Visit the Clippings Archive to review articles from past years.
March 20, 2023 (Edmonton Journal) Edmonton man, 75, who killed severely disabled wife on ‘compassionate’ grounds sentenced to house arrest
Oh my word!!! So now it doesn’t have to be a doctor or nurse practitioner — it can be your husband, or your caregiver, or anyone else who’s fed up with looking after you! First degree murder charge pled down to manslaughter, then manslaughter sentence pled down to … WHAT! Two-year conditional house arrest? That’s not even a convincing slap on the wrist, it’s an affectionate hair-toussle! WTF!!
We’re going to have to have a SERIOUS talk about “care-giver burnout”!
March 18, 2023 (National Post) Barbara Kay: Thanks to Trudeau, Canada’s death-care system is top of the line.
The Post, in its wisdom, has guarded this page behind a subscribers-only paywall — pay four bucks and you can read the whole thing. Don’t have four bucks to spare? Let me try to sum it up for you. The author identifies the “winning strategy” adopted by Liberals: Don’t make euthanasia a political plank; let the courts do the work of keeping the expansion ball rolling. And don’t look too closely at the courts in question: e.g. the (newly appointed) judge in the Truchon case was the daughter of one of Quebec’s leading pro-euthanasia advocates; her law firm had financially supported his pro-euthanasia work; her father’s pro-euthanasia publications were accepted by her into evidence in the trial; she did not recuse herself, although it would have been appropriate to do so. The government, far from appealing the weak decision, “welcomed it as a springboard into new legislation”, i.e. the Bill C-7 expansion. The Minister of Justice, David Lametti, promoted that rookie judge to the Quebec Court of Appeal soon after the Truchon decision.
These facts are not brand new, but if you’re learning about them for the first time, you are entitled to feel rather shocked. I did not have them at my fingertips when I wrote Gaslit!
March 9, 2023 (Vancouver Sun) MAID should never be used as a solution to a broken mental health system
Two new voices from inside the mental health “system” such as it is. Where are those billions of dollars that were supposed to be invested in the mental health system, I wonder? Was there a plan? You might want to ask your member of Parliament to keep you posted on where and how that money is being spent. MAID for mental illness has only been delayed for one year and that will speed by quickly!
March 6, 2023 (Globe and Mail) Doctors, disability advocates condemn parliamentary committee’s recommendation to expand MAID law
In a public letter being released Tuesday, the 43 committee witnesses say the final report “misconstrues, misrepresents, minimizes, and completely ignores key evidence necessary to protect Canadians,” while “amplifying” those who favoured more wider access.
“The whole process was dismissive of the evidence,” said Leonie Herx, the chair of palliative medicine at Queen’s University, who was one of the committee’s witnesses, and a signatory to the letter.
March 5, 2023 (Globe and Mail) Judy Heumann, ‘mother of the disability rights movement,’ dead at 75
[Although this is not an assisted suicide story, so I wouldn’t normally include it,] it seems fitting to pay tribute to this dynamic achiever and natural leader who made such a huge difference to the disability rights movement in America. Imaginative, tireless and determined, Judy Heumann will be remembered in Canada for her impressive achievements, not only on her own behalf, but for the entire disability rights community in her own country and around the world. The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) was and is monumental. The effects of this law can be felt by Canadian tourists travelling through America at every restaurant and motel stop. She made people with disabilities welcome and expected. Thank you, Judy. Rest In Peace.
March 4, 2023 (Globe and Mail) A right to die, but first a better life
The Globe editorial board is clear on where the government needs to go to get medically assisted death back on the track it was intended to run on. The last two paragraphs read as follows:
“Above all, there should be no further expansion of the right to die in Canada until Ottawa and the provinces invest in publicly funded mental-health care, more palliative care beds, more social housing for people with physical and mental disabilities, and easy access to social supports.
It is Ottawa’s duty to be absolutely certain that a lack of care for the living doesn’t turn state-assisted death from it what should be – a last resort – into just another treatment option. “Irremediable” should not be code for “we don’t have the resources to help you.” That’s barbaric.”
We couldn’t agree more!
