Is it a choice when a veteran with PTSD can’t see a way out?

This article was published by Kelsi Sheren her substack on June 24, 2026.

Kelsi Sheren rebuts Catherine Ford’s recent piece: Everyone should have the same or equal rights

Why would we deny him his right to suicide prevention?

Catherine Ford of the Calgary Herald wants equal rights. So do I.

But here’s the question she didn’t ask in her June 24th column: equal right to what, exactly? Because the right she’s describing the right to a medically assisted death when your pain is psychiatric is not the only right on the table. There’s another one. The right to be fought for. The right to have the system stand between you and the worst moment of your life instead of handing you a form.

That right is called suicide prevention and in Canada right now, it is not equally distributed.

I served in Afghanistan. I came home. I watched what the system did and didn’t do for the people I served with. I have testified before Parliament on veteran suicide, on MAID, and on the gap between what we promise the people who put on a uniform and what we actually deliver. So when Ford writes about choice, I need her to sit with something specific.

A veteran with PTSD who cannot see a way out is not making a free choice. He is making a choice inside a tunnel. His nervous system has been altered by what he witnessed. His access to quality psychiatric care has been inadequate because Veterans Affairs wait times are documented, the underfunding is documented, the failures are documented. The tunnel he is standing in was partly built by institutional neglect.

Ford calls the parliamentary committee’s recommendation to exclude mental illness as a sole criterion “cruelty.” I call it the first responsible thing a committee has done on this file in a decade. Not because people with mental illness don’t suffer. They do. Profoundly, but because “irremediable” is doing an enormous amount of work in that sentence, and we have not been honest about what it means.

Irremediable compared to what treatment? The treatment we haven’t provided yet? The therapy that has a two-year waitlist? The psychiatrist who isn’t available in the rural community where this person lives? We are declaring conditions irremediable in a system that has never fully tried to remediate them. That is not a medical standard. That is a budget decision dressed up as compassion.

Ford anchors her argument in autonomy. Fine. Then let’s apply that standard consistently and see where it takes us.

A thirteen-year-old girl is targeted by an algorithm. Instagram surfaces content specifically calibrated to deepen her body dysmorphia. She develops an eating disorder. She wants to harm herself. Her suffering is real. It is documented. By the logic Ford is advancing that mental pain is pain, that psychiatric suffering deserves the same access as physical suffering, that we cannot treat some Canadians as “dependent children incapable of making their own decisions” on what principled basis does that girl not qualify?

I already know the answer Ford would give. She would say that’s not what she meant. That there are safeguards. That minors are different.

But that’s the problem. Once you accept that the state’s role is to facilitate death for those whose psychiatric suffering is deemed irremediable, you need a bright, defensible line about who qualifies. Canada does not have one. Belgium and the Netherlands, which have had this framework longer, do. They’ve used it on minors. They’ve used it on people whose primary diagnosis was depression and social isolation. That is not a slippery slope argument. It is what the data shows actually happened.

Ford writes that forcing some Canadians to live is cruel. I’d ask her to consider the inverse. Is it not cruel to build a system where the answer to “I can’t go on” is “we can help with that” rather than “why not, and what haven’t we tried?”

The veteran with PTSD deserves every resource this country has. He deserves peer support workers who’ve been downrange. He deserves access to treatments including psychedelic-assisted therapy, which has shown significant clinical results for treatment-resistant PTSD and which Canada has been unconscionably slow to make accessible. He deserves a system that exhausts every option before it considers the last one.

What he does not deserve is a country that skips to the end because the beginning and the middle are expensive.

Ford is right that successive Canadian governments have punted this question down the road. But she has misidentified the punt. The failure wasn’t in delaying MAID expansion. The failure was in never building the mental health infrastructure that would make “irremediable” a meaningful word rather than a bureaucratic shortcut.

Equal rights. Yes. I’m for it.

Every Canadian equally deserves a system that fights for their life before it ends it. Every Canadian equally deserves a psychiatric care system funded at the same level as emergency cardiac care. Every Canadian equally deserves to have their crisis treated as a crisis — not a decision.

That is the equal right we are not having the conversation about and until we do, I am not prepared to call a death-first system compassionate.

Kelsi Sheren is a Canadian disabled combat veteran, Author of Do No Harm? and host of The Kelsi Sheren Perspective. She has testified before Parliament on veteran suicide, MAID, and psychedelic therapy.

Mental Illness is not Terminal.

This article was published by Kelsi Sheren on her substack on March 6, 2026.

By Kelsi Sheren

Canada may be the only country on earth where the healthcare system can sometimes help you die faster than it can help you heal. That should alarm people, but it doesn’t because our media its brainwashing you.

Instead, Canadians are being slowly conditioned to accept it and provinces like Quebec, Ontario and BC are drinking the kool aid, wiping their mouth and asking for more.

Here’s the the thing. This isn’t being done through legislation alone. It’s through the current government’s media push. Paid and bought by the Liberals.

A recent CTV story profiles a Canadian woman hoping to access Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) for mental illness. The headline reassures readers: “It won’t be violent. I won’t be alone.” The tone is soft. Compassionate. Almost comforting. At first glance it feels empathetic. Human. Gentle.

But look closer and something else is happening, this is what abandonment looks like and stories like this are not just reporting. They are preparation. This is the slow drip I’ve been writing about for years. The frog in the boiling pot.

