2011‑2022, and is preserved here for archival purposes.
Peter Stockland reports on how the pandemic’s overshadowing of legislation radically expanding medical assistance in dying might reconfigure Canada’s future.
For two evenings this week, my Cardus colleagues and a panel of expert guests have engaged an in-depth discussion on YouTube on Canada’s post-COVID future.
They cov...
Palliative care physician Dr. Anthony Kerigan highlights the A-B-C and D steps to safeguard the full dignity of the frail elderly and those at the end of their life.
The last year has seen two events of major concern to older persons, especially those with significant frailty who are unable to live independently. The first was the isolation forced on them by the COVID-19 pandemic and the often substandard conditions und...
Calgary physician Dr. Kiely Williams and Ottawa lawyer Faye Sonier show how the expansion of MAiD has given lawyers medical authority while silencing doctors who consider it very bad medicine.
When the Supreme Court decriminalized assisted suicide in 2015, many physicians lamented that lawyers could practice medicine in Canada without a license. Now that Parliament has radically expanded the scope of medical assistance in dying (MAID) via the ove...
Rapid expansion of Medical Aid in Dying and forced closure of a Vancouver-area hospice have raised alarm among palliative care providers. But Peter Stockland finds vital positive signs, too.
At the beginning of April, the Supreme Court of Canada finally closed the outside door on the Delta Hospice Society’s ownership of a private 10-bed palliative care centre in suburban Vancouver.
At one level, the SCOC’s refusal to grant the Society le...
Expansion of medically assisted dying risks an explosive moral crisis when shortages already endemic in health care make Canadians choose death over delay, Ruth Dick writes.
One day, before the pandemic arrived and wreaked its depredations on our health care system, I was driving with the radio on and heard, within a single, five minute, top-of-the-hour news recap, both a story about the federal government’s Medical Assistance ...
Speech-language pathologist Tara Vreugdenhil breaks down the definitions that make up medical assistance in dying and determines it’s really homicide masquerading as health care.
The importance of definitions has long been recognized by great thinkers. George Orwell’s 1984 demonstrated the ultimate impact of language on thought and culture. Newspeak went so far as to redefine words, ban words, and simplify vocabulary, all with the e...
We asked our readers to let us know what they think about Sean Murphy’s initiative to amend the Criminal Code and make it an offence to compel anyone to participate in the act of non-culpable homicide that is currently called medical aid in dying. Here are some responses.
In February, Convivium ran a report on Sean Murphy, a former veteran Mountie and local ...
Bill C-7’s expansion of medical aid in dying encodes into law discrimination against disabled Canadians by treating them as less worthy of life than the able-bodied, Keith Dow writes.
Complex networks of roots stretch several times beyond the radius of each tree’s canopy, drawing nutrients and water far from its origin. While we may quickly observe the location of a trunk, or the reach of extended branches, these roots are often invisibl...
A former veteran Mountie and local coroner has a sure-fire way to protect health care workers from being made to administer MAiD. So why won’t anyone answer Sean Murphy’s call? Peter Stockland reports.
Sean Murphy has what he considers a clear way through the tangle between the House of Commons and Senate over Liberal government legislation to expand Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).
The former veteran Mountie and coroner says the bill’s status w...
As the Senate studies Bill C-7’s dramatic expansion of medical assistance in dying, Anna Nienhuis and André Schutten warn of a MAiD copycat effect on those tempted to suicide.
Action inspires action. This is often positive, as people’s activities motivate others to engage in positive service too. But there are times when action inspires deadly action. As the Senate continues its review of Bill C-7’s dramatic expansion of medical ...
Staff layoffs and eviction of B.C.’s Delta Hospice Society from its facility outside Vancouver show MAiD advocates’ power to impose their will on those who don’t want it, Peter Stockland writes.
You might think the middle of a global pandemic is less than an ideal time to disrupt the operations of a hospice where palliative care patients receive comfort as they approach death.
If so, you would not share the apparent thinking of the B.C. gove...