March 2, 2023 (Hill Times) Senators agree on extending MAID sunset clause but split on its future
An important article in the Hill Times reports that the bill to delay the adoption of MAiD for mental illness will pass the Senate, with almost everyone agreeing that “we’re not ready”. Some think we’re not ready because doctors have been pre-occupied with COVID-19 (? Really?), others think we’re not ready because we’ll NEVER be ready. However, all agree that a one-year delay is essential. The headline will take you to the article, but it is behind a paywall. I offer a few quotes from the article:
Natalia Hicks, who works for a coalition of Disability Rights organizations explains, “[During discussions about Bill C-7] There was a lot of advocacy happening, but none of us anticipated the need to advocate around MAID on the sole basis of mental illness.” The result, said Hicks, was when the bill returned to the House with a last-minute “amendment to include mental illness” tacked on by the Senate, MPs were legalizing this form of MAID without proper “details on what eligibility would look like, or what safeguarding would look like.” Instead, she said, this was left to an expert panel on MAID, appointed by the health and justice ministers, which convened during the sunset period. Hicks noted the mandate of the expert panel did not include consultation. She said. “For me, it puts a lot of power in the hands of those medical bodies.” We agree with Natalia that the power ended up in the wrong hands!
February 25, 2023 (Globe and Mail) In Canada, MAID has become a matter of ideology
In this stunning article, Dr. Scott Kim cuts right to the heart of the matter. “Reasonable people may disagree about whether MAID should be legal. But one need not be for or against the procedure to see that it should be considered a tragic last resort, and that calling it a medically effective treatment is an especially cruel form of gaslighting.”
February 13, 2023 (Angus Reid Institute) Canadians Question Looming Changes to Canada’s assisted-death law
“Since 2016 when the original MAID law was passed, the number of Canadians using the procedure per year has increased ten-fold, to more than 10,000 in 2021. Asked if they consider this a success, that Canadians are now controlling their end-of-life decisions, or a failure, that MAID may be overused or abused, Canadians are more inclined to see value in its availability. More than two-in-five (43%) say this, while one-quarter (25%) disagree and say this trend is a bad thing.”
It seems that a majority of Canadians are opposed or unsure about MAID for mental illness, and yet a majority are okay with MAID for physical disability. Hmmm. Why?
February 13, 2023 (Statistics Canada Press Release) Stats Canada catches up with last year’s annual report.
February 12, 2023 (Vancouver Sun). Colby Cosh: What the court actually said about MAID for the mentally ill
The writer struggles with the legal concepts outlined in the letter by Trudo Lemmens, signed by over 25 other legal scholars. He states that “… it boils down to a plea to the justice minister of Canada, David Lametti, to please stop lying to the public.” You can read the full text of the letter the Sun writer is critiquing below (Feb. 2, U of T Law Review) and come to your own conclusions.
February 7, 2023 (Vancouver Sun). Canada’s mental health minister says suicidal people can’t get assisted suicide. Is that true?
“Carolyn Bennett accused Poilievre of being “totally irresponsible” and misrepresenting what medically assisted death would mean for people with a mental disorder, saying that “all of the assessors and providers for MAID are purposely trained to eliminate people that are suicidal.” Testy!
““On the face of it, even if you look at what the word means, when somebody wants to die and they’re not dying, of course that means that they’re suicidal,” said [Dr. Sonu] Gaind, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. “I’m saying that in a non-pejorative way, but that’s literally what the word means. And the reluctance to acknowledge that very simple literal reality is concerning,” he said. In his view, “it sends a message from our minister of mental health and addictions about a false safety that does not exist.” Dr. Gaind goes on to say, “We now provide MAID to more people in absolute numbers than any other country on the planet,” despite having only had MAID for six years.
February 7, 2023 (Hamilton Spectator). Many people living with mental illness are haunted by suicidal thoughts. So why make it easier?