This is how societies normalize radical ideas. You don’t push the public into a moral shift all at once. You soften the ground. You tell personal stories, tug at th heart strings. “But grandma, Kelsi!” You highlight suffering. You frame the decision as brave and dignified, when it’s anything but then slowly, the public begins to see assisted death not as a tragedy or a failure of care, but as compassion. Let me be very clear, this is nothing more than a form of modern eugenics.

The article walks readers through one person’s suffering in intimate detail, but it avoids asking the uncomfortable questions responsible journalism should raise. Instead, the language gently reassures the reader. It won’t be violent. She won’t be alone. The emphasis is on dignity, control, and compassion.

That framing matters, for several reason and when media coverage consistently presents assisted death through the lens of empathy and personal relief, the public begins to associate the act itself with kindness rather than consequence.

What’s missing is just as important as what’s included. There is little discussion about recovery rates for severe depression. Little exploration of how suicidal thinking fluctuates. Little examination of the long history of suicide prevention that treats these impulses as crises to intervene in—not requests to formalize.

There is almost no attention paid to the broader system failing people long before they reach this point, failed drugs, therapy, SSRI’s, community and support. When stories like this are told without that context, they do something subtle but powerful. They normalize the idea that some suffering lives may simply be beyond help.

That is not a neutral editorial choice.

It is narrative shaping, and CTV, CBC, GLOBAL and other “mainstream” media and Canada are known for this. Let’s say the part that too many people are afraid to say out loud.

MENTAL ILLNESS IS NOT TERMINAL.

Depression, PTSD, trauma, and suicidal thinking can be brutal. They can make people believe there is no way out. I know that reality personally. I’m a combat veteran. I’ve lived through PTSD, a traumatic brain injury, hearing loss, and major depressive disorder. There were periods where the darkness was overwhelming and the idea of continuing felt impossible. I thought of suicide for over a decade. Every waking minute.

Those are exactly the kinds of conditions people are now discussing as justification for assisted death.

And yet I HEALED, contrary to the death cult’s narrative and hope I’m sure. Not overnight. Not easily. But I rebuilt my life, day by day. Breath by breath, moment by moment. I never gave up, when quitting was the easy thing to do. That’s the part of the story that rarely gets told in these conversations.

Because if someone like me had been offered death during my lowest point, I am very certain I would NOT be here today. How many others would be gone too, coerced into an early death by sick people.

Recovery from mental illness is not theoretical. It happens every single day. People stabilize. They find treatment that works. They build purpose again. They reconnect to life in ways they never thought possible. I’ve not only seen people do, I’ve helped them get there because it truly takes a village.

But when a society begins offering death as a medical solution to psychological suffering, it risks cutting those futures short. What also rarely gets mentioned is the system surrounding this debate.

Canada is in the middle of a mental health crisis. Therapy is expensive and often inaccessible. Psychiatric care can take months, at a minimum to access. Veterans struggle to get consistent treatment, if any. Housing instability, addiction, trauma, and poverty compound mental illness across the country.

In other words, help is often difficult to find, to say the least but death is becoming easier.

Canadians can spend months trying to access psychiatric care. But once someone enters the MAID system, the machinery of the state can move with stunning efficiency. In some cases, the process can unfold in a matter of hours.

Think about that. SAME DAY DEATH CARE.

We have built a healthcare system where the bureaucracy can move faster for death than it does for treatment. Thats an uncomfortable fact the media and health cults don’t want you to realize.

For decades, if someone told a doctor they wanted to die because of mental suffering, the response was immediate intervention. Crisis teams. Hospitalization. Suicide prevention. The entire point of mental health care was to stop someone from acting on a moment of despair. Simply put a 72 hr hold to protect yourself, from yourself.

Now we are debating whether the same healthcare system should sometimes agree with that impulse and formalize it. That contradiction should stop this conversation cold yet it doesn’t.

Instead, the public is being slowly acclimatized to the idea. One sympathetic story at a time. One emotional narrative at a time. The tone softens. The language shifts. The moral boundary moves.

This is the slow drip, this is the psy op everyone seems to be missing. The deeper ethical questions rarely make the headlines.

Who decides when suffering is “irremediable”? I argue Dr’s who are just as sick.

How many treatments must someone try before society agrees their life is no longer worth living? Apparently days to weeks, we don’t give anyone a fighting chance.

What happens when someone’s despair is driven not by an untreatable illness, but by poverty, isolation, trauma, or lack of care? These are not philosophical hypotheticals. These are real decisions that will affect the most vulnerable people in this country.

There is also a deeper question that almost no one in this debate seems willing to ask. Who told us we were ever promised control over how we exit this world?

At some point we began to act as if death should be scheduled, managed, and optimized like any other life decision. But no one promised us that kind of control. Life has never worked that way and it shouldn’t now.

What we do know is this moments of despair do not define the entire arc of a human life regardless of what Dr’s are telling you now. Suicidality, depression, trauma, and mental illness can feel permanent when you are inside them. They lie to you. They convince you there is no future worth waiting for. They are the dark voice. But those conditions do not have to mean death.

I am living proof of that, and I'm damn proud of it too.

A country that cannot reliably provide treatment, housing, therapy, and long-term mental health care—but can reliably provide assisted death—is sending a message about which lives are worth fighting for.

