa police had decided not to press charges against Melchert-Dinkel. “It’s a very disturbing conversation,” staff sergeant Uday Jaswal, the lead investigator on the case, told Kajouji’s parents in a tape obtained by the Ottawa Citizen. “But given the totality of what had happened, given the totality of the evidence that we had seen, in terms of her own pursuit, in terms of going to a variety of sites, looking at suicide methods, we couldn’t establish any sort of cause and effect between that conversation and her suicide.” Jaswal later told the Citizen that Ottawa police are continuing to investigate new information and could end up pressing charges.

Meanwhile, questions are being raised about how universities deal with students who are suffering from depression and mental illness. Kajouji’s parents are hoping for a coroner’s inquest that will, among other things, provide answers as to why Carleton did not inform them when the school knew that Kajouji was acting strangely and was receiving counselling.

Carleton declined to comment for this article. In a statement to CTV news, Suzanne Blanchard, associate vice-president for student support services, said the university could not disclose information to Kajouji’s parents because it was bound by privacy rules. Blanchard said that counsellors generally need consent before discussing a student’s health with anyone.

Officials at U of T made a similar assessment, noting that the university is governed by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which prevents it from disclosing personal information except in rare cases. “Our policy is that if a student exhibits behaviour which is harmful to themselves or others, we can ask them to pursue counselling and we have the resources to be able to set that up,” said Tim Worgan, dean of students at Innis Residence.

Asked whether depression and suicidal behaviour would be considered a strong enough basis for the university to intervene and inform parents, U of T spokesperson Laurie Stephens said in an email that a decision to disclose personal information would be based on medical assessments and advice from specialists. But the university would need an individual’s consent, or implied consent in an emergency, to have access to those records in the first place, Stephens added.

“There are questions for which there are no ready answers as far as Carleton is concerned, but I think there is opportunity to look closely at the procedures,” said Rory Butler, the founder of Your Life Counts, an online suicide prevention forum launched with the support of the Kajouji family. Butler said that Canada was one of only two G8 countries without a national suicide prevention strategy and needs to take a closer look at how it approaches the issue. “This is especially important in university settings,” he said, “since suicide is the second-leading cause of death among youth in Canada after road-traffic accidents.”

He added, “There’s a lot of very good work [in suicide prevention] being done across the country on campuses, but when it comes to funding this work and when it comes to liaisons in this work, there’s a lot to be done.”

U of T offers various forms of counselling, therapy, and workshops. For more information, head to the Counselling and Psychological Services website at caps.utoronto.ca