Dr. John Maher lays out 10 steps in a sick logic that endangers the survival of a great number (57,000!!) of Canadians. “Research tells us that 75 per cent of people thoughtfully plan their suicides. Of the people who try to kill themselves, only 23 per cent try again, and only 7 per cent go on to complete suicide. Tragically 4,000 Canadians complete suicide each year. Ninety per cent of those who die have mental illness. Thankfully 57,000 people don’t die. [emphasis added] What does that tell us? That with support people heal and recover and live full lives.”
February 4, 2023 (HeraldScotland) Health expert issues warning over assissted dying
Once again, Canada makes the international news. “WHEN privileged groups impose bespoke ethics to remove humanity’s unsightly wrinkles, it’s usually the powerless and the marginalised who suffer the unintended consequences.” As Scotland contemplates introducing medically-assisted dying, a Canadian palliative care doctor, Leonie Herx, speaks out, warning that what seems innocent and compassionate at first can quickly devolve into a system that endangers the lives of people on the economic margins.
February 2, 2023. (U of T Law Review) Parliament is not forced by the courts to legalize MAID for mental illness : Law Professors’ Letter to Cabinet.
You should take the time to read the full text of a letter to Cabinet from Professor Trudo Lemmens and 25 co-signatories (the list of endorsing legal scholars has grown since the letter was finalized and delivered).
“We disagree as law professors that providing access to MAiD for persons whose sole underlying medical condition is mental illness is constitutionally required, and that Carter v Canada AG[1] created or confirmed a constitutional right to suicide, as Minister Lametti has repeatedly stated. Our Supreme Court has never confirmed that there is a broad constitutional right to obtain help with suicide via health-care provider ending-of-life.”
February 2, 2023 (National Review) Canada’s Ministry of Death
Alexander Raikin strikes again!! This time his focus is on the mysterious way the notion of doctor-assisted death went from a marginal interest of a few people to the national (even international) obsession that it has become.
“To understand how we really got here, to promoting the assisted deaths of the most vulnerable people in society and calling it progress, it is necessary to look past Lametti’s talk about a supposed “consensus” and see a multimillion-dollar PR campaign to persuade the public and elites to stop worrying and love MAiD.”
Raikin clearly sketches out the way DWD moved in on the Federal Liberals and took centre stage.
February 2, 2023 (CBC). Federal government moves to delay MAID for people suffering solely from mental illness
“They’ve announced that a year from today they will introduce measures to end the lives of people who are depressed,” [Poilievre] said. “Will they recognize that we need to treat depression and give people hope for a better life rather than ending their lives?”
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett chastised the Conservative leader, saying that “health professionals are trained to deny MAID to people who are suicidal.” But are they? Fact-check her by visiting our Remembering Lives Lived page.
February 2, 2023 (The Globe and Mail) Federal government introduces legislation to delay changes to the MAID law until next year
The federal government tabled legislation on Thursday to delay until next year an expansion of Canada’s medical assistance in dying law to allow mental illness as a sole condition. The MAID legislation was set to expand this March, a change that would have made the country’s euthanasia rules one of the broadest in the world.
“It is clear more time is needed to get this right,” Justice Minister David Lametti said in a news conference Thursday.
“Delaying the expansion for maid for mental illness is only the tip of the iceberg of what the Canadian government must do,” said Ramona Coelho, a family physician whose practice is predominantly low-income and marginalized patients, and who has been a vocal critic of expanding MAID to mental illness. Her patients, she says, often have trouble accessing timely care and affordable housing. “Canada has not done its part to ensure them a quality of life that should rightfully be theirs.”
February 1, 2023 (La Quillette) Death on Demand: Cautionary Tales from Canada
What a shame that Margaret Wente spoils an otherwise excellent article by dumping on a group of vulnerable citizens, some of whom have chosen MAID as a last resort when their needs for safe housing went unmet!! She doesn’t believe they have a “real” physical disability, despite acknowledging that her judgement itself is disputed. Over a million Canadians have environmental sensitivities, some of which are quite severe and life-limiting. Her eagerness to dismiss this fact totally undermines the usefulness of her article. TO LEARN MORE, CLICK HERE.