I lived through PTSD, traumatic brain injury, hearing loss, and major depressive disorder. These are exactly the kinds of conditions people are getting ready to be killed for.

I healed. You can too.

New York Post editorial opposing assisted suicide.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition sent an Action alert on April 30, after the New York state Assembly passed an assisted suicide bill by a 81 to 67 margin.

On April 24, the New York Post published an editorial opposing the legalization of assisted suicide. Here is what the New York Post published:

New York’s progressive legislators have reportedly gotten behind what may be their most morally disgraceful bill yet: an assisted-suicide legalization push.

Worse, per Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), the bill has the votes to pass, which may happen as early as next week.

This must. Not. Happen.

Assisted suicide is sold to the public as a form of compassion — yet another inversion of reality.

In practice, it is anything but.

The trouble is, the promised reservation of assisted suicide to the chronically ill and elderly seems somehow always to get expanded.

Until it encompasses young, physically healthy people like Zoraya ter Beek, whom the Dutch state permitted to take her own life because she was depressed.

Or, as is the case with Canada, the poor, the disabled and the marginalized.

Like Alan Nichols, a down-on-his-luck man with a history of mental illness who listed “hearing loss” as the only health reason for his own euthanasia — which, shockingly, was then granted.

The Trudeau government even tried to sell veteran and paralympian Christine Gauthier on suicide, simply because she fought to have the Veterans’ Affairs department install a wheelchair ramp at her house.

The idea that fiscal calculations, i.e. that it’s cheaper simply to kill people like Nichols and Gauthier than to help them, didn’t play some role here is dubious, at best.

In the US, Oregon — the pioneer on OKing this insanity — is already mulling the idea of expanding the class of people authorized to prescribe suicide drugs to include nurse practitioners and vastly shortening the wait time from 15 to two days.

Vermont might include literal quacks on the list of people allowed to help people kill themselves.

It’s the slipperiest of slippery slopes, in other words.

And a slap in the face to the nearly 3 million Catholics in the state who oppose assisted suicide on religious grounds.

And this is New York, remember, where the state couldn’t even manage to roll out a legal cannabis initiative without turning it into a complete disaster.

And where within recent memory, a governor shoved old people with COVID into nursing homes to die and kill others just to make himself look better on television and earn $5 million from a book.

Even under the sanest and stablest of governments, state-sanctioned euthanasia is obscene.

Here, it would be a Boschian nightmare.

Gov. Hochul, this issue is an easy win: Keep fighting the good fight, stand up to the extremists in your own party and stop this madness if and when it reaches your desk. 

Previous article on this topic:

Action is needed: New York state Assembly passes assisted suicide bill (Link).

 

Another Canadian veteran was offered euthanasia instead of treatment.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An article published in the Toronto Sun on April 25 and written by Brian Passifiume concerns David Baltzer, a Canadian veteran who was offered euthanasia instead of medical treatment in December 2019.

Baltzer, a two tour Afghanistan combat veteran with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI,) told the Toronto Sun that:

he was offered MAID in Dec. 23, 2019 — possibly making him among the first Canadian soldiers offered therapeutic suicide by the federal government.

“It made me wonder, were they really there to help us, or slowly groom us to say ‘here’s a solution, just kill yourself,”

The Toronto Sun reported Baltzer as saying:

“I was in my lowest down point, it was just before Christmas,” he told the Sun.

“He says to me, ‘I would like to make a suggestion for you. Keep an open mind, think about it, you’ve tried all this and nothing seems to be working, but have you thought about medical-assisted suicide?'”

Baltzer said that the suggestion left him reeling. Passifiume reported that Baltzer was offered treatment for PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) after returning from Afghanistan. The treatment was unsuccessful. Baltzer then turned to alcohol and substance abuse to deal with his trauma. Passifiume reported that:

The story first came out when when he was interviewed by CAF veteran Mark Meincke, whose trauma-recovery podcast Operation Tango Romeo broke the story. 

Meincke said Baltzer’s story shoots down VAC’s assertions blaming one caseworker for offering MAID to veterans, and suggests the problem is far more serious than some rogue public servant.

“It had to have been policy. because it’s just too many people in too many provinces,” Meincke told the Sun.

Meincke and Baltzer are calling for a complete reform of the Veterans Affairs.

Meincke said that he knows at least 5 veterans who were offered MAiD by veterans affairs.

More articles on this topic:

• Offering veterans MAiD instead of healthcare (Link).
• Afghanistan veteran slams euthanasia of veterans for PTSD (Link)
• The problems with Canada's MAiD policy (Link).

Offering veterans MAiD instead of healthcare.

This article was published by Kelsi Sheren on her substack on April 25, 2025.

Kelsi Sheren

By Kelsi Sheren.

Big shocker Veteran’s Affairs is at it again, the Canadian government, since 2022, is failing our veterans in the most disgusting and disgraceful way possible: by offering them death care instead of healthcare! But Kelsi?! didn’t they say they aren’t doing that anymore?? Yes they sure did, once again Liberal lies. Are we surprised honestly?

In a chilling repeat of a disturbing trend, another Canadian combat veteran has been offered medically assisted suicide (MAiD) instead of genuine support and treatment. My question is when did ending lives become an acceptable, even routine, solution for our veterans suffering from trauma, PTSD, or any other physical and mental health challenges? When did offering death become an easier alternative than providing the comprehensive care our veterans desperately deserve, care we know exists but are unwilling to use or fund.

