He Sold Death On Shopify. Canada Built The Market.

This article was published on Kelsi Sheren’s Substack on June 2, 2026.

By Kelsi Sheren

I want you to think about a 16 year old.

Not hypothetically. An actual kid. In Ontario. Who went online, found a website, placed an order, and received a package in the mail containing the means to end their life.

The man who sent it just pled guilty.

Article: Canadian man pleads guilty to aiding suicide in 14 deaths (Read).

Fourteen counts. Fourteen dead in Ontario alone. Seventy-nine more in Britain being factored into sentencing. At least 130 total. Shipped to 41 countries. Nearly $300,000 in revenue. Consultation calls included. Documentation that explicitly absolved him of responsibility for “the end use of its products.”

Kenneth Law ran a death business and it was booming.

He built multiple storefronts on Shopify. Named them things like Imtime Cuisine and EscMode. Sold hot sauce alongside the poison to make it look like a food company. Put “SN” in the logo a nod to ... for the customers who knew what they were actually buying. Bundled gas masks and nitrogen regulators with the kits. Offered consultation calls. Sent 1,209 packages to 41 countries and collected $300,000 through Shopify and PayPal like any other Canadian small business.

He’s going to get 14 years. Maximum. If the court actually delivers that. We find out in September.

Murder charges? Dropped. Plea deal. Aiding suicide. Cleaner charge. Lighter optics. The same way everything in this country gets softened when the subject is death.

Here’s what nobody wants to say out loud.

Canada spent a decade telling its own people that death is a solution. We built the infrastructure. We wrote the billing codes. We trained the practitioners. We gave it a name that sounds like a spa treatment Medical Assistance in Dying and we put it in hospitals next to maternity wards. We expanded it and expanded it again and we’re about to expand it to people whose only condition is a mental illness.

We did not create Kenneth Law. But we absolutely created his customer base.

You don’t spend ten years normalizing the idea that suffering is best resolved by dying and then act confused when someone builds a business around it. He didn’t manufacture demand. He found it and he packaged it behind a hot sauce label. He shipped it to a 16-year-old in Ontario and two other children who weren’t supposed to be able to order at all and somehow did anyway.

The same week Law pled guilty, Canada quietly crossed 100,000 MAiD MURDERS since 2016.

One hundred thousand.

That number got less coverage than a mid-level political scandal. It landed with almost no noise. Because we’ve normalized it so thoroughly that six figures doesn’t register as a crisis anymore. It registers as a program working as intended.

I am a combat veteran. I have been assessed as eligible for MAiD under Canada’s current criteria. I’ve said that to Parliament. I’ve said it on Triggernometry. I’ll keep saying it until someone in power feels the weight of what that means. I’ll keep saying it until someone in power feels the weight of what that means.

The system doesn’t distinguish between a soldier who survived war and a teenager who found a website. It just sees suffering it can close a file on.

Kenneth Law saw the same thing. He just didn’t have a medical license.

He’s going to prison. That’s correct, but the ideology that made his product desirable that gave it cultural permission, that built the demand, that told an entire generation of vulnerable people that death is a reasonable off-ramp for pain that’s still fully operational.

Still funded.
Still expanding.
Still coming for people I know.

The dead don’t talk. The families are traumatized and mostly silent. The practitioners who approved the deaths are protected by law. And the people who designed the whole system are still writing op-eds about dignity and compassion and calling critics emotional.

I’m angry, pissed off and over people accepting this. You should be too.

Alberta Bill 18 will prevent euthanasia of people who are not terminally ill.

Alberta Bill 18 was debated in the Alberta legislature on March 31, 2026. The debate begin on page 1332 of Hansard.

Hon. Mickey Amery

This is the speech by Alberta's Minister of Justice, Hon Mickey Amery in support of Bill 18.

Bill 18 will provide limits to euthanasia (Read).

Second Reading Bill 18 Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act

The Speaker: The Hon. Minister of Justice. Mr. Amery: Well, thank you very much, 

Mr. Speaker. As always, I am pleased to rise and speak in this Chamber, in particular today to Bill 18, the Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act. 

If passed, this critically important bill would assure that medical assistance in dying remains an exception, an end-of-life intervention, and should not become routine or replace the provision of proper medical care, disability, or social care here in Alberta. Bill 18 would help ensure the protection of vulnerable Albertans and that medical assistance in dying, or MAID, as it’s commonly referred to, is only provided as a means of last resort as it was first intended to be when limited MAID criminal defences were added in 2016 to the federal Criminal Code. Our government believes that when the outcome is death, the system must meet the highest standards of care, transparency, oversight, and, of course, accountability. 

