Dying with Dignity Canada opens office in Vancouver BC

Dying with Dignity (DWD)Canada has hired a new executive director and opened a new office in Vancouver BC.

Wanda Morris, the former Vice-President and chair of the Fundraising committee, has now been named executive director (50% position). She will travel regularly to Toronto but also operate a part-time office from Vancouver.

At the same time DWD hopes to have their charitable status reinstated after experiencing a review of their charitable status by the Canada Revenue Agency.

The fact is that DWD has been directly involved with lobbying and encouraging their membership to lobby the government to change the Canadian assisted suicide law.

Their current newsletter is also full of direct lobbying activities for the change of Canadian law. DWD has every right to lobby the government, but charitable status, in Canada, only pertains to groups that limit their political activity to 10% of their total time or resources.

The newsletter even reports that DWD Canada made a presentation in Victoria BC with a 92 page submission to the Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care.

The newsletter is also encouraging the Quebec government Dying with Dignity committee to ignore the criminal code by turning a "blind eye" to euthanasia deaths in Quebec.

It appears that DWD Canada will continue to skirt the CRA guidelines by being directly involved in political lobbying, which by the way, is part of their mandate.