Veterans, in my opinion deserve compassion, proper treatment, respect, dignity, and unwavering support, but thats just me I guess. We should NEVER be offering an off-ramp to the grave. This continues to be a disturbing, even horrifying trend that not even the Veteran Affairs Minister is aware of. To think that some government case managers, those specifically entrusted with the sacred duty of caring for our veterans, would even contemplate suicide as an option rather than investing the necessary time, resources, and genuine effort into authentic healing and recovery is insane. Our veterans fought and continue to fight for life and liberty and now for their own country to later suggest ending their life. This is one of the dangers on continuing to talk about MAiD as some “life saving amazing program!”

This story, not one we haven’t heard before but were promised would “never happen again” to a sinister and growing pattern, the Liberal government is a profound failure on several fronts. Failing in its moral, ethical, and basic human obligations to protect and care for those who willingly put their lives on the line for our freedoms. I do love how they continue to want to send us to other countries to fight, while pulling this bullshit and asking.. why are retention rates so low?! How could that be?!

What they should be asking themselves is how can we possibly trust a system that suggests death as a viable, acceptable solution? The very thought undermines the trust veterans and their families should rightly place in their government and healthcare system.

So, what can we do to rectify this continued failure? Fire everyone? Restart?

First, a good place to start would be to stop selling veteran’s out to Manulife Insurance and ACTUALLY support them! Next, there must be absolute, unequivocal accountability at every level. (Which we know won’t happen, but hey I’m just a combat veteran who is preaching accountability, something this government knows absolutely nothing about”

Case managers should never, under any circumstances, be authorized or empowered to suggest medical suicide. These case managers need to be made examples of because in 2022 when they were caught the first time, not a damn thing was done.

Counselling suicide should be crystal clear, explicitly stated in operational guidelines, and communicated with zero ambiguity. The word is NO! WE NEVER SUGGEST SOMEONE DIES instead of helping them. Next I would implement mandatory, rigorous oversight and thorough mental health training programs specifically designed around trauma-informed care, ensuring that case managers fully understand their critical role in protecting, preserving, and supporting veterans' lives.

Additionally, complete transparency in reporting any incidents or breaches is non-negotiable, alongside swift and public accountability measures, and what I really mean is heads on spikes. There must be an unequivocal, zero tolerance policy for anyone who recommends death over dedicated, thorough, and compassionate care and support.

Lastly, why is the VA not asking Veterans what they really want to see change? Why is this only done behind closed doors, where only government officials whom not a single one is a veteran by the way are speaking for us. We need to be actively involving veterans themselves in shaping our policies and procedures that directly impact their care, we need to ensure our voices and experiences are genuinely heard and respected.

This is not simply about revising policy, this is fundamentally about basic human decency, dignity, and respect.

It is far beyond time for Canada to truly step up, reform its priorities, and genuinely care for its veterans. Anything less than complete dedication to safeguarding their lives, health, and well-being is a betrayal of every sacrifice our veterans have ever made.

And trust me, the majority of Veterans in this country including myself are nothing but ashamed of this government, how they treat us and how they have hung every single one of us out to dry.

At this point, I’m shocked they don’t just mail us the noose’s themselves.

Some previous articles by Kelsi Sheren:

• I'm done staying quiet (Link).
• Offered assisted death instead of surgery (Link)
• Dying with Deception. Exposing Dying With Dignity Canada's Dangerous Lies and teh United Nations call for Truth (Link).
• Debunking the ethical argument for assisted dying for minors (Link).
• Franchising Death (Link).
• Let's call MAiD what it is (Homicide) (Link)
• The Death Cult of the Euthanasia Lobby (Link).

Maclean's Magazine: Canada's New Home for Death Porn?

This article was published by Kelsi Sheren on April 8, 2025

Kelsi Sheren

By Kelsi Sheren

Yes, Yes they are.

Maclean's recent article advocating for the inclusion of individuals with mental disorders in Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program isn't just controversial—it's dangerously unethical, manipulative, fundamentally dark and sinister.

Maclean’s is very quickly gaining a reputation for promoting death porn and suggesting that those suffering mental illnesses should have access to assisted dying. They are once again choosing to send a chilling message to it’s readers, which at this point I doubt are many. They implicitly suggests that lives affected by mental health conditions are less valuable, less deserving of intensive care, treatment, or societal compassion.

In the most recent article promoting and manipulating it’s readers is their attempt to frame suicide as a legitimate option for those struggling with mental health, when all this really shows is Maclean's constant attempt at devaluing the lives of the mentally ill, effectively promoting hopelessness rather than hope.

Imagine the devastating effect on a vulnerable individual reading that their life is considered disposable or irrecoverable by society. This undermines decades of work aimed at destigmatizing mental illness and reinforces dangerous stereotypes about mental health struggles being inherently hopeless. While reading there most recent article I couldn’t help but notice the add for “war amps” on their site, which makes me laugh a bit because people who aren’t perfect are exactly what this magazine is attempting to suggest are disposable.

This magazine continues to frame the argument that people with mental illness are “irremediable”. In the Maclean’s article the concept of "irremediable" mental illness is a wild one. This position is scientifically and ethically unsound. Mental illness, unlike terminal physical illness, is complex, dynamic, and subject to significant change and improvement over time.

