Kelsi Sheren: MAID and the Cost of Abandonment

No to euthanasia for mental illness.

Kelsi Sheren - Parliamentary Press Gallery Speech for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition in support of Bill C-218, the bill that will prevent euthanasia for mental illness alone, on October 28, 2025. Kelsi's speech begins at 10 minutes 15 seconds.

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Hi everyone, my name is Kelsi Sheren.

When I was 18 I put the uniform on and deployed to Afghanistan at 19 I understood that I might die for my country.

What I didn’t understand was that one day, my own government would quietly offer to help me do it.

I’m here today as a Canadian combat veteran. I live with PTSD, a traumatic brain injury, major depressive disorder, treatment resistant depression and hearing loss…..that weight never really leaves. I'm 100% disabled. I’ve seen what war does not just overseas, but long after you come home. 

And what I’m seeing now is something I never thought possible in Canada.

Behind closed doors, in quiet conversations, veterans are being offered Medical Assistance in Dying not therapy, not recovery, but death.

And today, Senator Pamela Wallin is hosting a back door closed meeting with the pro death cult Dying with Dignity. She is helping them lobby to convince more MP’s that they should be voting to kill more vulnerable, disabled Canadians starting in 2027.

We’re told it’s compassion. We’re told it’s “a choice.” But when someone’s drowning in trauma and desperation that’s not choice. That’s coercion wearing a polite face.

I’ve spoken with veterans who reached out for help asking for therapy, for treatment, for hope. And what they got instead was an offer to end their life.

This is not one or two. This is well documented of over 20 and growing., I know this because I report on it daily and people trust me with their stories.

Imagine how deep that hopelessness must go when your own country looks at you and decides that death is the best it can give you.

This isn’t hypothetical. It’s happening. And it’s not just veterans.

People with disabilities, with chronic pain, depression, or poverty they’re being told the same thing.

They’re being nudged toward death because supporting them is seen as too expensive, too inconvenient.

This is the uncomfortable truth.. this is not compassion when death is offered instead of care. It’s a moral rot disguised as mercy.

And while all this is happening, Canada still refuses to give veterans access to the treatments that could actually save lives treatments like psychedelic-assisted therapy.

Evidence-based. Safe. Effective. Used and studied around the world to treat PTSD and trauma.

But here? Here we’re told no. Here we’re told to suffer quietly.

Or worse — we’re told to die “with dignity.”

That’s not dignity. That’s policy-driven despair, driven by sick people to hurt more.

This isn’t healthcare. This is surrender. And it sends a clear message: Your life costs too much.

Veterans are dying. People with disabilities are dying. Not because they want to but because they’ve been convinced their lives no longer matter by the entire healthcare system, lobby groups and their government.

Canada doesn’t even track veteran suicides. I know this, because I am testifying to just that later today. Think about that. We send soldiers to war, and when they come home broken, we stop counting.

It’s easier not to face the truth when you refuse to measure it.

This is a government choosing death over duty every single day.

Veterans and civilians don’t need MAID. We need meaning. We need community, We need real treatment. We need a country that still believes we’re worth saving.

So let’s stop calling this “choice.” Because it’s not a choice when survival isn’t an option.

This isn’t about dying with dignity, giving up and quitting when life gets hard.

We want a life with real dignity and rolling back the expansion of MAiD is the only way to achieve that.

Thank you.

Picture: (Dr Paul Saba, Alex Schadenberg, Kelsi Sheren, Gordon Friesen)