More than 70 victim statements in the Kenneth Law suicide poison case.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Kenneth Law, a Canadian chef who sold suicide poison online to as many as 1200 people world-wide, plead guilty to 14 charges of aiding and abetting suicide in a New Market court on May 29, 2026. The deaths 14 suicide deaths involved people who were aged 16 - 36 and there were at least 79 deaths in the United Kingdom. 

On September 23, 24; families of the victims of Kenneth Law gave victims statements in the New Market court, before sentencing will conclude.

Joseph Brean reported for the National Post that: 

No matter what prison sentence is ultimately imposed on the suicide poison merchant Kenneth Law, Wednesday’s proceedings before Justice Michelle Fuerst had the deflated air of inadequate compromise.

Law was originally charged with 14 counts of second degree murder. Law challenged the charges arguing that he did not murder anyone and he wasn't present at the death of any of his victims.

Based on a plea agreement the Crown Prosecutor dropped the 14 counts of murder for an agreement where Law pleaded guilty to aiding the suicide of his victims, a charge that may result in a 14 year sentence.

Brean reported on the number of deaths associated with Law's suicide poison:

His Ontario victims formally number 14, with details of 79 more shared by Britain to inform this sentencing hearing. But that does not include his American market, so the real number is likely higher, almost certainly more than 100.

He sent 431 packages to the U.S., 330 to the U.K., and 157 within Canada, all during the pandemic in 2021 until his arrest in 2023 sparked a panicked international search for packages already mailed. In addition to poison, he also sold more expensive kits for asphyxiation by gas.

Brean reported the testimony from the victims of Kenneth Law.

Cindy MacMinn said in an angry voice through tears.

“My son is dead, he is gone, I am empty, hollow,”

“If it hadn’t been for your offence, perhaps Clayton (Choquette, 32) may still be here … Your actions caused me to have no desire to live any longer, because Clayton is not there to share with. It is pointless. He was everything to me.”

Sarjit Kaur Rana, the mother of Amrit Rana, (21) said:

“There are things you do not realize you are memorizing while your child is still alive,” like the sound of his “gallop” down the stairs to ask if the chicken and rice is ready,

“Now it’s one of the most precious memories of my life.”

Stephen Mitchell, Sr., father of Stephen Mitchell, Jr., who died by suicide aged 21 said:

“He was ill and he needed help and I tried my best to give him that help,”

“Mr. Law robbed my son of the chance to be healed.”

Greg Bryson, the father of Tyler Bryson, (34), who was a professional commercial pilot, said:

“Mr. Law broke all of our hearts,”

“knowingly took actions to steal something so precious in all of our lives.”

Kim Prosser, mother of Ashtyn Prosser-Blake, (19) said:

“I have no words for how cold the blood ran in my veins, the ice that dropped me to my knees and destroyed the world I lived in until that moment, to hear the words ‘He did it this time,’”

He had just called her to say good night, and she thought he sounded tired. “I didn’t know he was making his last call goodbye,” she said. It lasted 38 minutes and 18 seconds.

She confessed that she has since made an attempt on her own life, not planned, after an unexpected emotional loss and the burden of the court process.

“I am still here and Ashtyn is not,” she said.

Leonardo Bedoya Forero, father of Jeshennia Bedoya-Lopez, (18), who gave a statement with his wife Maria Lopez, read out by a prosecutor due to language barriers.

“We are two people trying to survive the same loss while watching each other suffer,”

“It terrifies me to think what would happen if we both collapse at the same time.”

“We are two people clinging to each other because neither of us knows how to stand up on our own,” he said. “The future we had imagined as a family disappeared.”

He spoke of powerlessness, how could not protect his daughter, and now fears he cannot protect his wife.

“I saw my daughter, pale, bruised and cold,” “That image became part of me.”

“The place she went for understanding led her to greater danger,” he said, to a man who “paves a path to death … How was I supposed to protect my daughter from something I didn’t even know I was supposed to protect her from?”

Norson Harris, father of Ashley Harris, (26), who graduated in computer science and systems design, said:

“There was a before, and then there is an after when we have gained membership in a club that nobody wants to be part of,”

“I still write to Ashley, message her, in the hopes there’s a small corner of the universe where she has written a system that is able to receive them,” he said. He said he leads a smaller life now and has become an introvert, and is not working at a similar level as in the past.

“We all feel we should have been able to prevent Ashley’s death, or to intervene in a way that would have changed the course of events”

Brean reported Norson to further say:

Before she died, Ashley had just got into a new therapy program. But Law “sold her a chemical that Ashley ultimately used to end her own life.”

it is a “small consolation” that Law has admitted his responsibility, and he said he hopes Law recognizes the answer he should have given his customers is “that they were loved, they were not alone, and that help is available.”

Brean reported that on Thursday morning (September 24)

Law sauntered slowly toward the central prisoner’s box in a black bomber jacket, khakis and brown leather shoes, making no eye contact with anyone. He sat impassively through all the proceedings as the Crown made its start on 74 victim impact statements, some read by their authors, others by prosecutors.

Philip Nitschke

Sanchez Manning reported for the Times on October 16, 2025 that long-time euthanasia / suicide activist, Philip Nitschke, told a seminar in London England that he had introduced the poison to the Canadian chef Kenneth Law.

Nitschke said that he introduced the poison to Law when he attended Nitschke’s assisted suicide seminar in Toronto.

 

More recently, Nitschke is promoting a collar that suffocates people to death.

The same themes contained within Kenneth Law's victims statements are shared by people who have lost friends and relatives to death by medical homicide / assisted suicide. People justify those deaths based on the health condition of the person who died, nonetheless, I have heard many people respond in the same way.

Was there something I could have done to prevent this death?

Could we have found another way to help?

You can't bring them back. 

The person has died, it was wrong, and I miss them.

Bill C-218 debated in parliament on September 23, 2026.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Bill C-218, the bill that would prevent euthanasia for mental illness as a sole criteria, had its first hour of debate on December 5, 2025 and its second hour of debate on September 23, 2026 and will go to a vote on Wednesday October 7.

(Link to the full speech by Tamara Jansen)

(Link to the full speech by Michael Cooper)

The September 23, 2026 debate began at 5:42 pm on Bill C-218 with a speech from Luc Thériault (Montcalm) (BQ) who opposes Bill C-218 and supports euthanasia for mental illness as a sole criteria. Thériault suggests that prohibiting euthanasia based on mental illness, as a sole criteria, is unconstitutional. 

Luc Thériault (BQ)

Thériault refers to the leading psychiatrists who stated that it is impossible to determine if a psychiatric condition is irremediable in this way:

a few psychiatrists use anecdotal, unsubstantiated claims to assert that every mental illness is treatable or curable, but they also say that psychiatry is wrong about both prognoses and diagnoses. Those psychiatrists cannot explain why we should rely on anecdotal, unsubstantiated accounts involving patients whom they say would have met the MAID eligibility criteria and safeguards set out in the expert panel report when those psychiatrists have no experience with MAID, either as assessors or providers, and when they are are effectively opposed to track 2 or MAID in general.