Daniel Proussalidis and Monica Ratra write that while 2020 was a forgettable year for many reasons, Cardus initiatives throughout the year provided memorable highlights for the organization and our supporters.
It’s cliché at this point, but 2020 is surely a year most of us would like to forget. And not just because of the pandemic or the brutally polarized political rhetoric of the past year. But, as we think back on the past year at Cardus, there’s actually a lo...
Don Hutchinson argues the Trudeau government should consider the Constitution’s Section 33 opt out rather than rush to pass expanded medically assisted dying legislation under a court-imposed deadline.
At the Trudeau Government’s request, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights has deemed a bill to be of such priority that it be fast-tracked through the evaluation process: Bill C-7, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medica...
Medically assisted death advocates inside and outside Parliament are gung-ho to expand it. But Cardus’ Ray Pennings says national poll numbers show Canadians want MPs to curb their enthusiasm.
Just because politicians and activists are gung-ho about expanding medical assistance in dying (MAiD), doesn’t mean all Canadians are so enthusiastic.
If anything, Canadians would tell the politicians it’s time to slow down and broaden the discussion...
Catherine Frazee, a long-time disability Rights activist and Ontario’s former Chief Commissioner of Human Rights, talked to MPs about pending MAiD expansion recently. It wasn’t enough to make her give up hope, Peter Stockland reports.
A powerful impetus behind the Liberal government’s push to jam expanded medical aid in dying through Parliament has been the force of proponents arguing it is progressive legislation.
Yet Catherine Frazee, who testified last week before the Commons c...
Laval University bioethicist Cory Labrecque argues the debate over medically assisted death ignores the reality we all face risk just by being human, Peter Stockland reports.
Cory Labrecque began deeply re-thinking society’s growing acceptance of what we now euphemistically call Medical Aid in Dying when his plan to become a doctor collided with caring for his ailing grandmother.
Labrecque, now an associate professor of ...
Palliative care expert Dr. Leonie Herx is one of 750 doctors publicly urging the Trudeau government to deep-six its new “death on demand” legislation, Peter Stockland reports.
Picture yourself as doctor trying to prevent a patient in a fugue state from inflicting horrendous self-harm.
Now imagine your medical speciality is palliative care and you are turning to all the skills that 17 years of professional training have dev...
Experts in law, medicine and disability advocacy are joining the chorus calling for the withdrawal of the Liberal government’s bill to expand medically administered death, Peter Stockland writes.
Doctors, lawyers and disability rights advocates are mobilizing against the federal Liberal government’s expansion of Medical Aid in Dying, warning it will open the door to “State-sponsored termination” of vulnerable Canadians.
“Suddenly, a lethal in...
The Liberal government’s proposed Bill C-7 has drawn multifaith ire across Canada and a sharply-worded public call to immediately halt the legislation, Peter Stockland reports.
More than 50 leaders across the faith spectrum warn the Liberal government’s changes to Medical Aid in Dying legislation will pressure vulnerable Canadians to opt for “lethal procedures” over living with illness or disability.
Equally alarming, says ...
Afflicted by the ideology of the right to die movement, Christina Lamb writes, Canadians are losing the sense of human dignity that unites us in bearing each other’s suffering.
The ongoing pandemic continues to generate great uncertainty and suffering for people in Canada and around the world. Much of the global response to COVID-19 shows that the goodwill of people to join together and overcome these challenges is altruistic and ...
The current board of the Irene Thomas Hospice in Delta, B.C., is fighting to stay true to its Christian roots and remain “an authentic palliative care facility,” writes Peter Stockland.
The board of the Irene Thomas Hospice hoped faith alone could stop the onslaught of MAiD at the 10-bed palliative care facility on Vancouver’s southeast edge.
The hope now hangs on a stay-of-execution until Aug. 17. A court judgment will then be rend...
A recent set of public demands by Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying lobby raise serious concerns, reports Convivium's Peter Stockland.
Andrew Bennett insists a recent set of public demands by Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying lobby amount to nothing less than imposition of MAiD ideology on religious faith.
“The agenda is truly disturbing and people need to be made aware of it” th...