Canadian Group That Led Campaign for Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) Calling for Safeguards

 Monday, December 30, 2024

Miranda Schreiber, Special to National Post

The civil liberties group that led the push for the 2015 decriminalization of physician-assisted suicide in Canada is now warning it has become too easy to obtain MAID, and the government must enact safeguards.

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) filed the case for Carter v. Canada, the constitutional challenge that led to the country’s current Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) regime. Statistics released last week reveal it was responsible for about one in 20 deaths in Canada in 2023, including 622 people who received MAID for a non-terminal illness.

Liz Hughes, [pictured above] who has served as BCCLA executive director since June 2023, said in a statement to the National Post the group is “aware of concerning reports of people being offered MAID in circumstances that may not legally qualify, as well as people accessing MAID as a result of intolerable social circumstances.”

Ontario: At Least 428 Non-compliant Euthanasia Deaths.

"The reason the public has been left in the dark about Canadian euthanasia providers’ noncompliance with the law is simple: the authorities have decided there is nothing to see."

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A research essay by Alexander Raikin that was published by the New Atlantis on November 11, 2024 uncovers that there have been at least 428 non-compliant euthanasia deaths in the province of Ontario. In his research essay Raikin sets out the tone of his conclusions in his opening paragraph by stating:

For years, there have been clear signals that euthanasia providers in Canada may be breaking the law and getting away with it. That is the finding of the officials who are responsible for monitoring euthanasia deaths to ensure compliance in the province of Ontario. Newly uncovered reports reveal that these authorities have thus far counted over 400 apparent violations — and have kept this information from the public and not pursued a single criminal charge, even against repeat violators and “blatant” offenders.

Firstly, I would like to thank Alexander Raikin for the incredible research and continued research into Canada's euthanasia law. Raikin's essay is long but thorough. I can assure you that Raikin is only uncovering the tip of the iceberg.

Ontario's Euthanasia Report: The Poor at Risk of Coercion

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Ontario MAiD Death Review report has three parts (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3).

Janet Eastman has written an excellent commentary on the report of the Ontario Chief Coroner concerning the experience with euthanasia in Ontario, Canada's largest province. Eastman's article was published in The Telegraph on October 17, 2024. 

Eastman focuses on the Coroner's report in relation to the upcoming assisted dying debate in the UK. Eastman writes:

Assisted dying is used by patients in Canada because they are poor and lack housing, a major report has found.

The first official report into assisted dying deaths in Ontario, which has been obtained by the Telegraph, found vulnerable people face “potential coercion” or “undue influence” to seek out the practice.

Sixteen experts across medicine, nursing and law identified people whose lives may have been wrongly terminated at the hands of the state, where the action is called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).

Insight into the Cautionary Tale of Canada's Euthanasia Regime

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Canada 

On October 9, 2024, The European Conservative published an interview by Jonathon Van Maren with Alexander Raikin [pictured right]. Raikin has recently published a research article titled: "The Rise of Euthanasia in Canada: From Exceptional to Routine."

First question: In your view, why did Canada’s euthanasia regime go off the rails much sooner than other jurisdictions that have legalized euthanasia/assisted suicide? 

Raikin Responds:

The premise of your question is interesting. When the Supreme Court of Canada decriminalized euthanasia, it was based on the argument of a right to life—that those who would die from euthanasia would have otherwise died from suicide. It was a lesser evil. Yet every day in 2022, on average, Canadian physicians and nurses ended the lives of more than 36 people. It is now quadruple the official suicide rate. 

In an ordinary country, in an ordinary time, this would be considered a national crisis: a royal commission would be called and weekly press conferences by worried government officials would dominate the news cycle, especially if the victims were all people with disabilities and the elderly. Instead, we now have cognitive dissonance of a national variety. News media credulously write about the horror of a Canadian man selling suicide kits online—and then report almost monthly on how a state-sanctioned, state-funded, and state-administered death from euthanasia is “beautiful.” Or how the lethal injection of prisoners in the U.S. is cruel and unusual, unless a prisoner denied for parole in Canada asks for a lethal injection instead.

continue reading >>

Press Release: Disability Rights Coalition Challenges Discriminatory Sections of Canada’s Assisted Dying Law in Court

Krista Carr pictured left and quoted below.  

A coalition of disability rights organizations and two personally affected individuals have filed a Charter challenge with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. They oppose Track 2 of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) law, which provides assisted suicide to people with a disability who are not dying, or whose death is not “reasonably foreseeable.”

The coalition includes national disability organizations Inclusion Canada, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), Indigenous Disability Canada (IDC/BCANDS), and DAWN Canada, as well as two individuals who have been harmed by Track 2 MAiD.

The organizations assert that Track 2 MAiD has resulted in premature deaths and an increase in discrimination and stigma towards people with disabilities across the country. While they are not challenging MAiD Track 1 in this case, they recognize that it too can pose significant problems for people with disabilities. Track 2 MAiD has had a direct negative impact on the lives of people with disabilities.

Swiss Police Make Arrests Related to Sarco Death in Suicide Capsule

By Alex Schadenberg, 

Kate Connelly reported for the Guardian on September 24 [2024] that Swiss police made several arrests related to a Sarco suicide death. A 64-year old American woman died in the town of Merishausen Switzerland. Connelly wrote:

Swiss police say they have opened a criminal investigation and arrested several people after the suspected death of a woman in a so-called suicide capsule.