Thériault undermines the evidence from leading psychiatrists across Canada as being a few psychiatrists with anecdotal evidence.

Thériault ends his speech by stating:

The Bloc Québécois opposes Bill C-218 and proposes that the dispute over whether the exclusion of patients constitutes discrimination be clarified by the Supreme Court.

Michael Cooper (CPC)

The next speech began at 5:53 pm by Michael Cooper (St. Albert—Sturgeon River) (CPC) who explained the history of the issue of euthanasia for mental illness alone. (Link to the full speech by Michael Cooper). Cooper states:

Back in 2021, the then Liberal justice minister David Lametti, at the eleventh hour, accepted a radical Senate amendment, which he initially opposed, that set the train in motion for the expansion of MAID for mental illness, effective March 2023. There was no meaningful study, no meaningful consultation and no meaningful debate. The Liberals simply rammed it through. This was on a question of life and death concerning among the most vulnerable persons in Canadian society. It could not be more reckless than that.

Incredible speech by Tamara Jansen in parliament on Bill C-218.

The speech in parliament by Tamara Jansen Tamara Jansen (Cloverdale—Langley City) on September 23, 2026 at 18:32 pm in support of Bill C-218, a bill that would prevent (MAiD) euthanasia for mental illness as a sole criteria. Jansen sponsored Bill C-218. 

I want to begin by remembering young Kiano Vafaeian who lost his life to MAiD

Kiano was only 26 years old.

He had lived with Type 1 diabetes since he was four. After a serious car accident as a teenager, he also struggled with his mental health, and later he lost vision in one eye.

In 2022, when he was just 23 years old, Kiano sought MAiD in Ontario. His mother, Margaret, fought desperately to keep her son alive.

And she succeeded.

For a time.

But Kiano had become obsessed with getting MAiD. He continued to request it from Ontario health until they told him straight out he would never qualify in Ontario but shockingly suggested other jurisdictions he could contact in his quest to end his life. Sadly, he found a willing doctor in British Columbia, where he received MAiD on December 30, 2025 from the now infamous Dr Elen Wiebe.

Tamara Jansen (CPC)

He was 26.

And when I heard Kiano's story, I could not stop thinking about my own little brother.

In 2023 he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He knew he was dying but wanted to live. But the medical staff at Abbotsford hospital seemed to want to end his life.

While laying on a bed in the hallway on the oncology ward he was asked, not once, not twice, not three, four, or five times but six separate times if he wanted MAiD!

They were relentless.

They pressed him saying that they didn’t think they would be able to control his pain, scaring him out of his wits, but he still had the will to live.

So that final time he gave them a big Hell No!

I’m very proud of my little brother for standing up for his life…..for having the courage and commitment to make a statement that his life was still worth living, even if it was only for another 8 or 10 months.

He had time to mend fences, make friends with the staff at Hospice, say goodbye to his family.

This is why bill C 218 is necessary.

Because not everyone will be able to fight the way my brother fought. Not everyone will have the strength to say no six times.

And when someone is sick, frightened, depressed or unable to see any hope for tomorrow, surely the responsibility of our medical system is not to reinforce their despair, but to protect them while they are vulnerable and help them find their way back to hope.

That is particularly true when we are talking about mental illness.

For years, Conservatives have warned that expanding MAiD to people suffering solely from mental illness crosses a line we should not cross.

We were told the safeguards would be enough. We were told the system could be made ready.

Yet the implementation has been delayed again and again, while the fundamental question remains unanswered: how can we declare that a person's mental illness is irremediable when we cannot reliably know that they will never recover?

But we do know one thing with absolute certainty: once that life is ended, there is no tomorrow.

When we first debated this bill, members told us to wait for the Special Joint Committee to do its work.

Well, it has.

The committee heard the evidence and recommended that people whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness be indefinitely excluded from MAiD eligibility.

Parliament asked for that review. We now have its answer.

And if the concern with Bill C-218 is the wording and the use of the term “mental disorder” instead of “mental illness”, then let us fix the wording at committee.

We are prepared to work with the government at committee to make the technical changes.

A bill should not be defeated at second reading over technical wording when there is agreement on the principle.

The scheduled expansion is coming in March. So let us work together and send this bill to committee.

The measure of a compassionate society is not how efficiently it helps people die. It is whether, in the moment when someone can no longer see the value of their own life, the rest of us are prepared to see it for them.

Our answer to suffering should be care. Our answer to despair should be hope. And when someone believes there is no possibility of recovery, Canada should never be the one to agree with them.

That is why I am asking my colleagues to vote for Bill C-218.

Give Canadians the time, the care and the hope they need.

Give them the right to recover.

Michael Cooper: Speech in parliament on September 23, in support of Bill C-218.

The speech in parliament by Michael Cooper (St. Albert—Sturgeon River) on September 23, 2026 starting at 5:53 pm in support of Bill C-218, a bill that would prevent (MAiD) euthanasia for mental illness as a sole criteria.

Michael Cooper

I rise in strong support of Bill C-218, the right to recover act, introduced by my friend, the member for . The title of the bill fully reflects the substance of the bill. It is the right to recover: to give persons struggling with mental health challenges hope and help, instead of state-sanctioned, state-administered death, by putting an indefinite pause on the Liberal government's ill-thought-out expansion of MAID where mental illness is the sole underlying condition.

I commend the member for Cloverdale—Langley City for bringing forward the bill, because it is absolutely needed. We need legislation to be passed by Parliament. Otherwise, this ill-thought-out expansion will take effect in March 2027.

I have to say that it should never have been this way. It should never have come to this. The planned expansion is a master class in how not to do policy and how not to legislate.

Back in 2021, the then Liberal justice minister David Lametti, at the eleventh hour, accepted a radical Senate amendment, which he initially opposed, that set the train in motion for the expansion of MAID for mental illness, effective March 2023. There was no meaningful study, no meaningful consultation and no meaningful debate. The Liberals simply rammed it through. This was on a question of life and death concerning among the most vulnerable persons in Canadian society. It could not be more reckless than that.

Here we are, more than five years later, and the planned expansion has been nothing short of a mess. It has been completely shambolic, including the fact that the government has been all but forced to introduce two emergency bills to delay implementation because it did not do its homework at the outset.

Had the Liberals done their homework, they would have heard loud and clear what experts, including leading psychiatrists, have been saying, and that is that MAID for mental illness is a really bad idea, that it cannot be implemented safely for a multitude of reasons, not least of which include two unresolved clinical issues.
The first of those issues is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict irremediability. In other words, it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict whether someone suffering from a mental illness will get better. Indeed, many mental illnesses are remediable, and they are very difficult to predict in terms of a prognosis.

As Dr. Karin Neufeld, who is one of Canada's most renowned psychiatrists and is none other than the chair of the Association of Chairs of Psychiatry in Canada, put it in her brief to the Special Joint Committee on MAID, which is studying this very issue, “Psychiatric disorders lack reliable biomarkers, follow non-linear trajectories, and frequently improve after years of severe impairment.” Accordingly, Dr. Neufeld concluded that psychiatrists are poor predictors of long-term outcomes. Simply put, modern psychiatry lacks the tools to predict irremediability in individual cases of mental illness. It is so uncertain in terms of predicting irremediability, that studies show that psychiatrists get it right less than 50% of the time.