Mr. Speaker, we also believe that the compassionate approach is one that helps people live with dignity, not defaulting to doctor assisted death. It was with that in mind that we undertook the development of this legislation. It’s become abundantly clear and evident that we need to bring in safeguards to ensure protection, care, and dignity for all, especially our most vulnerable. 

Now, Canada has the fastest growing death rates in the world when it comes to MAID. Far from being an option of last resort, MAID is now the fifth leading cause of death in Canada. The country is currently projected to reach its 100,000th death by MAID in June, (actually mid-April) becoming the first nation in the modern era to measure its total assisted deaths in the six figures, more than the totals of any other jurisdiction with some form of legal, doctor-assisted death. Far from being the exception, an option of last resort, it has instead become routine, rising 13-fold since legalization. 

When legalized, MAID was always intended to be an option of last resort, yet it has become a substitute for care for those who are suffering from loneliness, poverty, mental illness, or social isolation. Health Canada reports that nearly half of track 2 MAID deaths involved suffering from loneliness or isolation, while almost half indicated that they felt that they were a burden. Ontario’s MAID Death Review Committee found that most track 2 recipients were low income. Many did not name a family member as next of kin, suggesting that they were experiencing some form of social isolation. 

Mr. Speaker, that information is sobering and it is saddening. It drives home just how important it is that we provide the necessary safeguards before things completely spiral out of control. Our government believes that those experiencing loneliness, isolation, or poverty should be met with compassion and care, not with doctor-assisted death.

Now, similarly, in March of 2025 the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities released findings on Canada’s compliance with the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. The committee sounded the alarm on track 2 MAID in Canada, suggesting that it devalues people with disabilities and acts as a dangerous alternative to providing social and economic supports. They have called on Canada to repeal MAID where death is not reasonably foreseeable. 

If passed, Bill 18 affirms this recommendation, limiting MAID in Alberta to those whose natural death has been determined to be reasonably foreseeable. Now, when this bill was tabled, Inclusion Alberta affirmed this direction, stating that “track 2 MAID discriminates against persons with disabilities and [it] reinforces dangerous stereotypes about the [value or] worth of their lives.” Bill 18 will serve as a correction. It would protect Albertans with disabilities from discrimination by ensuring Alberta’s health system does not provide assisted suicide to people whose death is not reasonably foreseeable. 

Mr. Speaker, our government believes that MAID should not be a substitute for robust health care options, mental health supports, or palliative care. To this end, one of our government’s central concerns raised through the review is the federal government’s planned expansion of MAID eligibility to include individuals who only have an underlying health condition of mental illness. Now, there’s a serious risk that vulnerable Albertans living with mental illness may choose this most final of actions when other treatment options are available. A majority of Canadians do not support this MAID expansion, with September 2023 polling finding that only 28 per cent of Canadians believe that this expansion is appropriate and 82 per cent of Canadians believing that mental health care should be improved instead. 

If Bill 18 is passed, MAID would be prohibited for people whose sole condition is seeking MAID for an underlying mental health illness. Now, as the CEO for the centre of suicide prevention Alberta has stated at the tabling of Bill 18: recovery from mental illness is possible, expected even; for that reason, we welcome the steps Alberta is taking through the legislation to strengthen protections for those experiencing mental illness. 

Mr. Speaker, the compassionate response to those suffering from mental illness is what this government has been doing since the very beginning. It is support and care. It is not death.

To further protect vulnerable Albertans, Alberta’s legislation would prohibit MAID for minors and those without capacity to make their own health care decisions. It would also make sure that the consultation is robust, that consultation provided ensures that those that are seeking MAID are not coerced or pressured and that those individuals who are looking to get MAID are the ones that take a proactive approach to seek that information. Mr. Speaker, coercion and pressure is not a real choice. Albertans should never be pressured to end their own lives. Now, Bill 18 strengthens protections of vulnerable individuals from coercion by ensuring that regulated health care professionals cannot initiate MAID discussions in the course of providing everyday health services. Instead, the patient must inquire about MAID services first. This government believes and it always has believed that when it comes to MAID, care should always be the first option. 

The proposed legislation would address gaps in the current federal system within Alberta. It would ensure that vulnerable Albertans, including those suffering from mental illness, are protected by setting strong and consistent standards. I urge all members in this House to take the approach of compassion and be mindful about the sensitivities and the complexities of this consequential and very important bill. I would hope that the members opposite and members on this side of the Assembly support this very important bill. Mr. Speaker, hope must always be more accessible than death. 

With that, Mr. Speaker, I move second reading of Bill 18. Thank you.

Canadian veteran: 20 veterans have been offered euthanasia.

Kelsi Sheren speech to the Canadian Parliament Veteran's Affairs Committee on October 28, 2025.

I served this country at eighteen.

I went to war on your behalf — a war we now know was built on lies.

I buried friends under the same flag hanging in this room.

