Rehtaeh Parsons

Rehtaeh Anne Parsons (, ; December 9, 1995 – April 7, 2013), was a 17-year-old Cole Harbour District High School student who attempted suicide by hanging at her home in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, on April 4, 2013, leading to a coma and the decision to switch her life support machine off on April 7, 2013.

Her death has been attributed to online distribution of photos of an alleged gang rape that occurred 17 months prior to her suicide, in November 2011.

On a Facebook page set up in tribute to her daughter, Parsons' mother blamed the four boys who allegedly raped and released images of her, the subsequent constant "bullying and messaging and harassment", and the failure of the Canadian justice system, for her daughter's decision to die by suicide.

In November 2011, Rehtaeh Parsons, then 15, allegedly went with a friend to a home in which she was reportedly raped by four teenage boys.

The teenagers were drinking vodka at a small party.

Parsons had little memory of the event, except that, at one point, she vomited while a boy was allegedly raping her.

The incident was photographed and the photo became widespread in Parsons' school and town in three days.

Afterwards, many in school called Parsons a "slut" and she received text messages and Facebook messages from people requesting to have sex with her.

The alleged rape went unreported for several days until Parsons broke down and told her family, who contacted an emergency health team and the police.

Canning said that Parsons was strip-searched by two men while receiving treatment in 2012 at the IWK, while the IWK denied the allegations.

The authors met with 111 people, including school board staff, Ministerial staff, school staff, youth, police, health-care workers and others.

The authors received more than 150 submissions from the general public, but curiously failed to interview Parsons' friends or her teachers.

Among the 13 recommendations made by the authors were:

The report traced Parsons' history through the school system.

She was transferred from Cole Harbour District High School, to Dartmouth High School, to Prince Andrew High School to Citadel High School.

It recommended that the Halifax Regional School Board clarify the transfer approval process between schools, in order to stamp out any inconsistencies between policy and practices.

School boards need to share more information when kids transfer schools, as Parsons did to escape harassment.

"The school to which Rehtaeh transferred received no information about these events and did not get to know Rehtaeh well," the report noted.

The Parsons case also prompted an external inquiry into the conduct of the Crown Prosecutor's office.

In response to Parsons' suicide, Nova Scotia enacted a law in August 2013 allowing victims to seek protection from cyberbullying and to sue the perpetrator.

According to an RCMP report, in March 2013, six boys, including some of Parsons' alleged rapists, had an argument with three other boys.

One of the three boys, who was a friend of Parsons, was stabbed and treated for a "non-life-threatening injury".

A year following the alleged rape, the RCMP concluded an investigation stating, "[an] investigation into an earlier sexual assault was completed, and in consultation with the Crown, there was insufficient evidence to lay charges".

According to the family, the boys were not questioned and their phones were not reviewed for the photograph of the rape in progress.

Instead, the police called it a "he said, she said" case and also decided the photo was not criminal, in spite of Parsons being a minor.

Likewise, there were no arrests for the March 2013 stabbing incident.

Following the suicide, the RCMP announced they were reviewing the case.

On April 12, the RCMP announced the case was being reopened in light of "new and credible information" that they said did not come from the Internet.

On June 14, 2013, the 56-page report of Penny Milton and Debra Pepler, two education experts from Ontario, was released.

The provincial government of Darrell Dexter requested the report, which is entitled "External Review of the Halifax Regional School Board’s Support of Rehtaeh Parsons".

One conclusion of the report was that Nova Scotian schools "need to do a better job preventing harassment and sexual aggression".

Significantly, the authors recommended an external review of the IWK Health Centre, the Halifax hospital where she was a patient for five weeks after she had a breakdown and became suicidal.

In September 2014, one of the boys, by then 20, pleaded guilty to a charge of making child pornography in relation to the photo of Parsons.

Citing the offender's age at the time of the crime and Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act, the Crown prosecutor advised the Judge that the only possible penalties in this case were either probation or a conditional discharge.

In November 2014, the first defendant to plead guilty was sentenced to a conditional discharge with 12 months' probation.

With a conditional discharge, his criminal record will not show a conviction in this case, unless he breaches the terms of his probation.

Also in November 2014, the second person charged, then 19, pleaded guilty to a charge of distributing child pornography, in relation to the photo of himself and Parsons.

He was sentenced on January 15, 2015, to one year of probation and required to submit a sample to a DNA database.

In an unusual move for a case involving minors convicted of a crime, the judge ruled that this conviction would be kept in his criminal record for a period of five years.

This inquiry, which was requested by the Dexter government in August 2013 and released on October 8, 2015, during the government of Stephen McNeil, was performed by Murray Segal, a former chief prosecutor in Ontario.