As Dr. Sonu Gaind, who is the past chair of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, told the special joint committee, one would be better off flipping a coin to predict irremediability. This is on a matter, again, involving life and death. What that means is that if this expansion were to go forward in March 2027, or at all, tens of thousands of Canadians who could get better, recover and lead productive lives will have their lives prematurely ended.

This prospect is untenable, and it is unconscionable. The uncertainty around predicting irremediability not only renders MAID for mental illness a completely reckless and dangerous policy, but also makes it impossible to administer in compliance with the law. This is because a prerequisite to qualifying for MAID is that an individual must have a grievous and irremediable condition. Given that it is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately predict irremediability in cases of mental illness, the legal basis for MAID cannot be satisfied, full stop. Therefore, we have not only a clinical issue, but also a major legal impediment to this expansion going forward.

The second major clinical issue identified is that it is difficult to distinguish, in cases of mental illness, a rational request for aid versus one motivated by suicidal ideation. This is because, in many cases, suicidal ideation, suicidal thoughts, are a symptom of the illness, and that is underscored by the fact that, in more than 90% of suicide deaths in Canada, mental illness is a factor. What that means is, if this were to go forward, long-standing suicide prevention efforts would be undermined. The mental health law would be upended, because given that suicidal ideation is often a symptom of mental illness, it begs the very practical question of which requests for MAID would merit intervention and suicide prevention versus the granting of MAID.

Given these unresolved clinical issues and other issues, and the clear opposition from the vast majority of psychiatrists, including the 17 chairs of psychiatry representing all 17 medical schools in Canada, who penned a letter to the Minister of Justice saying to put an indefinite pause on this, the Liberals twice, as I alluded to, introduced emergency legislation to kick the can down the road. They kicked the can down the road yet again with a new date of implementation, that being March 2027. Guess what. Nothing has changed. The same clinical issues remain unresolved, and there is no evidence that they will be or can be resolved in the foreseeable future, if ever.

This is why the special joint committee on MAID, which wrapped up its work in June, of which I was a member, of which the member for Cloverdale—Langley City was a member, recommended that the government stop kicking the can down the road and simply put an indefinite pause on this ill-thought-out expansion. I would note that the recommendation was a unanimous recommendation from Conservative and Liberal MPs on the committee.

The government likes to claim it makes decisions based upon evidence, that it make decisions based upon the facts. Well, if that is so, then to follow the evidence, there is only one, objectively speaking, reasonable course of action for the government to take, which is to admit it got it wrong in 2021 and to reverse course by putting an indefinite pause on this expansion. Bill C-218, the right to recover act, provides a clear path forward to do just that.

Let us pass Bill C-218.

Bill C-218 will go to a vote on October 7. Help prevent euthanasia for mental illness.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Bill C-218, the bill to prevent euthanasia for mental illness as a sole criteria was debated on December 5, 2025 and September 23, 2026. 

Bill C-218 will go to a vote on October 7.

In March 2021, the Canada's parliament expanded the euthanasia law by passing Bill C-7. One of the expansions in the law  permitted euthanasia for a mental illness alone. but, at that time, the government declared a two-year moratorium to provide time to prepare for the change.

The government has now delayed the implementation of euthanasia for mental illness, as a sole criteria, three times with implementation approved for March 17, 2027.

On June 20, 2025, Tamara Jansen (MP - Cloverdale - Langley City) introduced private members Bill C-218 to prevent euthanasia (MAiD) for mental illness as the sole criteria. 

Bill C-218 excludes mental illness from being defined as a "grievous and irremediable medical condition" for the purposes of MAiD. Bill C-218, if passed will prevent MAID for mental illness as a sole criteria.

Bill C-218 had it's first hour of debate on December 5, 2025, the second hour of debate on September 23, 2026 and the vote is scheduled for Wednesday October 7, 2026.

There are several ways that you can help Bill C-218 be passed:

1. Sign the petition in support of Bill C-218 (Link).
2. Share your story about living with mental illness, as Andrew Lawton (MP) did with his message: I got better. Support Bill C-218 prevent MAiD for Mental Illness (Link). 
3. Send your personal stories about living with mental illness to info@epcc.ca.
4. Contact your Member of Parliament (MP) and share your story and your support for Bill C-218. Contact your Member of Parliament at: (Member of Parliament List).
5. It is easier to call your Member of Parliament. The phone number is part of the MP contact information. (Member of Parliament List).
6. Refer to the information in the Bill C-218 handout for Members of Parliament (Link).

Remember. The majority of Canadians do not support MAiD for mental illness. 

Mario Canseco, the President of Research Co, was published by Business Intelligence for BC with polling indicating that the majority of Canadians do not support (MAiD) euthanasia for mental illness. Conseco reported that:

At this point, only an adult with a grievous and irremediable medical condition can seek medical assistance in dying in Canada. An expansion that would cover mental illness is expected to come into place in March 2027. Just over two in five Canadians (42 per cent, down one point) believe mental illness is a good reason for a person to request medical assistance in dying.

To pass, Bill C-218 needs Member of Parliament from all political parties to support it. Keys to speaking to your Member of Parliament:

• Only comment on MAiD for mental illness alone. Bill C-218 only deals with that issue. There are many concerns, but mixing issues weakens your position.
• Contact your Member of Parliament, even if you know his/her position on MAiD.
• Ask others, including groups that you belong to, to contact the Member of Parliament.

More information on Bill C-218.

• Bill C-218 introduced to prevent MAiD for Mental Illness (Link). 
• Support Bill C-218. No to MAiD for Mental Illness (Link). 
• Supporting Bill C-218 - I am so thankful to be alive (Link). 
• I got better. Support Bill C-218 prevent MAiD for Mental Illness (Link). 
• My story: No to MAiD for Mental Illness (Link). 
• Patti's story. Support Bill C-218. (Link).
• The majority of Canadians do not support MAiD (euthanasia) for mental illness (Link).

Yes, Brigitte's story about GG being killed by euthanasia is true.

Brigitte Stegemann did not answer the competency questions and the assessor declared her competent anyway.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, 
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

On September 20, the Daily Mail published an article by Imogen Garfinkel titled: Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother was euthanized against her will under Canada's assisted dying system.

A lot of people are stating, online, that the story is not true. I have an issue with the title of the article and the claim that the Daily Mail had an exclusive interview, but I can assure you that the story is true.

On July 22, I spoke to Brigitte Kranendonk and then published the article: My Family's Experience with Medical Assistance in Dying. My article reposted with permission the facebook post that Kranendonk posted on her facebook page.

On July 22, Kelsi Sheren spoke with Brigitte Kranendonk and on July 27 published the article: The Last 10 days of Brigitte (GG) Stegemann. On August 17, Kelsi Sheren followed up with another article: The Family filed. Here's the name. Dr Kate Koester.

