Veterans Affairs Canada tried to cover up euthanasia scandal.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Sheila Gunn Reid, an investigative reporter with Rebel News, has uncovered an attempt by Veterans Affairs Canada attempted to hide a paper trail of evidence relating to case workers suggesting that veterans "choose" to access the Medical Assistance in Dying program. 

Gunn Reid obtained the documents by filing access to information requests and published an exclusive report on August 20, 2024 with Rebel News.

Sheila Gunn Reid

Gunn Reid reports:

Nearly a dozen veterans experiencing acute post-traumatic stress disorder or asking for access to daily living to deal with their service-related injuries came forward over recent years to say that their Veterans Affairs Canada case workers suggested a medically assisted death to them.

At first, Veterans Affairs Canada and Minister Lawrence MacAulay claimed that just one case worker working out of one office was responsible for the scandal. However, as more veterans came forward, it became evident that other offices and case workers were involved.

Gunn Reid decided to find out exactly what happened by filing access to information requests. She learned the following:

We can see attempts to cover up and then to backtrack. On page 21, we can see in the media lines that Veterans Affairs officials were planning to claim there were no other incidents of Veterans Affairs staff telling veterans to kill themselves. They had to remove that from their talking points because other veterans came forward.

Staff also claimed that the other cases were just veterans calling to ask about whether getting assisted suicide would kill their benefits since it would count as self-harming.

Gunn Reid reports that on page 679 the documents state that they decided to only provide verbal updates because it doesn't create a paper trail. On page 1219 they were concerned about how to respond to inquiries from Rebel News. On page 1220 they decide not to provide Veterans Affairs Minister MacAulay with the number of veterans who were advised to be killed by MAiD.

Gunn Reid reports:

we can see just how out of touch these Veterans Affairs communications people are with normal people living in the outside world beyond the machinery of the Liberal government, everyday people who think veterans need care and not state-sanctioned homicide.

The documents state:

“Hello all, it's interesting to follow the thrice-daily media report emails to see how far the main story is traveling. Yesterday, it was reported by a couple of US news outlets, and today, it is in the UK Daily Mail,” the documents say.

“It is interesting to see how much coverage it's getting,” the bureaucrats continue. “I had wondered if there would be anyone else to come out of the woodwork to say it had happened to them too but so far nothing (thankfully).”

It should be concerning to veterans that Canada's euthanasia lobby has launched a court case to force the federal government to permit euthanasia for mental health issues alone. The lives of veterans are at risk.

Gunn Reid has not completed her examination of the documents from Veterans Affairs that she received through access to information.