Wente goes on to accuse the disability/poverty advocate community (of which LWD is proud to be a part) of “weaponizing [certain] examples as part of their campaign for more generous social services.” While we agree that social services are underfunded and legislated poverty is a real thing, that is not our main goal and purpose. We want people not to be induced to kill themselves by outside influences, including the very existence of MAID.
There is much in the article that we agree with. For example, “even if ours were the best system that humans could devise, there would still be [disabled and] mentally ill people who’d want to kill themselves. The real issue is whether the state should ever help them.” Our answer to that question is an unequivocal NO!
January 31, 2023 (The Conversation) As eligibility for MAID expands, the ethical implications of broad access to medically assisted death need a long, hard look
An excellent review of the state of affairs and the ethical implications thereof.
“Part of the reason it made sense to allow MAID for people already actively dying was that doing so seemed equivalent to accepted practices such as withdrawing life-sustaining treatment or palliative sedation. This equivalence fails when we broaden the scope of MAID to those who aren’t dying, and all the more when we countenance offering it for non-terminal mental illness, or loneliness, or loss of ability to engage in meaningful activities.”
January 24, 2023 (OrilliaMatters.com) LETTER: MAID turning into ‘a form of sanctioned eugenics’
” Local reaction to the article below regarding a homeless man applying for MAID has been divided: On the one hand, you have people joking, assuming that this is some sort of cry for a free ride or money for nothing. On the other hand, we’ve seen people full of compassion who wish they could help.”
The letter makes a strong plea for people to support those in need by supporting a strong social safety net. “Disabled should not mean worthless, useless, or hopeless.”
January 23, 2023 (OrilliaMatters.com) Homeless, hopeless Orillia man to seek medically assisted death
Are a patient’s homelessness, hopelessness and bleak outlook on the future acceptable reasons to allow a doctor or nurse practitioner legal immunity for helping that patient to complete suicide? Or is this an opportunity for compassionate suicide prevention?
“Tyler Dunlop, 37, has experienced homelessness on and off for the past 12 years. With a background of traumatic experiences, and a bleak outlook on the future — not only considering himself, but the state of society — Dunlop has begun the process for medically assisted death.”
“He recently began a job at a fast food restaurant in the city, but he said he’s been unable to keep his job due to a lack of stable housing.
Dunlop was born to a dysfunctional family, he said, experienced physical and sexual abuse in the foster care system as a child, has previously attempted suicide, and both of his parents have now passed away. He lives with schizoaffective disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his trauma, and he has long used alcohol as a means to cope.
However, he has lived and worked his way across Canada, from Vancouver to Halifax, and says he has always accepted responsibility for his situation and sought to contribute to the world around him.”
Dunlop himself would advocate for a Scandinavian-style “housing-first” policy for people experiencing homelessness. He has not yet applied for or been approved for MAID. And yet the lure of its very existence enters his troubled mind as a “logical” solution in a country that refuses to offer disadvantaged people more opportunity to advance in society.
According to the government’s website, Canada already has a “Housing-First” approach to ending homelessness. The closest office to Orillia is in Barrie:
https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/homelessness-sans-abri/communities-communautes/on-eng.html
This gentleman should not be a candidate for MAID. Any doctor who says he is doesn’t deserve to have the power he/she wields.
January 18, 2023 (Globe and Mail) A complicated grief: Living in the aftermath of a family member’s death by MAID
“Last year, the federal expert panel reporting to Parliament recommended that doctors could deny MAID requests if they felt the lack of family input prevented a full assessment. But it is still unclear how those recommendations will be implemented. The parliamentary committee studying the MAID expansion isn’t slated to report back until February.” Meanwhile, read about three very disturbing incidents that should raise alarms about current practices.
January 18, 2023 (CTV News) Canada performing more organ transplants from MAID donors than any country in the world
The idea that one may be more valuable dead than alive is not new. (The 1947 classic movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, springs to mind.) For people who are already discouraged and feeling worthless, the thought of helping others by dying and donating body parts may be a powerful personal and cultural incentive. The Supreme Court in Carter asserted that, when we allow doctor assisted death, we have to protect vulnerable persons, in times of weakness, from being induced to end their lives. Is organ donation an inducement? We shall see whether or not it is challenged in the future.