And I’ve watched that same flag burned outside these walls while you all stand silent calling it freedom when we know its terrorism.

Here’s the truth: Canada doesn’t count veteran suicides, you never have.

If you don’t count us, you don’t have to admit you failed us.

Every single day since Afghanistan, another Canadian veteran dies by suicide — sometimes two or more.. but you wouldn’t no that.

And the Government of Canada still refuses to track it, publish it, or face it.

You hide behind one outdated study from 2016 as if that’s enough.

It isn’t. It’s cowardice.

We came home to neglect, bureaucracy, and betrayal.

When veterans reach out for help, this government sends investigators, not healers.

We’re followed, watched, and drugged — not treated.

And when that doesn’t work, your system offers us death.

I helped break the story when Veterans Affairs began offering MAID to veterans instead of therapy.

You said it stopped. It hasn’t.

You’re still offering MAID, still issuing NDAs and payouts to shut us up, I no this to be fact. 

Over 20 veterans have confirmed offers of MAID, and I have proof of more.

Offering death to the people you sent to war is moral rot, and this government is full of it.

It is a betrayal of the highest order.

And offering MAID to people with PTSD is beyond insane.

Research shows 46% of those with PTSD have suicidal thoughts — and 19% attempt suicide.

You don’t offer them a needle, a paralytic and drug that fill your lungs as you drown to death in your own fluid…  You offer them help.

Instead, you threaten our benefits if we speak out.

You silence us with bureaucracy and fear.

And your Veterans Affairs Minister — a figurehead with ZERO credibility — blocks veterans online for telling the truth. I know this because she called for a photo op with me and when I said no she began blocking my posts and comments on her social media for calling out her hypocritical behaviour.

Weak leaders like our Veterans Affairs Minister breed case managers who think they can get away with anything including offering to kill us.

One of the reasons I say this so confidently, is because I just did a press conference opposing MAID and the expansion. 

At the same time Senator Pamela Wallin of Saskatchewan is facilitating a back door closed meeting with MP’S and Senators with Canada’s government funded pro death cult, dying with dignity. 

Lobbying our government to continue to expand death as a solution for the disabled, homeless, Mentally ill and our veterans. The senator who said she cares about veterans lives and built a political platform off of us, is right now as we speak lobbying in another room to kill us.

You don’t fix a broken system by euthanizing the people who protected it.

And while you fund death and continue to expand, you deny life-saving treatments.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is proven and peer-reviewed to treat PTSD and depression.

Other nations across the globe study it and successfully use it. Canada buries it in red tape.

I know, because I’m the only person in Canadian history to legally receive medical psilocybin outside clinical trials.

Before I was approved, Health Canada offered me electroshock therapy as a solution after over a decade of screaming for help.

Think about that — this government would rather electrocute a veteran’s brain than allow a plant.

One of the only reason I’m alive is because Apex Labs fought through the Special Access Program, not this government, they did everything they could to shut down my support.

Every treatment that’s helped me has come from outside Canada, except for Dr. Passy in Vancouver— The rest of the treatment was paid for by Americans like Heroic hearts project, defenders of freedom and private donors.

While you hand out opioids in vending machines, acting like your helping. We’re begging for actual solutions you refuse to provide.

This is what betrayal looks like.

You spend billions a year on Indigenous and veteran programs, yet the money never reaches the people who need it.

It dies in committees, paperwork, and photo ops.

Meanwhile, half a billion dollars goes to foreign wars — while the soldiers who fought for this one can’t get basic care.

So let’s be radically honest.

This hearing — this room — is theatre, everyone here knows it.

But somewhere in this country, a country that used to look and act like Canada, a veteran won’t make it to morning.

A family will lose their loved one.

Children will grow up without a parent.

And the void they leave will never, ever be filled.

It won’t be because they were weak.

Not because they didn’t try every minute of every day just to keep breathing.

It’ll be because a country that sent them to war and keeps sending kids to wars built on lies refused to bring them all the way home.

And it will be your fault. That blood will be on your hands.

I will tell anyone who wants to join: don’t.

They will leave you to die, and step over your body.

Veterans aren’t asking for pity. We’re demanding accountability.

Count every death. Publish the data.

Stop offering death as policy. Fund treatments that work.

Train case managers who actually understand trauma.

Stop selling our care to insurance companies.

You call us heroes when it’s convenient and “terrorists” when we speak up.

That’s not leadership. That’s shame.

We were trained to fight for this country.

Now we’re forced to fight against it — just to stay alive after serving it.

So yes — I live with PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and major depressive disorder, hearing loss and treatment resistant depression

But I’m still here. And I will spend the rest of my life exposing this government’s failures until no veteran or person in this country sees MAID as their only way out.

If you ignore us after today, every suicide that follows belongs to you too.