Terry O'Neill spoke to Brigitte Kranendonk and on July 29 published the article: National MAiD watchdog needed as Provincial oversight failures mount.

Clearly, the Daily Mail story was not an exclusive.

On July 22, I summed up the story with the following key takeaways.

• Brigitte Stegemann (GG) originally explicitely stated that she didn't want MAiD.
• The medical team had her ask for MAiD when her granddaughter, Brigitte Kranendonk, the legal power of attorney, was on vacation.
• GG was approved even though she was unable to answer the competency questions and she also had serious hearing issues making it hard for her to understand questions.
• The staff filled out the euthanasia forms and witnessesed the signature.

The issues were explained in the original facebook post stating:

This is our family's account of the systemic failures, lack of transparency, and profound procedural violations we witnessed during the final days of our beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Brigitte Stegemann, whom we lovingly called "GG."

We are sharing our story because what happened in GG's case was a severe breach of medical ethics, informed consent, and basic human dignity. Decisions of this magnitude demand absolute transparency, strict adherence to legal safeguards, and the meaningful involvement of designated family advocates. In GG’s case, the system failed on every single one of these fronts.

Everything that follows is a truthful account of how the care home and the attending physician systematically bypassed our family, ignored our legal standing, and pushed forward with ending GG's life against her previously stated wishes.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition opposes killing all people. All euthanasia (MAiD) deaths contravene medical ethics and are inhumane in their very nature.

The key issue in law that was contravened in the killing of Brigitte Stegemann was her competency. GG could not answer the questions in the competency test but for some reason the doctor declared her competent anyway.

The original facebook post explained what happened:

What followed was a deeply alarming farce. Because of GG's severe hearing impairment, Dr. K had to repeat her questions several times, but the barrier was far more than physical hearing. Throughout the assessment, GG repeatedly provided objectively incorrect answers to basic, factual questions about her own life and immediate family.

When asked if she had any siblings, GG responded that she had none. The family immediately corrected the record, explaining that GG was the second-youngest of fourteen children. Dr. K then asked if any of her siblings were still alive, and GG again answered no. Once more, the family had to intervene and correct the information, explaining that some of her siblings were still living and that GG had spoken to one of them just the previous week. At this point, GG became completely disoriented and distressed. She began to cry, stating, "I forgot about the grandkids," visibly confusing her living siblings with her great-grandkids.

In fact, the family had to step in and correct the vast majority of the answers GG gave during the questioning. Brigitte explicitly objected to the evaluation right then and there, questioning Dr. K directly on how GG could possibly be deemed to have the capacity to consent to death when she could not accurately recount the most basic facts of her own family and was actively breaking down in confusion.

Despite these clear, undeniable indicators of cognitive disorientation and the family's direct objections, the assessment carried forward anyway.

Dr. K then explained MAID to GG in specific terms, describing it, to the best of our recollection, as receiving medication, feeling peace, falling asleep, and explicitly promising GG that she "would not lose control of her bowels." Our family was deeply unsettled by this framing. For an elderly individual of GG's demographic background and cognitive capacity, "medication" was a term conceptually linked entirely to healing, care, and relief. Describing a lethal injection as merely receiving medication—while focusing intensely on her specific, everyday fears of physical indignity—exploited her vulnerability, making it impossible for her to truly grasp that she was consenting to the active termination of her life. Before any further discussion took place, Dr. K instructed all family members to leave the room. Brigitte requested permission to remain, citing her role as long-time advocate and legal Power of Attorney. Her request was flatly denied, and the critical conversation between Dr. K and GG occurred entirely in private.

When Dr. K emerged from the room, she addressed the family and stated flatly, "I have deemed her capable of making her own decisions." She then informed us that GG had consented to proceed and that the procedure was scheduled for Friday, July 10, 2026.

When reading through this account it is clear that Brigitte Stegemann was not competent to request (MAiD) euthanasia and yet was deemed competent anyway. This contravened the law and medical ethics.

There is another issue from the facebook post, that being how euthanasia was described. The killing doctors intentionally avoid the truth, that is, we will kill you in this manner. GG was told that she would be:

receiving medication, feeling peace, falling asleep, and explicitly promising GG that she "would not lose control of her bowels."

I'm all in also until you tell me that it would kill me.

As stated earlier, Kelsi Sheren also spoke to Brigitte Kranendonk on July 22 and published her article on July 27 about the last 10 days of GG's life. 

Sheren explains the issues in this way:

What the law demands, and what the records must now show.

Strip the anguish out of this account and a set of narrow, documentary questions remains. Each has a paper answer.

Capacity, the Criminal Code requires that a person be capable with respect to decisions about their health at the time of assessment. The family describes a woman with a lifelong, un assessed cognitive impairment, profoundly deaf, freshly emerged from days of unresponsiveness her medication records cannot explain, who failed the factual questions of her own assessment so comprehensively that her family corrected the majority of her answers, and who, the following day, did not understand that “MAiD on Friday” meant she would die. Dr. K’s assessment notes, the MAR log, and the timeline will either withstand that account or they will not.

The request, when was the written request actually signed, who witnessed it, and was the signing before or after the procedure was scheduled? The family says after, completed by the facility’s own manager and witnessed by its staff, in secret. The dated documents will settle it.

Final consent, the code requires that immediately before administering MAiD, the practitioner give the person an opportunity to withdraw and ensure their express consent unless a written waiver of final consent was executed in advance, under the 2021 provision known as Audrey’s Amendment, while the person had capacity. The family was promised express final consent would be required; none was given. That leaves two possibilities and only two. Either the procedure was carried out without the final consent the law demands or a waiver exists that no one ever mentioned to the family, including while assuring them of the very safeguard it would nullify, signed at some point by a woman whose capacity is the central dispute of this case. Produce the waiver. Its date, its witness, and the capacity notes from the day it was signed.

The second assessment. The law requires two independent eligibility assessments. The family’s public account describes one. Who performed the other, when, and in what condition was GG at the time?

Sheren is absolutely correct, the issue of capacity to consent is central to this killing. Sheren also emphasizes the issue of the paperwork, which was also brought up by the original facebook posting and the Daily Mail article.

Sheren explains the issue of final consent. Kelsi is correct when she says that the law was changed in 2021 (Bill C-7) where the law now states that final consent is not necessary so long as the person was capable of consenting at the time of assessment. Sheren explains that the family was told that their grandmother would have the opportunity to say no at the time of the killing, but Brigitte Stegemann did not provide final consent. Sheren states that a waiver of consent is necessary and should exist. There may be no waiver of consent.

Nonetheless, Brigitte Kranendonk witnessed the assessment for capacity and clearly stated that her grandmother (GG) did not answer the capacity questions correctly and was falsely declared competent anyway. This is the primary issue.

Once again, this article concerns the legal parameters not the moral parameters around killing.

The final issue that people are missing when they attack this story is the relationship between Brigitte Kranendonk and her grandmother Brigitte Stegemann.