Mental illnesses such as depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia can indeed be severe and debilitating. But the nature of these illnesses is often fluctuating, with many sufferers experiencing meaningful recovery after proper care, therapy, medication, lifestyle changes, and even innovative treatments like psychedelics.

To label someone’s mental condition as "irremediable" is both wildly misleading and irresponsible, but this magazine seems to have no soul and seems quite alright with removing the very hope necessary for recovery and invalidates the lived experiences of countless individual’s who have successfully recovered from severe mental health episodes.

As someone who has personally overcome suicidal thoughts and severe mental health struggles, I can affirm that recovery and healing are possible. At my lowest point, it felt impossible to see a way forward, but with appropriate support, therapy, community, plant medicine and determination, I found a path out of that darkness. But according to this article Maclean’s wrote, I would have been considered “irremediable” and If I had seen this story over the 10 years of struggling with my mental health, then I'm sure I would have lost hope too. They are contributing to the idea that there is nothing left to live for so why the fuck should we even try mentality.

The thing is my story isn't unique; countless others have walked similar journeys, reclaiming their lives and thriving beyond their struggles.

To advocate for MAID as an option for mental health conditions fundamentally denies stories like mine and many others, wrongly presenting death as an inevitable or acceptable outcome rather than encouraging genuine healing and recovery.

Expanding MAID to mental illness sets a dangerous and dark cliff people will easily jump off of once we remove the responsibility of being the person to take our own life. A lot of the reason people stop before they attempt suicide is the FEAR or pain and what death will feel like. MAID and the “Dr’s” that do this dangle the carrot like a prize, removing the burden from the person and offering an easy way out.

Initially positioned as compassion, this policy change quickly risks becoming a tool of coercion, especially for marginalized and economically vulnerable groups, something we are continuously seeing in Canada and will continue to see as our healthcare system and country crumble to the ground.

Individuals suffering from severe mental health issues also face compounded struggles—economic hardship, isolation, lack of family support, or chronic homelessness. Offering MAID to these individuals coerces vulnerable people into viewing suicide as a reasonable escape from systemic failures and insufficient social support.

This has never once been about compassionate care. It’s darker than that more sinister and the reality is, is that it’s an abandonment of society’s moral responsibility to provide robust and holistic support systems. MAID has becomes not a tool of autonomy but a grim solution offered by a liberal government who is unwilling to invest adequately in mental health care but will send hundreds of millions of dollars overseas, to support ANYONE BUT it’s citizen’s.

The role of psychiatrists and mental health practitioners is to preserve life, treat illness, and support recovery. Maclean’s advocacy fundamentally conflicts with these professional ethics. Asking mental health professionals to facilitate MAID turn’s healer’s into facilitators of death and we are essentially making all healthcare practitioners EXECUTIONERS. Trained killers, guns for hire and instead of using a gun which would be more humane in my opinion. We are giving them government funded-non FDA approved drugs to inject into the veins of the vulnerable victims of people that have been convinced that death is the only option by people DWD and Macleans.

This ethical dilemma isn't abstract. It poses real-world risks of eroding trust in mental health services. People are hesitating to seek help, fearing their mental health struggles might qualify them for assisted dying rather than compassionate treatment, and we are seeing this time and time again. This scenario undermines the very fabric of mental health care, turning hospitals and therapists’ offices from sanctuaries of healing into environments potentially perceived as threats.

Beneath the surface, this debate is marred by an alarming economic incentive. Promoting MAID as an acceptable choice for mental illness is conveniently become a cost-saving measure for overwhelmed healthcare systems and governmental budgets by the liberal government.

Providing comprehensive mental health support, including therapy, long-term care, psychiatric assistance, and social programs, requires substantial investment, an investment the Canadian government is unwilling to make. Although they seem to have no issue making that investment on illegal immigrants who don’t pay taxes, lining the CBC’s pockets, and helping any country besides it own. MAID, by contrast, is inexpensive and expedient. Allowing individuals struggling with mental illness to access MAID has become a financially attractive alternative to addressing underlying systemic and societal shortcomings.

This hidden economic agenda is morally reprehensible, sacrificing human dignity and life at the altar of fiscal expediency, but at this point no one is surprised.

The language used in Maclean’s and similar articles often subtly manipulates public opinion, masking a morally and ethically complex issue behind words like "compassion," "dignity," and "choice." But true compassion would emphasize support, care, and recovery—not present suicide as a rational option.

Macleans is no longer rational journalism and frankly hasn’t been for some time. It’s now bought and paid for suicide porn for the sick, unwell and sad.

Don’t abandon people with mental illness to death by MAiD.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

On December 15, 2023 Stephanie Taylor reported for the Canadian Press that Justice Minister Arif Virani stated that the federal government may “pause its plan” to permit euthanasia (MAiD) when a person’s only underlying condition is a mental disorder (Link).

*Sign and share our petition to Justice Minister Hon Arif Virani, Hon Rob Moore (CPC Justice Critic) and Randall Garrison (NDP Justice Critic) (Petition Link).

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition needs your help to implement a successful campaign to reverse the current direction with euthanasia in Canada.