Because what you refuse to confront, you choose to allow.

Fund the real solutions.

Stop choosing drugs and death over healing and humanity.

We had a saying in uniform:

Never leave anyone behind.

It’s time this government started living by that.

Thank you.

Sonu Gaind: Unravelling MAiD in Canada.

EPC has copies of the book Unravelling MAiD in Canada available for purchase.

Purchase the book from EPC for $40 (after tax) + shipping (Order Link).

Previous article: Ramona Coelho: Unravelling MAiD in Canada (Link).

The following speech was presented by Dr Gaind for the April 15 launch of the book: Unravelling MAiD in Canada.

Dr. Sonu Gaind is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and Chief of Psychiatry at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He is an Executive Member and Medical Practice & Tariff Chair of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) Section on Psychiatry and Chair of the OMA Relativity Advisory Committee, and a Past-President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.

Sonu Gaind speaking at book launch.

Dr K. Sonu Gaind

You know, we often say it’s the journey and not the destination, but in this case I’m not so sure. It’s been a pretty rough journey for many advocating in this area, and it is pretty great to finally see this important work see the light of day. 

I’m so appreciative of the chance to be standing here with my co editors, Ramona Coelho and Trudo Lemmens, as we launch this book. I truly hope it contributes to our national discourse as we, as a society, continue navigating the challenging waters of how, and what, we should or should not be helping people die for. I also want to thank all of our authors, whose wisdom and compassion shine through both in this volume and through their own advocacy, and also our publisher McGill/Queen’s University Press for their support and guidance through this process.

And of course, thank all of you for being here today, both in person and online (we have another about 40 or 50 people online ). A particular shout out to my dad, who couldn’t be here for health reasons but is watching - Dada, I think by now you’ve probably read and re-read the book more carefully than me, Trudo and Ramona put together. And while I’m doing shout outs, the loudest has to be to my wife Lystra and my kids Dante and Sabine even when this work has taken me away from you, you’ve always still been there for me.

When I look around this room I’m amazed by the range of friends and colleagues who have come out to celebrate this occasion with us. Thank you all so much. We have university colleagues, hospital and workplace colleagues, old friends and new confreres we’ve met and made through this journey. The diversity is remarkable, and I think a testament to how important this issue is, and how deeply people want to think about and engage in it, if given a chance.

Why we might choose, as a society, to provide death to fellow Canadians is a hugely complex issue, and one that should engender robust and honest debate. It’s legitimate to debate when it might be compassionate to help relieve suffering, versus when it might be abandonment to facilitate suicide.

Unfortunately that honest debate is not what has driven our MAiD expansion so far. Instead, as outlined in my chapter, Fall of Duty: The Breach of Trust and Moral Failure of Canada’s Entrusted Experts, and other chapters in the book, we’ve had troubling processes that have led to Canada becoming the world’s canary in a coal mine on euthanasia expansion. As Trudo will mention, the United Nations has explicitly raised concerns that our own policy makers refuse to acknowledge, of the existential risks our current MAiD expansions pose to marginalized Canadians.

That’s why I think this book is so important. From lived experience, expertise, cultural considerations and lenses of diversity, the authors unflinchingly explore not only why our most privileged, who have lived well and want autonomy to die well, might seek MAiD; but also why our most marginalized, struggling with access to social care, who society never afforded a chance to live with dignity, might (and are) increasingly seeking available euthanasia to escape life's suffering.

What we provide death for is the flip side of how we help people live.

It’s not an easy message to hear, but it’s an essential one, since I can’t think of much that defines us more as a society is that we help people live with dignity before they need to "choose" death as their only option. And for bringing these perspectives forward with eloquence, clarity, humanity and humility, often in the face of privileged voices trying to stifle any cautions, I’m deeply grateful to all our authors and co-editors to have been part of this endeavour.

Book Launch on April 15, 2025 (Link to Video)

Ontario man arrested for selling suicide substance.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An Ontario man, Kenneth Law, has been arrested and charged with two counts of assisting a suicide and is known to have assisted the suicide of at least 7 people in the US and the UK.

Neha Raju and Tom Parfett

Lucas Casaletto reported for City News that:

Peel Regional Police announced the arrest of a 57-year-old Ontario man stemming from the online distribution of sodium nitrite across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) that resulted in two deaths.

Authorities in Peel Region opened an investigation following a report from the Times of London in the United Kingdom. It mentioned that a GTA resident named Kenneth Law had been selling sodium nitrite, a legal but lethal drug, to people in the U.K. and the U.S., which resulted in seven suicides.

On March 31, officers in Peel Region began investigating the circumstances of a sudden death in Ontario. It is believed that Law distributed and marketed the substance online to target individuals at risk of self-harm.