A very close relationship

The original facebook posting stated:

GG was the mother of two children, Fritz and Karin. For more than twelve years, her granddaughter, Brigitte (who shares her name), devoted herself to GG's care and advocacy. Brigitte held legal Power of Attorney (POA) and served as the primary contact for all medical and personal care decisions.

Throughout her stay, Brigitte was contacted frequently by the home—often every day or every other day—to make decisions regarding GG's care. Whether the matter involved medications, treatments, appointments, or other aspects of daily living, the staff consistently relied on Brigitte to make or assist with important decisions on GG's behalf.

Brigitte Stegemann was not just a grandmother, nor was it simply a legal relationship as Kranendonk was her Power of Attorney, this was a deep, caring family relationship.

The key take-away.

    1.Two months before her death, the issue of (MAiD) was brought up and Brigitte Stegemann stated:

As a devout Christian, she explicitly expressed that MAID conflicted with her personal beliefs and faith.

    2. The issue of euthanasia resurfaced when Brigitte Kranendonk was on a 10-day vacation.

    3. Brigitte Stegemann could not answer the questions correctly during the capacity assessment but was declared capable of consenting anyway.

    4. Brigitte Stegemann did not provide a final consent before being killed. Was there a waiver of consent?

    5. A final issue was how the euthanasia death by botched. The Daily Mail article states:

The nurse struggled to insert the IV into Stegemann's right arm, and ended up piercing her repeatedly with the needle before attempting her left arm.

Kranendonk remembers in graphic detail the copious amount of blood, which made the whole procedure feel strangely unprofessional.

'She's asking us to hand her things, to flush out the needle. So we're now a part of this. She's asking us to grab things for her, and to hold things for her.

'This nurse is not wearing gloves. There's blood all over her hands, there's blood all over the place,' she says, horrified by the memory.

My problem with the Daily Mail article was the title: Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother was euthanized against her will under Canada's assisted dying system.

The killing was possibly against her will but the real issue was that Brigitte Stegemann answered the questions, in her capacity assessment wrong and was for some reason declared competent anyway.

All euthanasia (MAiD) is killing, or as Gordon Friesen would accurately state - medical homicide. Brigitte Stegemann was approved even though she was likely incompetent to request it and her previous response, while competent, was that it contravened her religious beliefs. Her earlier comments should have been respected.

Italian Doctors Under Threat of Criminal Prosecution for Refusing Participation in Assisted Suicide

This article was published by National Review online on September 17, 2026.

Wesley Smith

By Wesly J Smith

Assisted suicide/euthanasia legalization is spreading like a stain. But with most doctors refusing to participate, how do we ensure that people who want to die are indeed made dead?

Answer: Blatant coercion.

Usually, the attacks on “medical conscience” (as it is known) involves threatening refusing doctors’ professional licenses. The medical literature is rife with such advocacy by bioethics notables like Ezekiel Emanuel, Julian Savulescu, and Peter Singer, who argue that doctors either participate in requested legal medical procedures — even if morally opposed — or face processional discipline. If doctors don’t like it, these activists argue, they should get out of medicine.

Some doctors have already faced the music over such refusals. In Australia a doctor was disciplined for refusing a sex-selection abortion. Ontario, Canada, courts have ruled that doctors must either euthanize legally qualified patients or tender an “effective referral,” i.e., procure another doctor for the patient the refusing MD knows will provide the lethal jab — in other words: forced complicity.

Now in Italy, the next shoe has dropped. Doctors who refused to participate in the assisted suicide are under criminal investigation.

Because of a court ruling, dying Italian patients on life support have a constitutional right to access facilitated suicide. But there is nothing in that decision of which I am aware that requires doctors to participate. That state of the law may soon change.

The case involves a cancer patient — a famous actress — who asked to be evaluated for an assisted suicide. The doctors under legal threat refused. The actress later died at a suicide clinic in Switzerland.

Her family then filed a complaint against the refusing doctors. After an investigation, the prosecutors asked to drop the case, but the family objected. And now a court has agreed to determine whether the doctors should be prosecuted criminally for refusing to perform an official act:

Ten doctors from the ASL Roma 1 are under investigation for refusal and failure to perform official duties in the investigation into the case of Sibilla Barbieri , a Roman actress and director suffering from terminal cancer who in 2023 requested access to physician-assisted suicide from the health service. The Prosecutor’s Office had requested the case be dismissed, but the preliminary investigations judge, Marisa Mosetti, in a decree dated September 1, upheld the family’s objection and set a hearing before the judge for December 16. The investigating judge will decide whether to definitively dismiss the case, order further investigations, or order the ten doctors to be sent to trial. [Google Translate rendition.]

Imagine. Doctors investigated and potentially criminally prosecuted for refusing to kill. Even if the worst doesn’t happen, the threat of such investigations alone is profoundly coercive.

Why the increasing pressure to induce doctors to violate their medical consciences?

• States aren’t going to establish killing centers. So doctors and nurse practitioners have to be conscripted to do the dirty deeds if the culture of death is to advance.
• When doctors refuse to lend their authority to controversial procedures, it sends a clarion moral message to the patient and society that certain actions are just wrong. That burns activists like a branding iron.
• Medicine is being deprofessionalized into a technocratic order-taking enterprise that exists in part to fulfill customer desires. Hippocratic “do no harm” values have no place in such a system.
• Denying medical conscience seeks to impose a secularist hegemony over a vital sector of society.
• If willingness to take life or engage in other “do harm” practices becomes a required aspect of practicing medicine, it will drive pro-life and Hippocratic Oath-believing medical professionals out of the medical sector. Meanwhile, gifted young people may avoid the field altogether, knowing that to pursue a career in health care would require them to leave their moral beliefs at home. Alas, I suspect that is precisely what medical conscience opponents want.

There is also a practical consideration for those who want legal assisted suicide to consider. If society forces health care professionals to violate their moral beliefs, we could see a mass exodus from the medical professions. Older doctors and nurses will retire, taking their experience and knowledge with them.

Do we really want to require doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and others to participate in such acts if they consider them to be immoral or grievously sinful? Should health care public policy declare lived faith to be non grata in the medical professions?

I say emphatically: No! Forcing anyone to be complicit in the taking of innocent human life (not involving a legal military order) is profoundly authoritarian.

EXCLUSIVE - A man fell in his living room on Vancouver Island. Twelve days later he was killed by MAID.

This article was published by Kelsi Sheren on her Substack on September 20, 2026.

By Kelsi Sheren

EXCLUSIVE interview given to The Kelsi Sheren Perspective by Lori Bauman.

Twelve Days and Shawn was Dead. A man fell in his living room on Vancouver Island. Twelve days later he was dead by MAID. His family still can’t get his medical records.

On May 9, 2025, Shawn Bauman fell at home on Vancouver Island. He was 55 years old. On May 21, 2025, he was euthanized.

Twelve days.

He was not terminally ill. He had already survived cancer, he had already survived heart surgery. His ex-wife — the mother of his two daughters — says there was nothing to indicate the end was near. He was a heavy drinker and he was not in the best of health. That is a different thing than dying.