When the Canadian government expanded its (MAiD) euthanasia law in March 2021 (Bill C-7) it did so by removing the terminal illness requirement and permitting Canadians to be poisoned to death if they have an irremediable medical condition (Link).

Bill C-7 also added the option of euthanasia for mental illness alone. (Link) The government originally provided a two-year moratorium on euthanasia for mental illness to give them time to prepare for this expansion. In 2023 the government extended the moratorium for another year (Link). Therefore, unless the government pauses its current plan, euthanasia for mental illness alone will become an option on March 17, 2024.

In February 2023, the Angus Reid Institute published a poll indicating that 31% of Canadians supported euthanasia for mental illness alone, with the highest support being in Quebec (36%) and the lowest support being in Saskatchewan (21%) (Link). In September 2023, the Angus Reid Institute conducted another poll which indicated that support for euthanasia for mental illness alone had dropped to 28% of Canadians (Link).

Even though Canadians oppose euthanasia for mental illness, Canada’s parliament recently defeated Bill C-314, that was sponsored by Hon. Ed Fast (MP) that would have prevented euthanasia for mental illness alone. The good news was that the vote was close (167 – 150) with all of the Conservatives and NDP and 8 Liberals supporting Bill C-314. (Link)

We need to tell the stories.

In August 2022, Global News reported the story of a Veterans Affairs employee who advocated (MAiD) euthanasia for a veterans living with (PTSD). The article stated (Link):

A Canadian Forces veteran seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury was shocked when he was unexpectedly and casually offered medical assistance in dying by a Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) employee, sources tell Global News.

Sources say a VAC service agent brought up medical assistance in dying, or MAID, unprompted in the conversation with the veteran. Global News is not identifying the veteran who was seeking treatment.

Canadians were shocked that a veteran who served the country and was seeking help for PTSD was offered (MAiD) euthanasia. The story was published around the same time as several other stories of people with disabilities who were approved for euthanasia based on poverty (Link), homelessness or being unable to obtain medical treatment.

Kathryn Mentler

The Tyee in August 2023 the story of Kathrin Mentler (37) who lives with chronic suicidal ideation. Mentler, who said that she has lived with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts for many years, was offered euthanasia at the Assessment Centre at the Vancouver General Hospital when she was seeking help for suicidal ideation (Link).

According to the article, Mentler went to the Vancouver General Hospital to receive help. The article states that she was told by the counsellor that the mental health system was "completely overwhelmed", there were no available beds, and the earliest that she could talk with a psychiatrist was in about five months. The counsellor then asked Mentler if she had ever considered medically assisted suicide.

Canadians reacted strongly to the Mentler story as she was experiencing suicidal ideation and offered euthanasia while seeking a “safe place”. It must be noted that euthanasia for mental illness was technically illegal in June 2023 when it was offered as an option to Mentler.

In August 2023 a story was published by the Richmond News explaining that if euthanasia for mental illness had existed in the past, that Karim Jessa would be dead. Jessa explained in the interview that he opposes euthanasia for mental illness because, when he had hit rock bottom, he would have asked for an assisted death if it had been legal, but now he is a completely different person.

An editorial published by the Globe and Mail on November 4, 2023 quoted Dr. K Sonu Gaind, Chief of Psychiatry at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, stating that there is "absolutely no consensus" as to what constitutes an irremediable medical condition when it comes to patients with mental illness. (Link) This comment is important because the law requires that a person to be approved for euthanasia, must have an irremediable medical condition.

There have been many articles in the media concerning people with disabilities who asked for or received (MAiD) euthanasia based on poverty, homelessness or an inability to obtain medical treatment.

Similar to people with disabilities (Link), people with mental health issues (Link) are more likely to live in poverty (Link), to be homeless (Link) or to struggle to obtain the medical treatment that they need.

The battle to protect people with mental illness has not ended. 

On December 13 Justice Minister Arif Virani stated that the Federal government may “pause its original plan” to permit (MAiD) euthanasia for mental illness (Link).

Members of parliament will have the opportunity to oppose euthanasia for mental illness when they return to parliament after the Christmas break.

Members of Parliament need to reject euthanasia for mental illness.

Urge Member's of Parliament Not to abandon people with mental illness to death by MAiD.

Sign and share our petition to Justice Minister Hon Arif Virani, Hon Rob Moore (CPC Justice Critic) and Randall Garrison (NDP Justice Critic) (Petition Link).

Links to reference articles used in this article:

• Canada's government may pause the implementation of euthanasia for mental illness. (Link)
• Canada passes Bill C-7 - permitting euthanasia for mental illness. (Link)
• Canada to delay euthanasia for mental illness until March 2024. (Link)
• The majority of Canadians oppose euthanasia for mental health. (Link)
• 28% of Canadians support euthanasia for mental illness. (Link)
• Bill C-314 defeated. Parliament divided on euthanasia for mental illness. (Link)
• Veterans Affairs Canada worker advocates euthanasia for PTSD. (Link)
• Canadian Quadriplegic woman approved to die by euthanasia faster than it takes to get needed disability benefits (Link)
• Canadian woman offered euthanasia as a "treatment option" during a mental health crisis. (Link)
• Globe and Mail editorial urges federal government to withdraw euthanasia for mental illness. (Link) 
• The problem with Canada's MAiD policy (Link)
  
• Ontario man seeks euthanasia to avoid homelessness. (Link)
• Why did they kill my brother. (Link)
  

Canada's MAiD program has gone "mad"

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Kelsi Sheren, a Canadian military veteran, witnessed the horrific death of a comrade in Afghanistan. Sheren, who lives with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD,) told the Daily Mail in July, 2023 that 'It's disgusting and it's unacceptable,' that authorities would rather euthanize a soldier than foot the bill for their recovery.