Law was arrested by Peel police on Tuesday and charged with two counts of counselling or aiding in suicide. He appeared briefly in a Brampton court on Wednesday, where his case was put over to next week. 

An article by George Odling for the Daily Mail explains that Kenneth Law is linked to four suicide deaths in the UK including Neha Raju and Tom Parfett. Odling reported that: 

Law allegedly gave instructions about the poison to an undercover reporter posing as a suicidal customer, and boasted that some buyers had told him he was doing 'God's work'.

He claimed to have sent the poison to hundreds of buyers in Britain and pledged to continue to do so until he had exhausted his inventory - despite pleas from UK police forces and coroners.

Odling also reported that Anthony Jones, an American who also died after consuming the substance obtained from Law told his mother, as he was dying, that he wanted to live. 

Ximena Knol

Similarly, a Netherlands man was arrested on Febuary 21, 2022 in the deaths of four people who died after ingesting a suicide powder.

Ximena, who was 19 years-old, died in February 2018 after ingesting the suicide powder.

 

The Netherland Coöperatie Laatste Wil (CLW) assisted suicide group has promoted the suicide powder. The Public Prosecution Service arrested the CLW chairman, Jos van Wijk, in September 2021 for his alleged involvement in promoting and distributing the suicide powder.

 

Kenneth Law was distributing the same suicide powder as the The Netherland Coöperatie Laatste Wil (CLW) group was promoting.

EPC published an article by Randy Knol, the father of Ximena. Since then Randy has been working to ban the lethal suicide powder. Randy is the founder and chairman of the Ximena’s Butterfly Foundation.

Seattle Times article pushes for Canadian style assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A Seattle Times Opinion article published on January 13, 2023 advocates for the removal of the terminal illness requirement before dying by assisted suicide.

In the article, Peter Haley writes about a woman in Washington State who died by suicide because she did not qualify for assisted suicide since she didn't have a six-month terminal prognosis.

The advocacy article urges Washington State to change their assisted suicide law to become similar to the Canada's law. It states:

...I’m also angry because we, as citizens in charge of our laws, have badly failed her and many others. We need to improve these laws as Canada’s Parliament did in 2016.

We should drop the six-month requirement and keep the requirements that a patient have a grievous and irremediable medical condition, an advanced state of decline and unbearable suffering from the illness. And we should keep the more general safeguards regarding the patient’s age, mental health, informed consent, unacceptable motives, pressure from family or others, et cetera.

By removing the terminal illness requirement, Canadians with disabilties have died an assisted death because of poverty, homelessness, an inability to receive necessary medical treatment, and more. Veterans with PTSD were offered an assisted death rather than receive treatment. Canada has approved euthanasia for mental illness, even though it is currently on hold, and Canada is discussing euthanasia for children.

America's death lobby wants to follow Canada's disasterous assisted death law. Be careful about what you wish for.

Links to stories of concerning Canada's assisted death law:

• No other options: An exposé on euthanasia in Canada (Link).
• Toronto Star: We need to put the brakes on euthanasia (Link).
• Globe and Mail: No to euthanasia for mental disorders (Link).
  
• Veterans affairs worker advocates euthanasia for PTSD (Link).
• Canadian man claims that he was pressured to request euthanasia (Link).
  
• Why did they kill my brother (Link).
  
• Manitoba woman died by euthanasia based on inadequate home care (Link).
• Quebec man seeks euthanasia based on changes to home care (Link). 
• Alberta man requests euthanasia based on poverty (Link).
• Ontario man approved for euthanasia because he can't get medical treatment (Link).
• Shopping for doctor death in Canada (Link).
• Gwen is seeking euthanasia because she can't access medical treatment (Link).
• Euthanasia for disability and poverty (Link).
• Euthanasia for Long Covid and poverty (Link).
• Canada's MAiD law is the most permissive in the world. (Link).

Food Bank clients asking for euthanasia because of poverty.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Meagan Nicholls who is a director of a food bank in Mississauga Ontario, near Toronto, wrote an article that was published by Maclean's Magazine on November 30, 2022 stating that:

“Clients are telling us they're considering medically assisted death or suicide because they can’t live in grinding poverty anymore.”

Nicholls states that demand on the food bank has increased by 60% since the pandemic. She stated that in the past they served 19,000 people per year and they are now serving 30,000 people per year. She also said that the increase in the cost of food has led to a 30% increase in demand for the food bank this year.

Nicholls then writes:

Meanwhile, the government has weakened our social safety net to a disheartening degree. At the provincial level, Ontario Works (our welfare system) and the Ontario Disability Support Program are woefully underfunded. We’re at the point where clients on these programs are telling us they’re considering medically assisted death or suicide because they can’t live in grinding poverty anymore. A client in our Food Bank 2 Home delivery program told one of our staff that they’re considering suicide because they’re so tired of suffering through poverty. Another client asked if we knew how to apply for MAID for the same reasons. We can’t underestimate the effect that poverty has on someone’s mental health. Our clients live with constant worry, and cut corners on needed items like medication, fresh food, or warm clothes—constantly living under that stress takes its toll mentally, emotionally and physically.