This is her account. She wrote it out herself, and she has given it to me. I am reporting what the family says happened and what the record shows. Where I could not confirm something, I say so.

What the family says happened below:

Shawn hurt his ribs in the fall. Paramedics came. He was admitted to emergency, X-rayed, and told it was bruising — no fractures, no dislocations. He was discharged.

He went back the same day. Trembling. Sweating. Pain at the base of his neck radiating across his shoulders. A CT scan of the cervical spine found a compression fracture at T3. No spinal cord compression. No neurological compromise. A neurosurgeon was consulted and determined surgery was not required.

He was sent home with acetaminophen, ibuprofen, ketorolac, hydromorphone, diazepam, cyclobenzaprine and furosemide.

The next day, May 10, his legs gave out. He was adjusting himself on the couch when he lost all movement and all sensation in both legs, completely and at once. He lay there for two hours, unable to move, waiting for his roommate to come home and call an ambulance.

When Shawn had new scans done, they found what the first ones had not: a large epidural hematoma — a collection of blood around the spinal cord — running from T4 to T11.

An emergency physician on the Island got Vancouver General Hospital’s spine service on the phone and told them this man needed specialized spinal surgery. Vancouver General accepted him for emergency transfer to relieve the spinal compression.

Then he crossed the water, and the family says the lights went out. They were never given a report. During his entire stay they never spoke to a single member of his medical team. What they know, they know from two of his friends. When his daughter reached him directly, he told her he was too drugged up to talk.

The emergency surgery he was transferred to was going to take place at Vancouver General, as far as the family knows, never performed. Nobody has told them why.

One of his friends told them MAID had come up. His ex-wife told her daughter not to worry about it. She had read the law. He wasn’t terminal, and there was a process, and a ninety-day assessment.

On the evening of May 20, his daughter got a call from her father. It was scheduled for the next morning. That quick and that simple. A friend set up a conference call the following morning, shortly before it happened. He was personable, he kept it light and he was proud of himself for agreeing to donate his eyes, and for agreeing to have his brain hooked up and monitored while the procedure was carried out. He called it his last little contribution to society.

Let me be clear about which half of that matters. Organ donation after euthanasia is settled practice in this country. Canadian Blood Services wrote the policy in 2019 and hundreds of Canadians have done it.

Shawn giving his eyes is not the part that should stop you. The brain is. Recording a man’s brain while he is being killed is not donation — donation happens after death, and this happened during. A living man, wired to a machine, producing data while the injection went into his arm. That is research on a human subject, and research on human subjects in Canada requires a written protocol, a research ethics board, an approval number, and the informed consent of someone competent to give it. So a file exists. It has to.

Somewhere in Vancouver there is a protocol with a number on it and a consent form with a signature on it, dated inside the eleven days between the afternoon this man lost the use of his legs and the morning he died — signed by a man who told his own daughter he was too drugged up to hold a conversation. I have asked for it.

His family were in shock. His ex-wife says she wanted to shout *don’t do it.* She didn’t. What do you say to someone who is about to have his life taken from him?

They were offered the chance to stay on the phone while it happened. They said no. She did not want that to be the last memory her daughters had of their father.

This is where the family’s account stops being a private grief and becomes a public question.

Canada runs two tracks.

**Track 2** is for people whose natural death is *not* reasonably foreseeable. It requires a minimum of ninety clear days between the start of the first assessment and the lethal injection. It requires a second assessor with expertise in the condition causing the suffering. It requires that the person be informed about — and give serious consideration to — counselling, mental health supports, disability supports, community services and palliative care.

Ninety days. That is what his ex-wife had read. That is why she told her daughter it wasn’t going to happen.

**Track 1** is for people whose natural death *is* reasonably foreseeable. There is no minimum waiting period. Parliament deleted the ten-day reflection period in March 2021. Track 1 also permits a written waiver of final consent, which allows a practitioner to proceed without the person confirming, at the moment of death, that they still want to die.

Twelve days from a fall in the living room to a lethal injection is not possible on Track 2 — unless the ninety days was shortened, which the law permits only when the person is about to lose the capacity to make health care decisions and both assessments are already complete.

So one of two things happened. Either Shawn was assessed as Track 1, or he was assessed as Track 2 and the clock was cut short because someone determined he was about to lose capacity.

Both roads run through the same finding: that this man’s natural death was reasonably foreseeable. Eleven days after Vancouver General Hospital accepted him for emergency surgery to relieve the compression on his spine.

I want to be careful here. It is possible for a clinician to reach that finding lawfully. A man with a serious spinal cord injury, a history of cancer and heart surgery, and heavy alcohol use is not a man in perfect health, and I am not a physician. But somebody made that call, and somebody signed it, and the family has never been shown a single page of it. This is what they do, they have a pattern of not alerting the families before this happens.

That is not a medical question, that is simply a records question.

His daughter made a formal request for her father’s medical records. Vancouver General’s response, as the family provided it to me, acknowledged that she may be considered an appropriate person to act on behalf of the deceased — and then refused her, on the grounds that her access was sought for her own personal reasons rather than on behalf of the deceased.

“You are the right person to ask. You are asking for the wrong reason.”

The reason was that her father died and she wants to know how. A coroner opened an investigation. Fifteen months later the family has still not received a report.

Here is the part that most people won’t catch. Since November 2018, a MAiD death in British Columbia is only reportable to the BC Coroners Service in narrow circumstances — including where the underlying condition that led to the request relates to an accident, violence, or self-inflicted injury. Shawn’s condition started with a fall.

Which means the province’s own reporting rules classified the chain of events that ended his life as beginning with an accident. Not a terminal disease. An accident. In his living room. Twelve days earlier. The care he received on the Island is separately being reported through Island Health’s Patient Care Quality Office.

The questions I have put these to Island Health, Vancouver Coastal Health, and the BC Coroners Service. Lori has also reported this to the Ombudsman. A deadline for comment was given and no response was issued on the following.

1. Was the emergency spinal surgery Shawn was transferred to Vancouver General to receive ever performed? If not, why not, and who decided?

2. Was he assessed under Track 1 or Track 2?

3. If Track 1, on what basis was his natural death determined to be reasonably foreseeable, eleven days after he was accepted for emergency surgical intervention?

4. If Track 2, was the ninety-day period shortened on the basis of imminent loss of capacity — and if so, how was capacity to consent to death assessed in a man who told his own daughter he was too drugged up to talk?

5. Was a waiver of final consent signed?

6. Who raised MAiD first — Shawn, or a member of staff?

7. Under what research protocol, with what ethics approval and what consent documentation, was his brain monitored during the provision?

8. Why has an adult daughter, acknowledged in writing as an appropriate person, been refused her father’s records?

I’m not telling you Shawn was murdered. I don’t know that, and neither does his family, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing.

I’m telling you a man fell down in his living room and was dead of a needle inside two weeks, that the surgery meant to save him appears never to have happened, that nobody will explain why, and that his daughters have been locked out of the paperwork by the same institutions that hold every answer.

A system that was doing nothing wrong would hand over the file.

An 83-year old incompetent grandma was killed by euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

On July 22, I published an article titled: My Family's Experience with Medical Assistance in Dying. 