The story of Veterans Affairs employees who advocated (MAiD) euthanasia for veterans living with (PTSD) was reported by Global News in August, 2022. The article states:

A Canadian Forces veteran seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury was shocked when he was unexpectedly and casually offered medical assistance in dying by a Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) employee, sources tell Global News.

Sources say a VAC service agent brought up medical assistance in dying, or MAID, unprompted in the conversation with the veteran. Global News is not identifying the veteran who was seeking treatment.

The Canadian veteran who was living with PTSD was offered euthanasia around the same time as several other stories were reported of people with disabilities who were being approved for, or dying by, euthanasia based on living in poverty or homelessness and were unable to obtain medical treatment.

Canada expanded the euthanasia law (Bill C-7) in March 2021 by removing the requirement that a person must be terminally ill or that their natural death be reasonably foreseeable. By removing the “terminal illness” requirement within the law without adding further requirements, the law became open to euthanasia for anyone with an "irremediable" medical condition. The new euthanasia law stipulates a 90 day waiting period for people who are not terminally ill and allows  same-day death for people who are terminally ill.

The disability community were concerned during the Bill C-7 debate that removing the “terminal illness” requirement in the law would lead to the deaths of people with disabilities based on social reasons. They were right. People with disabilities are being approved for euthanasia based on their medical condition but are requesting euthanasia based on poverty, homelessness, and other social issues.

Rose Finlay

The Daily Mail reported in July, 2023 on Rose Finlay, a woman with quadriplegia who was self-employed for many years, and had become ill. To enable her to live, Finlay applied for disability benefits and learned that it takes 6 to 8 months to be approved for disability benefits in Ontario. However, Finlay was approved for and could die by euthanasia in 90 days. Finlay didn’t want to die by euthanasia but due to her illness was living in poverty.

Rose Finlay is one of many people with disabilities who applied for euthanasia based on poverty but was approved for euthanasia because her disability is defined as being an “irremediable” medical condition.

Joannie Cowie

Joannie Cowie was interviewed by Global News in October 2022. Cowie, who has multiple disabilities, shares an apartment with her daughter, who is also disabled. Cowie told the media that she wants euthanasia because she is trapped in a cycle of poverty. Even though she has an excellent education, she is not employed and she doesn’t receive enough money from her disability benefit to live.

Meagan Nichols, who operates the Mississauga Food Bank, told MacLean’s magazine in November 2022 that some food bank clients were seeking euthanasia in response to the grind of living in poverty.

Amir Farsoud was considering death by euthanasia to avoid homelessness. City News Toronto reported in October 2022 that Farsoud, who lives with constant back pain, had to find a new apartment because his building had a new owner who was planning to renovate the building. Farsoud, who was dependent on disability benefits, couldn’t find another affordable apartment. Farsoud applied for euthanasia based on his disability but he wanted euthanasia based on his fear of homelessness.

Farsoud remains alive because a GoFundMe fundraiser provided him with a new place to live. But Farsoud is the exception to the rule.

CBC News Manitoba reported in October 2022 that Sathya Dhara Kovac, who was living with ALS, died by euthanasia because she lacked adequate home-care services. In writing her obituary, Kovac stated that she had grown exhausted by her failed efforts to get more help with basic needs at home, and this is what drove her to access a medically assisted death.

A woman known as Madeleine makes the issue clear. Madeleine, who accumulated a $40,000 debt trying to treat myalgic encephalomyelitis and other ailments, told Chatelaine magazine in July 2022 that when her money runs out, a medically assisted death may be her only option. Madeleine is living with disability and poverty as she tries to obtain the medical treatment she needs.

Similar to Rose Finlay, Joannie Cowie and Amir Farsoud, Madeleine doesn’t want to die by euthanasia but she believes it may eventually be her only option. These stories represent only some of the real life stories that people with disabilities who live with poverty, homelessness, or have a difficult time getting medical treatment, are experiencing.

Euthanasia for Mental Illness.

When Canada expanded the euthanasia law in March 2021 (Bill C-7) one of the expansions included approving euthanasia for mental illness alone, and it provided a two-year moratorium to give the government time to prepare for this expansion.

The reality surrounding euthanasia for mental illness is concerning.

John Maher

People with disabilities are requesting, and being approved for, euthanasia based on poverty, homelessness and the inability to receive necessary medical treatment. People with mental health issues are often homeless, living in poverty and having difficulty receiving medical treatment.

Psychiatrist, Dr John Maher, has stated that the euthanasia waiting period for Canadians who are not terminally ill, which is 90 days, is shorter than the waiting period to receive psychiatric care which is often much longer than 90 days.

Sonu Gaind

Psychiatrist, Dr Sonu Gaind, who supports euthanasia but opposes it for people with mental illness, told the Toronto Star in February 2023 that:

it’s basically impossible to know in cases of mental illness whether the condition is truly “irremediable,” i.e. cannot be cured or alleviated.