I don’t know how to ring the alarm bell any louder. When people start telling us they’re going to end their life because they can’t live in poverty anymore, it’s clear that we’ve failed them.

This is a significant article because Nicholls is genuinely shocked that people would be seking to be killed because of poverty. 

Since expanding euthanasia to people with chronic conditions who are not terminally ill, Canada has had a large number of euthanasia of people with disabilities who are asking to be killed because of poverty, homelessness and an inability to get necessary medical treatment.

Links to more stories of the euthanasia experience in Canada:

• Man changed his mind about euthanasia after receiving a wheelchair lift (Link)
• Veterans affairs offers euthanasia to former paralympian (Link).
• Veterans affairs worker advocates euthanasia for PTSD (Link).
• Canadian man claims that he was pressured to request euthanasia (Link).
  
• Why did they kill my brother (Link).
  
• Manitoba woman died by euthanasia based on inadequate home care (Link).
• Quebec man seeks euthanasia based on changes to home care (Link). 
• Alberta man requests euthanasia based on poverty (Link).
• Ontario man approved for euthanasia because he can't get medical treatment (Link).
• Shopping for doctor death in Canada (Link).
• Gwen is seeking euthanasia because she can't access medical treatment (Link).
• Euthanasia for disability and poverty (Link).
• Euthanasia for Long Covid and poverty (Link).
• Canada's MAiD law is the most permissive in the world. (Link).

MAiD (euthanasia) for mental illness ignores safeguards for vulnerable people

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Dr K. Sonu Gaind

Dr. K. Sonu Gaind who is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, a past president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA) and a member of the Council of Canadian Academies expert advisory group on MAiD was published yesterday by the Conversation concerning the approval of euthanasia for people with mental illness alone.

Gaind explains why this topic is being considered:

People whose suffering is caused by mental illness alone do not currently have access to MAID. However, the Senate recommended Bill C-7 contain a “sunset clause” that would lift this exclusion in 18 months. The Trudeau government has extended the clause to 24 months but has otherwise accepted it, meaning that in 18 to 24 months, MAID will be provided to those suffering solely from a mental illness.

Gaind examines the known evidence on this topic:

The fundamental underpinning of all MAID requests is supposed to be the presence of “a grievous and irremediable medical condition.” The blunt and indisputable reality is that, unlike for much more predictable medical conditions with better understood biologies, it remains currently impossible to predict whether mental illness is irremediable.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health has concluded: “There is simply not enough evidence available in the mental health field … to ascertain whether a particular individual has an irremediable mental illness.”

After 15 months of studying global evidence, the Council of Canadian Academies came to the same conclusion, as did the Expert Advisory Group on MAID. Both the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) have also concluded that there’s no evidence to support providing MAID solely for mental illness.

Sign the petition: No to euthanasia for mental illness and incompetent people! (Link)

Gaind explains why safeguards are not effective for people with mental illness:

Those who advocate expanding access to MAID propose mitigating this reality with “safeguards.” This ignores the fact that irremediability is itself the primary safeguard built into the MAID framework, and bypassing it renders all other supposed “safeguards” meaningless.

Because we cannot predict irremediability, there is 100 per cent certainty that MAID will be provided to some people who could recover — there is no safeguard against that. Suggesting otherwise is akin to a society that declines to use the death penalty over concerns of potentially executing the innocent, but then implements the death penalty anyway with false “safeguards” to reassure the public even as the wrongly convicted are executed.

Gaind challenges the Canadian Psychiatric Associations for focusing on opinion and ignoring evidence:

Regrettably, while the APA and RANZCP have provided meaningful evidence-based guidance in their societies’ debates on MAID and mental illness, Canadian psychiatric associations have not. After failing to consult members for two years, the Canadian Psychiatric Association released its position statement in 2020 that “patients with a psychiatric illness … should have available the same options regarding MAID as available to all patients.” Remarkably, the association also said that its statement was “never intended to … examine whether psychiatric conditions are irremediable and if so, how this should be assessed.”

Equally remarkably, the president of the Québec Psychiatric Association (AMPQ) responded to concerns about the lack of supporting evidence by saying in recent Senate hearings: “This is not a data-driven question, this is an ethical question.” That sentiment is reflected in an AMPQ document offering guidance on developing a MAID framework for mental illness.

Gaind continues by presenting his position based on the evidence:

Other evidence highlights the risks of providing access to easy death to suicidal, vulnerable and marginalized people who are not dying but suffering from psychosocial life stress. Even the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has raised the alarm that Canada’s pending MAID policy will prematurely end vulnerable lives.