On July 27, Kelsi Sheren published an article titled: The Last 10 days of Brigitte (GG) Stegemann.

On September 20, the Daily Mail published an article by Imogen Garfinkel titled: Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother was euthanized against her will under Canada's assisted dying system.

Garfinkel's article is based Brigitte Stegemann (83), who was killed by euthanasia and whose family are now challenging Canada's euthanasia system that approved and then killed their grandmother. Garfinkel writes:

Two days before her Christian grandmother’s assisted dying procedure in Ontario, Canada, Brigitte Kranendonk sat her down to make sure she knew exactly what was going to happen.

‘I used very frank terms. I said: “Do you know that you’re going to die on Friday?”'

The 83-year-old was in visible disbelief and began crying for 45 minutes. ‘I’ve made a mistake,’ Brigitte Stegemann, known affectionately to her family as ‘GG’ or ‘Oma’, wailed.

‘She was bawling. Inconsolable,’ Kranendonk, a real estate agent who shares the same first name with her late grandmother, tells the Daily Mail.

Brigitte Kranendonk, who was named after her grandmother explained to Garfinkel that even though her grandmother got every question wrong during a cognitive test, she was declared competent for the purpose of being killed. Garfinkel reports:

Yet 48 hours after she wept uncontrollably at the notion of MAiD, Stegemann is said to have died with her hands clasped in prayer, covered in her own blood due to a botched first attempt at connecting the IV, administered by a nurse allegedly not wearing gloves.

Brigitte is searching for answers and change. Garfinkel reports:

Kranendonk is currently in the process of desperately appealing to the Chief Coroner’s Office in Ontario, as well as the Patient Ombudsman and Belleville Police, in a bid to ascertain whether what happened the morning of July 10 at The Pearl care home in Cannifton was legal.

Bereaved and distraught, she claims MAiD practitioners took advantage of her grandmother’s vulnerability to perform the procedure, which she alleges was carried out without express consent.

‘She was a vulnerable human being, and they saw an opportunity,’ Kranendonk says, her rage and sadness visible.

Kranendonk suspects the MAiD practitioners were inappropriately ideologically motivated, and believes the chain of events leading up to the procedure should be investigated.

Kranendonk's is absolutely right about the ideological motivations of the MAiD practitioners. My experience with other families who are dealing with euthanasia decisions or grieving from a euthanasia death is that they speak about how the "MAiD team" convinced their loved one to agree to be killed. They use sales techniques to sell the killing as beautiful and peaceful while saying that the alternative will be a painful and horrific death.

Kranendonk suggests that her grandmother's euthanasia was the first one at “The Pearl, long-term care facility, formally known as EJ Mcquigge Lodge” in Belleville, Ontario and it is suggested that they just didn't know what they were doing.

But this was not the first killing for the euthanasia team. Nonetheless, Kranendonk describes how her grandmothers death was not peaceful and dignified. Garfinkel reports:

The moment of Stegemann's death was anything but peaceful, as she had once wished.

Recalling those nightmarish minutes, a traumatised Kranendonk speaks in the present tense, as if the procedure was still happening in slow motion.

'There was a phenomenal amount of blood,' she says, describing the way that the nurse failed to find the correct vein in the right arm to insert the IV, before switching to the left – but only after having 'poked her about three or four times with the needle'.

'It is all over my Oma's arm, it is all over her nightie, soaking through her pillow, all over the sheets, there is so much blood.

'And throughout all this time, mind you, the nurse is not wearing gloves.'

In case some of the readers are euthanasia lobby activists and think, it was her choice, you need to know that Kranendonk was not just a grandchild. Garfinkel explains:

Prior to Stegemann’s death that summer, Kranendonk had been her caregiver for 12 years, and her medical power of attorney for the past six.

A year and a half before her death, the family made the decision to house Stegemann in The Pearl as her physical and cognitive health began to deteriorate.

In February, she was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer. But doctors were not certain about whether the diagnosis meant she had six months to live, or as much time as two years.

For the past decade, Kranendonk had been carefully monitoring what her grandmother ate to keep her healthy, including limiting her sugar intake.

Following the cancer diagnosis, she changed tack and allowed her to eat whatever she craved, deciding she just wanted her grandmother to feel as ‘joyful’ as possible in her final stage of life.

Kranendonk had cared for her grandmother for 12 years and was her power of attorney for her for 6 years. Also, Kranendonk explains that her grandmother had previously said no to MAiD based on: 

her religiosity, and the notion of displeasing God, was a large factor in why her German-born grandmother instinctively opposed assisted dying.

It wasn't until Kranendonk, went on a 10-day road trip that everything changed. Garfinkel reports:

Everything seemed normal. She picked up numerous phone calls, and the doctors didn't discuss a dramatic decline in Stegemann’s health – only that she had fallen over and would need a wheelchair.

But towards the end of the trip, on July 3, Kranendonk received a different kind of call. It was from the home, saying they were going to book a MAiD assessment for her grandmother.

When she returned she learned that her grandmother had already had her first euthanasia assessment. When she asked a nurse who had introduced the topic of euthanasia the nurse responded:

‘The nurse became very abrasive, very defensive,' Kranendonk recalls. 'She was like, "Well, I’m just trying to advocate for her. I’m just trying to do what’s right for her."'

Kranendonk felt that the nurse was pushing death. Garfinkel reported her as stating:

'I truly believe that one nurse really saw us as an obstacle,' she says. 'We were getting in the way of her doing MAiD on my grandmother. I think she really, truly believes that MAiD is the best for people, and shame on me for trying to stop that.'

Selling death.

The law requires that a person who asks to die must clearly request, be informed and be competent. Kranendonk explains how none of this was true:

Kranendonk made sure she was in the room for the second MAiD assessment, and it was there where she noticed the doctor speak in ‘really loose terms, never using the words death or dying’.

‘She explains MAiD to my grandmother by saying: “We’re going to give you medicine, you’re going to feel at peace. And I just want you to know that you won’t have a bowel movement.”'

‘She’s saying it in these strange terms, that aren’t literal,’ Kranendonk says, adding: ‘My Oma’s just kind of nodding. Her first language is not English, she is 83-years old and severely hearing-impaired.’

Kranendonk looked at the doctor, and said: 'She doesn’t understand what you’re saying.'

That’s when the doctor allegedly turned to the grandmother, and offered: ‘We’re going to make sure you won’t have any more pain.’

During the cognitive assessment, which she also sat in on, Kranendonk claims that the questions were curiously designed, in that the doctor couldn’t immediately verify the answers.

As opposed to questions such as who the prime minister was, or that day's date, the grandmother was asked personal questions, like how many siblings she had.

‘But none of that is in her records. They would not know if the information was correct, or not,’ Kranendonk says.

Even so, Stegemann got the answers wrong.

She said she had no siblings, despite having 13.

The doctor asked how many were still alive, and Stegemann answered, saying none.

But two are still alive, and the grandmother had seen one only a month and a half before.

‘So we're going through this assessment. None of the answers could be proven, unless I was there. 