Dr Gaind's statement is important since the law requires that the person must have an "irremediable" medical condition in order to qualify for euthanasia.

Kathrin Mentler

The story of Kathrin Mentler (37), a Canadian who lives with chronic suicidal thoughts was reported by The Tyee in August 2023. Mentler, who has lived with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts for many years, was offered euthanasia at the Assessment Centre at the Vancouver General Hospital where Mentler was seeking help for suicidal ideation.

Mentler was told by the counsellor that the mental health system was "completely overwhelmed", there were no available beds, and the earliest that she could talk with a psychiatrist was in about five months. Then the counsellor asked Mentler if she had ever considered medically assisted suicide.

In August 2023 a story was published by the Richmond News explaining that had  euthanasia for mental illness existed in the past, Karim Jessa would be dead. Jessa, in his interview, explains that he opposes euthanasia for mental illness because, when he had hit rock bottom, he would have asked for an assisted death if it had been legal, but now he is a completely different person.

Psychiatrist John Maher stated in an interview with W5 in November 2022:

"There are cycles of illness. Some of it's up and down. It might be years. And then there is a burst of illness and suffering that we then take care of,” Maher said.

He said that MAiD for mental illness, is too close to suicide for his comfort.

“You're assisting someone in the completion of their suicide. The doctor is the sanitised gun,".

One of Maher's key concerns is how anyone can determine if someone with a mental illness is incurable, as is required by the legislation.

"I'm not at all disagreeing that there are people who have an irremediable illness. What I defy you or any other person in the universe to prove to me is that it's this person in front of you.”

Canada's euthanasia law has led to the abandonment of people with disabilities who are living with poverty, homelessness, have difficulty obtaining necessary medical treatment, and are living under unacceptable social conditions. 

Canada's euthanasia law is scheduled to expand to include euthanasia for psychological conditions on March 17, 2024. The result of this decision will be more of the same, except for the people with psychiatric conditions who will be encouraged to die.

Canada's euthanasia law has abandoned people living with difficult conditions to death.

Canada's euthanasia (MAiD) program has gone "mad".

More articles on this topic:

• Has Canada's euthanasia law gone too far? (Link)
• Psychiatrists: Do we offer hope or do we offer death (Link).
• The majority of Canadian oppose euthanasia for mental health (Link).
• Canada's euthanasia law is the most permissive in the world (Link).
• Canada to delay implementing euthanasia for mental illness (Link).
• Toronto Star: Canada is going too far with euthanasia (Link).
• Globe and Mail Editorial: No to euthanasia for mental disorders (Link).
• Euthanasia panel member quit: Proposals don't adequately protect Canadians with mental illness (Link).
• Offering euthanasia to a suicidal person leads to premature deaths (Link).
• Euthanizing the mentally ill without providing proper supports is reprehensible (Link).
• Euthanasia for mental illness. Killing people with an uncertain prognosis (Link).
• Profound social change with euthanasia for mental illness (Link).

Euthanasia for Anorexia, Drug Addiction and Loneliness?

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Brian Lilley, a regular columnist with the Toronto Sun, was published on Saturday, October 21 asking: 

Is there any line in the sand for the government in Canada when it comes to expanding euthanasia?

Lilley examines the question of euthanasia for mental illness, which he points out, will include people who are living with drug addiction. 

We’ve offered medical assistance in dying to veterans struggling with PTSD. We will soon offer MAID to those suffering from mental illness, which will include drug addiction.

Combined with the stories of people looking for assistance in dying due to homelessness or poor living conditions, it’s time to ask if there is any line in the sand when it comes to euthanasia and the government in Canada?

Lilley explains the history of how Canada legalized MAiD (euthanasia) and how Canada is poised to expand it's euthanasia law again to allow euthanasia for mental illness in March 2024. 

Hon. Ed Fast

Now, the government is about to expand it again and last week voted down a Conservative MP’s proposal not to expand MAID to include mental illness.

Ed Fast, the British Columbia MP who sought to stop those solely dealing with mental illness being able to access MAID, has said the system is already being abused with people accessing assistance in dying already before it is legal. Fast worries about what these changes will mean down the road and just how far Canada is will to go in expanding access to something we were told would be rare.

Lilley states that in 2021 euthanasia was Canada's seventh leading cause of death and it will soon be Canada's fifth leading cause of death. 

It’s not clear that the public has thought through the full implications of expanding MAID even further. Should we be allowing people suffering solely from mental illness to access help in killing themselves?

Reuters recently reported on a 47 year-old woman with anorexia who is looking forward to the law being changed so she can access MAID. Vice News recently wrote about how drug addicts will be able to access MAID in the near future, even speaking to an activist doctor who supports this move while also being an activist for so-called “harm reduction” and “safer supply” programs.

Lilley concludes:

This isn’t what Canadians expected when we started down this path.

A poll from the Angus Reid Institute released in September showed just 28% support the government’s move to allow access solely based on mental health concerns even though a strong majority in Canada support MAID overall.

It’s a difficult issue for the government to deal with and an uncomfortable one for many Canadians to discuss but before we move forward with a further expansion in March, we need to have a real discussion about the future of MAID.

More information on this topic:

• 28% of Canadians support euthanasia for mental illness (Link).
•  Canada's euthanasia program has gone Mad (Link).