These concerns simply serve as icing on the cake to the indisputable, evidence-based reality that there is no predictably irremediable mental illness for which MAID can be provided. And the government’s 24-month sunset clause is as meaningful as a decree telling coronavirus to disappear — non-existent evidence cannot simply be commanded to appear.

Gaind continues with his concerns based on how common mental illness is:

We are poised to provide death for mental illness to potentially suicidal, non-dying marginalized people suffering from life distress who have the potential to recover — all based on less evidence than is required for the approval of any sleeping pill. Given the ubiquity of mental illness, no family needs to look very far to appreciate the implications.

Years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting our prime minister’s mother, Margaret Trudeau, to present her a mental health advocate award from the Ontario Psychiatric Association. I recall her vibrancy as she spoke of her life experiences and graciously mingled with my colleagues and me after dinner. I also recall the poignancy of her descriptions of despair during her periods of deep depression, including hopeless times she wished to die.

Gaind finishes his article by calling for honesty in the debate:

If Canada wants to provide MAID to people who are suffering but whose illness might get better, we should have an honest debate and our MAID framework should reflect that. But if MAID is meant for irremediable conditions, evidence shows it would be a dishonest and hypocritical deception to offer it for mental illness.

Unfortunately, in Canada’s debate about medical assistance in dying, evidence has already been provided a medically assisted death.

More articles on this topic:

• Article: Canadian Psychiatric Association position on euthanasia for psychiatric reasons is an embarrassment (Link).
• Article: Canadian Psychiatric Association approves euthanasia (Link). 
• Article: Is euthanasia psychiatric treatment? (Link).
• Article: Why legalizing medical assistance in dying for people with mental illness is misguided (Link).
• Article: Canada's Justice Minister says that euthanasia may be extended to people with mental illness (Link). 
• Article: Quebec court expands euthanasia by striking the terminal illness requirement. Euthanasia for psychiatric reasons is next (Link).  
• Article: Psychiatrists must prevent suicide, not provide it (Link).
•  Article: Physically healthy depressed man died by euthanasia in BC (Link). 
• Article: Dr Mark Komrad: Why psychiatrists should oppose euthanasia (Link).

Canada's Parliament to debate euthanasia for mental illness and incompetent people.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Last week I reported that Canada's Senate passed Bill C-7, the bill to expand Canada's euthanasia law, with dangerous amendments that would further expand the law. 

The Senate passed five amendments to Bill C-7. The primary amendments were expanding euthanasia to people with mental illness (with an 18 month reprieve for the federal government to develop rules) and incompetent people who had requested death in their advanced directive.

By passing Bill C-7, on February 17, with amendments, the bill now goes back to parliament for debate on the amendments.

Article: Senate passes Bill C-7 to allow euthanasia for mental illness and incompetent people (Link).

Join more than 52,000 people who have signed the petition: Reject euthanasia Bill C-7 (Link).

You need to contact your member of parliament to reject the Senate amendments and Bill C-7. The link to the list of Members of Parliament:

https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en/search

In September 2019, Québec Superior court Justice Christine Baudouin, in Truchon, struck down the requirement that a person's natural death be reasonably foreseeable in Canada's euthanasia law and gave the federal government until March 11, 2020 to amend the law. At that time, Canada was in the middle of a federal election. The government decided not to appeal the decision.

On February 17, Canada's Justice Minister, David Lametti asked the Quebec Superior court for a four month extension to incorporate the court decision into the law. The Quebec court agreed to the four month extension, giving the federal government until July 11, 2020 to extend the euthanasia law.

On February 24, the federal government introduced Bill C-7 in response to the Quebec Superior Court decision Truchon decision. Bill C-7 goes far beyond Truchon. Due to the COVID-19 crisis Bill C-7 was re-introduced on October 5, 2020. Canada's Justice Minister, once again, requested an extension from the Quebec Superior court and it was granted for December 18, 2020. 

In early December, parliament passed Bill C-7, without amendments and sent it to the Senate, but due to time restriction, the Justice Minister asked the Quebec Superior court for a third extension, that was granted, giving the federal government until February 26 to pass Bill C-7.

Justice Minister David Lametti has now asked the Quebec Superior court to for a fourth extension to stay the Truchon decision until March 26.

What is exasperating is the fact that the court imposed deadline should not be a primary concern. Even if the Quebec Superior court does not extend the stay of the Truchon decision, all it means is that the decision comes into effect without the actual law changing. Normally this would be a concern but since Bill C-7 goes far beyond Truchon, it is not an important deadline.

All this has happened without the government first completing its required parliamentary review of the law, a review that was legislated by the original euthanasia law that was passed in 2016. The government has no right expand MAiD without first reviewing the law.