Kranendonk was then asked to leave the room, during the assessment. She was sure that her grandmother had failed the cognitive test

But four minutes after the cognitive test was complete, the doctor announced that Stegemann was 'deemed fit for MAiD, and we're going to proceed'.

Kranendonk was assured that her mother could change her mind at any time.

Pushing death. Garfinkel reports:

On Wednesday, Kranendonk woke up after barely sleeping and prepared to visit her grandmother.

But before she had a chance to enter the home, she got a call from the nurse, who said they planned to fast-track her grandmother's death to Thursday – simply because the doctor had an early opening.

'I was like: "I'm not talking about this right now, I'm on my way to visit my Oma."'

The nurse replied: 'Oh, well, I already spoke to your Oma, and she agreed.'

But Thursday wouldn't have allowed enough time for Stegemann's pastor to arrive, or her son – depriving her of her dying wishes to be surrounded by her loved ones and prayer.

Kranendonk said Thursday wasn't an option, so Friday was kept as the death date.

Stegemann was not imminently dying, so the only reason to fast-track the death date was to get it done before she changed her mind.

Kranendonk then went to the "care" home and demanded the euthanasia paperwork, but no paperwork was shared with her. She doesn't know if there was a valid signature or who the witnesses were.

She then spoke to her grandmother. Garfinkel explains:

Following the altercation with the manager, Kranendonk confronted her grandmother and explained what would be happening on Friday in vivid terms.

The conversation caused her to breakdown in tears and admit that she had made a mistake. 'I just kept saying there's no mistake, there's no mistake. You don't have to do this.

'The doctors are coming on Friday, and you just say no,' Kranendonk recalls pleading.

But it got to a point where Kranendonk didn't want to 'keep fighting MAiD, and lose sight of who I'm fighting for'.

Her grandmother was unwell, and confused, so she made the decision to just try and experience all the precious quality time she could have with Stegemann – while she still had a chance.

And crucially, she trusted the nurses to not take advantage of the ailing woman. 

Kranendonk said that both her and her grandmother were vulnerable and she decided to make the best of the situation. Garfinkel reports:

On Thursday, the pair danced together to traditional German Polka music and ate ice-cream in her room.

'We had the best day,' Kranendonk recalls, tearfully. 'I felt great leaving on Thursday.'

But she went home utterly confused. On the one hand, she was elated she had such a fantastic day with her grandmother.

But on the other hand, she couldn't bear the possibility of what might happen the next day.

'I was so split. Part of me was like, maybe it's not going to happen. And then there was this underlying feeling of, oh God, what if it does?'

Kranendonk has examined the reality and stated:

In hindsight, she felt like she was in an unworkable situation. She at once wanted the best for her grandmother and wanted to respect her autonomy, but was terribly concerned that she had never once heard her say, out loud and clearly: 'I want MAiD.'

'All I saw was her not understanding the process,' Kranendonk recalls.

Friday July 10. The day of death. Garfinkel reports

When Friday, July 10 arrived, everything felt rushed again. The family took Stegemann out into the residential home's garden to share strawberry ice-cream – her favourite – and the pastor arrived, who started a round of prayers.

'She's very confused at this point,' Kranendonk remembers.

At 9.30am – after 10 minutes of being outside – the MAiD nurse asked for the family to return indoors, despite the fact that they were told the doctor would not arrive until 11am.

The nurse said that she needed time to get the IV started, and Kranendonk remembers telling her forcefully that they were not finished having time together as a family.

'Well, how long do you need?' she claims the nurse said, rather dismissively, in response.

Once back inside the home, the nurse started the IV, Kranendonk alleges. According to Kranendonk, the doctor hadn't even arrived, and her grandmother was not asked if she gave consent for the procedure to begin.

The nurse struggled to insert the IV into Stegemann's right arm, and ended up piercing her repeatedly with the needle before attempting her left arm.

Kranendonk remembers in graphic detail the copious amount of blood, which made the whole procedure feel strangely unprofessional.

'She's asking us to hand her things, to flush out the needle. So we're now a part of this. She's asking us to grab things for her, and to hold things for her.

'This nurse is not wearing gloves. There's blood all over her hands, there's blood all over the place,' she says, horrified by the memory.

The doctor then entered the room and told Stegemann she was there to give her 'medicine', and asked if that was okay with her.

'My Oma is not moving. She doesn't open her eyes. She doesn't nod. She doesn't say anything, and the doctor just said: "Okay, well, I'm going to proceed."'

Within 10 minutes, Stegemann was pronounced dead. Due to how unresponsive she was, Kranendonk doesn't know if her grandmother died shortly before the MAiD, because of the MAiD, or whether she was just in deep prayer.

She says that no heartbeat was taken, before or after the procedure.

Did Brigitte Stegemann know what MAiD actually was? Kranendonk told Garinkel: 

'What was concerning, though, is that that morning, I was crying. My grandmother looked at me and said, "If you don't stop crying, I'm not going to sleep tonight." She said that to me on Friday morning.'

The article finishes with Kranendonk outlining some of the concerns with her grandmother's death:

She has subsequently learn't that nurses are strictly prohibited from pressuring a patient to pursue MAiD, and that all the correct paperwork for MAiD to take place must be submitted before a death date can be determined.

Stegemann's paperwork was completed after her death, her granddaughter claims.

'She did not consent the morning of the procedure,' Kranendonk says, steadfast in her conclusion that her grandmother was euthanised against her will.

She has consistently asked The Pearl to hand over her grandmother's medical records, but all of her requests have been refused, she says.

She regrets not applying for a legal injunction to prevent the MAiD from occurring, but she also didn't realise she had the right to ask for one at the time.

'I was flying blind,' she says. And crucially, her grandmother still needed medical attention in those final weeks.

'We live in Canada, where medical care is not always easy to get. She still needed medical care. I could not just scoop her up and bring her home,' she says.

She trusted the government, and the medical establishment, not to take advantage of her grandmother. In the months since July, that trust has completely shattered.

The article ends with Garinkel reporting that A spokesman for Belleville Police told the Daily Mail: 'This incident is currently open and under investigation with our Criminal Investigations Division. We are unable to provide any additional information at this time.'

If this was the only concerning story about Canada's euthanasia regime, then it would be tragic and worth investigating, but nonetheless a reality. But this is one of a massive number of concerning euthanasia stories in Canada and Canada's killing machine only continues to grow and speed up.

MAiD (euthanasia) should never be legal. To give medical professionals the right in law to kill their patients is lethal and not safe. One of the strongest messages from Kranendonk's experience is how the "MAiD team" appeared to be ideologically motivated.

Canada now has a small group of doctors and nurse practitioners who do a lot of killing. That small group has drank the kool-aid and are convinced that euthanasia has made them "angels of mercy."

The truth is that many of these medical professionals have become medical serial killers and the legalization of euthanasia has MAiD it possible.

Sadly, death cannot be reversed. Brigitte Stegemann cannot be brought back. Her real intentions and understanding will never be known and her death is one of many horrific Canadian euthanasia deaths.