January 10, 2023 (Bioethics – Wiley Online Library) Autonomy to a fault: The confluence of organ donation, euthanasia, and the dead donor rule
A published scholarly article raising concerns that were quickly reflected by CTV News in the clipping above. From the abstract: “This paper … critiques proponents’ oversimplified understanding of autonomy with an autonomy-based argument against any linkage of organ donation and euthanasia, regardless of its timing. Respect for patient autonomy does not unilaterally require fulfilling patients’ every wish. Moreover, the very possibility of organ donation with euthanasia limits donor autonomy qualitatively and quantitatively substantially more than by offering it. In fact, organ donation after euthanasia violates the purpose of the dead donor rule, even if not its technicalities.”
January 5, 2023 (Vancouver Sun) FIRST READING: Disability groups now assuring members they won’t recommend killing them
For example:
A growing coalition of disability and mental health groups have begun openly advocating against Canada’s liberalized MAID (medical assistance in dying) regime, including posting signs assuring patients that they will not recommend them for assisted suicide.
“This organization will not recommend, suggest or refer anyone to Medical Assistance in Dying as an alternative to assisting in obtaining necessary supports and services you require,” reads a sign recently circulated on social media by the group Disability Without Poverty.
January 4, 2023 (The Orchard on Substack) Why I changed my mind on MAiD
Jeremy Appel finds dissonance between the public rhetoric on MAiD and its practical application in a country that fails to meet the needs of people with disabilities.
January 3, 2023 (Canada’s National Observer) Unpeeling the false justifications behind MAID expansion
Dr. Sonu Gaind, a MAID provider from the beginning, has become increasingly worried about MAID for people with mental illness as their sole condition.
I do understand the ethical need for examination and scrutiny of the changes proposed to MAID. And I thank you for it as I know why you are doing it. However, as a child of parents, one of whom suffered terribly from FTD before dying thankfully, from the side effects of the off label drug they were taking. And now watching the other going through the same torture and suffering, I cannot in all conscience support your concerns.
I personally would choose to end my life with a diagnosis of FTD or ALD without a second thought. I will do everything I can to prevent my children having to live through what my siblings and I started living with in 2005 which continues. The impact financially and emotionally is devastating.
The emotional, constant gut wrenching pain that just doesn’t end. But dying mercifully ends it.
I believe that the push to exclude dementia from MAID plays into the warehousing industry which profits from suffering of our family members in the twilight years. We watch another parent die without dignity or the choice. No one, should spend their last days, alone overmedicated and abandoned in these horrible places. I speak from experience.
I will work hard to ensure that access to dying with dignity will be available to those of us who LIVED WITH DIGNITY and who now should have the right to DIE WITH DIGNITY.
Thank you, Jaye, for engaging with Living with Dignity’s post and our point of view. You have my sincere sympathy for the ordeal you and your family have been through. Caring for your parents and watching their condition deteriorate, whether quickly or slowly, is painful and distressing for everyone. I can understand why you would want to spare your children from the agony that you experienced, if ever you were in your parents’ situation. However, it is not the family’s or the caregiver’s pain and distress that MAiD is intended to relieve, is it? I wasn’t familiar with the diagnosis that you mentioned — FTD. When I looked it up, it appeared to me that anyone diagnosed with that condition faces a “reasonably foreseeable natural death” and so would qualify for assistance in hastening their death. Living With Dignity Canada does not oppose that option. However, something to keep in mind is that a big majority of people with terminal illnesses generally do NOT choose to die early, even when that choice is easily available. So your parents might not have wanted that for themselves either, even if you passionately wanted it for them. Surely you can see how this situation could easily lead to elderly folks feeling pressured to end their lives early in order to save their adult children distress and expense — even if it’s not what they really want. External pressure is supposed to be screened for under MAID rules, but it’s subtle and hard to catch, especially by a medical professional who may share the family’s desire to end suffering quickly, no matter whose suffering is at issue.
Again, thank you for your comment. Rest assured that we here at Living With Dignity Canada feel your pain and wish you comfort and gentleness as the process you face continues to unfold.