For instance, as bad as Bill C-7 was, the Senate expanded the bill to include people with mental illness (with an 18 month "moratorium" to develop rules) and for incompetent people who request death in their advanced directive.

The mental illness alone amendment seemed like a "set-up" after Justice Minister Lametti, announced on November 24 that, once Bill C-7 passed, he wanted to expand euthanasia to people for mental illness alone.

The Senate had no right to even consider expanding euthanasia to people who request death in their advanced directive since the issue was not even studied by the House of Commons or Senate hearings on Bill C-7. The Senate simply reacted to an emotionally compelling speech by Senator Wallin.

What did  Bill C-7 do before it was amended?

1. Bill C-7 removes the requirement in the law that a person’s natural death be reasonably foreseeable in order to qualify for assisted death. Therefore, people who are not terminally ill can die by euthanasia. The Quebec court decision only required this amendment to the law, but Bill C-7 went further.

2. Bill C-7 permits a doctor or nurse practitioner to lethally inject a person who is incapable of consenting, if that person was previously approved for assisted death. This contravenes the Supreme Court of Canada Carter decision which stated that only competent people could die by euthanasia.

3. Bill C-7 waives the ten-day waiting period if a person's natural death is deemed to be reasonably foreseeable. Thus a person could request death by euthanasia on a "bad day" and die the same day. Studies prove that the “will to live” fluctuates.

4. Bill C-7 creates a two track law. A person whose natural death is deemed to be reasonably foreseeable has no waiting period while a person whose natural death is not deemed to be reasonably foreseeable would have a 90 day waiting period before being killed by lethal injection.

5. As stated earlier, Bill C-7 falsely claims to prevent euthanasia for people with mental illness. The euthanasia law permits MAiD for people who are physically or psychologically suffering that is intolerable to the person and that cannot be relieved in a way that the person considers acceptable. However, mental illness, which is not defined in the law, is considered a form of psychological suffering.

Bill C-7 went much further than the Quebec Superior Court Truchon  decision and now the Senate has made it worse. 

Join more than 52,000 people who have signed the petition: Reject euthanasia Bill C-7 (Link).

You need to contact your member of parliament to reject the Senate amendments and Bill C-7. The link to the list of Members of Parliament:

https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en/search

Media Release: Delta Hospice Society - Layoffs and Eviction.

Members of the media are urged to view the attached video link that explains why the Delta Hospice Society has been forced to issue layoff notices to all clinical staff prior to our role concluding inside our Hospice effective Feb. 25, 2021. 

Link to the Press release (Link). Link to the youtube message: (Link).

The board of DHS deeply regrets being compelled to take this action. Tragically, as the video and the attached background document make clear, we have been left no other choice due to the Fraser Health Authority canceling our service agreement and 35-year lease. Fraser Health is about to evict us and expropriate approximately $15 million of our assets simply because we decline to euthanize our patients at our 10-bed Irene Thomas Hospice in Ladner, B.C.

To be clear, we accept that the provision of MAiD is an elective, legal service across Canada. Nothing in Canadian law, however, requires medically assisted death to be made available everywhere, at all times, to everyone. The Constitution of our private Society and our commitment to palliative care, bars us from offering it. Neither the board of the DHS, nor the vast majority of our patients and members want to change that.

“This is not a debate about MAiD,” says board President Angelina Ireland. “A person who wants MAiD can have it at the hospital right next door to us. This is about the B.C. government destroying a sanctuary for dying patients who want the choice to stay in a palliative care facility where MAiD is not offered. They now find their rights to equal choice being revoked. They are being disenfranchised by the very system they pay for."

Ireland notes the DHS has been so committed to protecting the right to a sanctuary for the dying that it offered to forego $750,000 in public funding last February in order to operate as an authentic palliative care centre. The Fraser Health Authority rejected the proposal without negotiation. Instead, it served DHS with a one-year notice of eviction with the intent to expropriate its assets.

“The Society has done all it can to have discussions with Fraser Health about the conflict with its Constitution. It has done all it can to follow its service agreement and required legislation. Fraser Health has made no attempt to understand the 30-year relationship with the Society, which has always been recognized for its exemplary care,” says founder and former Executive Director Nancy Macey.

Journalists and the Canadian public at large are urged to recognize where that approach has led: working notice slips for dedicated palliative care employees, and the destruction of a sanctuary for the dying. The Society is dedicated to the future of palliative care and is continuing with its supportive care services such as: bereavement counseling, vigils, spiritual care, volunteer coordination, education, social work and the many other ways it provides care directly to the community.

To arrange interviews, please contact:
Angelina Ireland, President Delta Hospice Society Board,
778-512-8088
irelandangelina@gmail.com