Send an urgent message to Canadian legislators urging them to stop expanding assisted suicide
OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) –– Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) says Canadians need “compassionate care, not killing,” urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government to permanently scrap, not just delay, its planned expansion of euthanasia to those suffering solely from mental illness.
“Thank God this radical expansion of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s MAiD-service euthanasia program has once again been put on hold,” said CLC National President Jeff Gunnarson told LifeSiteNews, reacting to Monday’s news that the planned expansion of Canada’s “Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD)” euthanasia program was again being delayed.
“Canadians suffering from mental illness need compassionate care, not killing,” Gunnarson added.
Gunnarson also noted that despite the reprieve, Canada needs to “urgently” put another bill forward like Conservative MP Ed Fast’s defeated bill C-314 “that excludes all mental disorders from eligibility for a lethal injection.”
“Such a bill will ensure that we as a country continue to prioritize suicide prevention over suicide provision in our nation’s mental health strategy,” said Gunnarson.
Canada’s MAiD laws were set to expand on March 17, 2024, because of the 2021 passage of Bill C-7, which also allowed the chronically ill – not just the terminally ill – to qualify for so-called doctor-assisted death.
However, on Monday, the federal government’s Health Minister Mark Holland announced that the expansion of euthanasia for those suffering solely from mental illness will be delayed. This delay came after much pushback from citizens and medical professionals, mental health groups, as well as from pro-life groups and provincial governments.
The delay also comes after a joint parliamentary committee report recommended that the expansion of MAiD be postponed.
Holland said that Canada agreed with the committee’s report but did not specify a timeline as to how long the delay would be. As it stands now, there is a March 17, 2024, deadline set which must see legislation introduced to officially pause the planned MAiD expansion.
Many provincial governments have blasted the planned expansion of MAiD, with some saying it is not needed and others saying their healthcare systems are not ready to implement the new rules.
Yesterday, health ministers from most Canadian provinces and territories sent a joint letter to Holland and Justice Minister Arif Viran urging the Trudeau federal government to put an indefinite delay on the expansion of MAiD. It is not yet clear how Holland and Viran will respond to the letter.
The current delay is the second time the expansion has been put on hold.
Originally set to go into effect in March 2023, pressure from the same groups led the Liberals under Trudeau to delay until 2024 via Bill C-39.
The original delay in expanding MAiD until 2024 also came after numerous public scandals, including the surfacing of reports that Canadian veterans were being offered the fatal procedure by workers at Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC).
CLC urges Canada’s Conservative Party to bring forth a bill to protect the mentally ill from MAiD
The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) under its leader Pierre Poilievre has opposed the expansion of MAiD, but recent attempts by it to stop the expansion of the grim procedure entirely have failed.
In comments sent to LifeSiteNews, CLC’s director of political operations Jack Fonseca said the CPC needs to again re-introduce a bill to protect the mentally ill from “Trudeau’s MAiD regime.”
“We call on the Conservative Party of Canada to re-introduce a mental health protection act that will forever stop the legalization of euthanasia for those who are depressed and mentally ill,” said Fonseca.
“And we call upon Mr. Pierre Poilievre to ensure that if elected, a Conservative government will reverse Trudeau’s euthanasia regime completely.”
Fonseca added that Trudeau’s MAiD “regime” has been a “complete disaster for our country and must be abolished.”
Last year, MPs in the House of Commons voted down a private members’ bill introduced by CPC MP Ed Fast that would have repealed the expansion of euthanasia laws to those suffering from mental illness.
When it comes to MAiD, more Canadians are dying from the so-called procedure every year.
The number of Canadians killed by lethal injection since 2016 now stands at over 44,958, and many fear that because the official statistics are manipulated, that number may be even higher.
Indeed, a recent Statistics Canada update admitted to excluding euthanasia from deaths totals despite it being the sixth highest cause of mortality in the nation.
Send an urgent message to Canadian legislators urging them to stop expanding assisted suicide