As the UK debates Euthanasia, Canada's Euthanasia Reality is Relevant. Zoom Event 09/16/24 with Kevin Yuill.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) is hosting a Zoom event on Monday September 16 2024 at 12 noon (Eastern time) with Kevin Yuill. (Pictured here).

Yuill is an emeritus professor of history at the University of Sunderland and CEO of Humanists Against Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia (HAASE). Yuill is also the author of the book: "Assisted Suicide: The Liberal, Humanist Case Against Legalization."

Register in advance for this meeting: (Registration Link). After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing the link to join the meeting.

Yuill is a world leader in opposing euthanasia and assisted suicide and is working with several groups to prevent the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Britain, Scotland, Ireland, etc.

Canada's Growing Euthanasia Program

By Dr Paul Saba (pictured left).

When Canada legalized assisted dying/suicide/euthanasia in 2016, it was supposed to be for only a “few” terminal illness patients with only days to live. As of December 31, 2023 approximately 60,000 Canadians had their lives ended by physician assisted dying (at the end of 2022 there were 44,958 assisted medical deaths). (Article Link).

Canada is the fastest growth assisted dying/suicide/euthanasia deaths of all countries where it has been legalized. 

Since March of 2021 the law has been further expanded to those with disabilities with decades to live and in 2027 those with only mental illness will be eligible for assisted suicide.

Quebec Scheduled to Begin Granting Requests for Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

By Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press  

MONTREAL — Quebecers who want to arrange a medically assisted death before their condition leaves them unable to grant consent can do so as of next month, the province announced Saturday as it unveiled details of a plan to grant such requests without waiting for Ottawa to update the country’s criminal code.

[Quebec Premier Francois Legault, left, walks to a cabinet meeting with Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube in Quebec City]

Quebec’s government said last month it would stop waiting for the federal government to implement the requested amendments and forge ahead with plans to grant early MAID requests. On Saturday, the province announced such requests could be granted as of Oct. 30.

“The issue of advance requests for medical assistance in dying is widely agreed upon in Quebec,” Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette said in a press release.

Seniors Minister Sonia Bélanger called the province a leader in upholding “patients’ right to die with dignity.”

Canada Undergoing a Crash Course in Killing

Original publication, 09/03/24  

By Alex Schadenberg

Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An article by Nicholas Tomaino that was published by WSJ.com on September 2, 2024 titled: Welcome to Canada, the Doctor Will Kill You Now exposes how Canada legalized euthanasia (MAiD). Tomaino writes:

Canada has undergone a crash course in what the country calls “medical assistance in dying,” or MAID. The experiment began in 2015, when the Canadian Supreme Court ruled in Carter v. Canada that “laws prohibiting physician-assisted dying interfere with the liberty and security” of people with “grievous and irremediable” medical conditions. Parliament codified the decision the following year.

Lawmakers thought they were imposing limits. “We do not wish to promote premature death as a solution to all medical suffering,” then-Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said. The plaintiff’s lead lawyer in Carter argued that “in almost every case,” doctors will want to “help their patients live, not die.” “We know physicians will be reluctant gatekeepers.”

Canada’s Euthanasia Numbers Up Across the Board in 2023

By J-P Mauro (pictured right).

While Canada’s federal government has yet to release nationwide statistics on the number of citizens who have sought and received euthanasia under the Medical Aid in Dying program (MAiD), a recent independent analysis of data from individual provinces suggests the numbers are up across the board. 

The analysis was conducted by Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, a Canadian action group that works to ensure the preservation and enforcement of the legal prohibitions and ethical guidelines of “mercy killing,” as well as raising awareness of alternative treatments. He began his report by examining the data from British Columbia (BC) in 2023, finding 2,767 reported assisted deaths, which is up by 10% from 2,515 in 2022.

Why has Canada Become the Epicenter of Arson Attack on Churches?

Raymond Ibrahim, published 07/10/24.

On Sunday, June 9, 2024, the historic St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto, and its many artifacts and precious paintings, were “completely destroyed” in a blaze, to quote Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop.  The torched church’s pastor, Rev. Don Beyers, added that the congregation is “greatly devastated”:

I’m crushed, I feel for my people. You can’t imagine what this is like for a church community to come on Sunday morning to find that everything you worked so hard for and done so much for [is] gone in the matter of an hour.

Authorities said “The fire has not been deemed criminal in nature yet,” thereby implying no foul play.

This may seem to be a reasonable conclusion, at least for those unaware that Canada—not Egypt or Nigeria—has fast become the world’s epicenter of arson attacks on churches. Over the last two-and-a-half years, over 100 churches have been vandalized, torched, or desecrated in the “Great North” (mapped and listed here).

Canadian Man Offered Euthanasia Multiple Times, 'I Don’t Want to Give up my Life’

By Daniel Payne, original publication, 06 23 24  

Amid ongoing efforts to expand euthanasia in Canada under the name of “medical aid in dying” (MAID), one Ottawa man says he has been offered euthanasia “multiple times” as he struggles with lifelong disabilities and chronic pain from a disease called cerebellar ataxia. 

Roger Foley, 49, [pictured right} shared some of his story in a recent video interview with Amanda Achtman of the Dying to Meet You project, which was created to “humanize our conversation on suffering, death, meaning, and hope.” The project seeks to “[restore] our cultural health when it comes to our experiences of death and dying” through speaking engagements and video campaigns. 

In the video, the fourth of a series, Foley said he has struggled with subpar medical help in his own home, where he is supposed to be getting quality care. Canada has a nationalized health care system but Foley said that individuals with illnesses are “worked at … not worked with.” He spoke out against being devalued as he fights for the support he needs to live.