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People with disabilities are vastly overrepresented in Canada’s latest assisted suicide figures

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From LifeSiteNews

By Alex Schadenberg of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In 2023, Canada recorded over 15,300 euthanasia deaths, with disabilities, poverty, and loneliness driving decisions. Assisted suicide represented 4.7 percent of all deaths in Canada last year.

On February 6, 2024, after obtaining the euthanasia data from Alberta, Ontario, and Québec, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition published an article stating that there were approximately 15,300 euthanasia (MAiD) deaths in Canada in 2023.

On July 8, 2024 we published an article with links to the euthanasia data from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Québec. We again predicted that there were about 15,300 euthanasia deaths in 2023.

READ: Canadian seniors say they were offered euthanasia when faced with increased hospice costs

On December 11, 2024, Canada’s Ministry of Health released the Fifth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying which indicates that there were 15,343 reported euthanasia deaths representing 4.7 percent of all deaths in 2023.

Why did Canada’s Ministry of Health wait until December 2024 to release the 2023 euthanasia data when the report essentially concerns numbers and data while lacking information on the actual reason for people wanting to be killed by euthanasia?

Interesting data in the report:

  • Of the 15,343 reported euthanasia deaths: 95.9 percent were Track 1 deaths (the person was deemed to have a terminal condition); 4.1 percent were Track 2 deaths (the person was deemed as not having a terminal condition).
  • People with disabilities accounted for 33.5 percent of the Track 1 euthanasia deaths and 58.3 percent of the Track 2 euthanasia deaths. In 2022, 27 percent of Canadians were people with one or more disabilities. People with disabilities are over-represented in Canada’s euthanasia statistics.
  • 95.8 percent of those who died by euthanasia were Caucasian (White) while fewer than 1 percent were First Nations people. In 2022, 69.8 percent of Canadians euthanized were Caucasian and 5 percent were First Nations people.

What is happening in British Columbia, Ontario and Québec?

When analyzing the Fifth Annual Report we question, “What makes British Columbia, Ontario and Québec different than the rest of Canada?” In 2023, euthanasia deaths increased by 36.5 percent in Québec, 30.3 percent in Ontario, and 18 percent in British Columbia. When examining the data from the other seven provinces, the next highest rate of increase was Alberta with a 6.4 percent increase in euthanasia deaths.

Québec has the highest euthanasia rate with 5601 reported euthanasia deaths – this represents 7.3 percent of all deaths and 36.5 percent of all Canadian euthanasia deaths. Canada’s 2021 Census indicated that 23 percent of Canadians live in Québec.

The analysis of the Québec Commission on End-of-Life Care Eighth Annual Report (April 1, 2022 – March 30, 2023) by Amy Hasbrouck indicated that there were 190 euthanasia deaths that may not have been reported by the doctor or nurse practitioner who carried out the death. 190 unreported euthanasia deaths is serious.

Euthanasia for frailty was listed as a reason in 1,392 deaths, representing more than 9 percent of all euthanasia deaths. In 92 euthanasia deaths, frailty was listed as the only reason.

Euthanasia for chronic pain was listed as a reason in 933 deaths, with 23 of the deaths listing chronic pain as the only reason.

Euthanasia for dementia was listed as a reason in 241 deaths, with 106 of those deaths listing dementia as the only reason.

Similar to other jurisdictions, the reason for seeking euthanasia was highly oriented to the person’s social condition.

  • 96 percent listed “Loss of ability to engage in meaningful activities,”
  • 87 percent listed “Loss of ability to perform activities of daily living,”
  • 70 percent listed “Loss of dignity,”
  • 55 percent listed “Inadequate pain control.”

It is important to note that loneliness and isolation was listed in more than 21 percent of all euthanasia deaths representing more than 3,200 people.

People with disabilities should be concerned that more than 50 percent of those who died identified “loss of independence” and almost 50 percent listed being a perceived burden on family, friends, or care givers.

People with disabilities should also be concerned that “other conditions” was the highest identified factor for euthanasia. For people with disabilities, 46.2 percent of the Track 1 deaths were based on “other conditions” and 62.9 percent of the Track 2 deaths were based on “other conditions.” “Other conditions” is not further defined and indicates a serious concern with discrimination of people with disabilities.

We recognize another concern related to the difference in income levels for Track 1 and Track 2 euthanasia deaths. People who died by Track 2 euthanasia were more likely to have a lower income than the Track 1 deaths.

More analysis of the Fifth Annual Report needs to be done. The report includes more information than previous years’ reports but it does not examine why people are asking for euthanasia nor does it uncover deaths that may be outside of the parameters of the law.

In October 2024 the chief coroner of Ontario released a report from the Ontario MAiD Death Review Committee reporting that between 2018 and 2023 there were euthanasia deaths driven by homelessness, fear, and isolation and that poor people are at risk of coercion, indicating that Canadians with disabilities are needlessly dying by euthanasia. The data from the Ontario Death Review report indicates that in the reported time period there were at least 428 non-compliant euthanasia deaths and 25 percent of the euthanasia providers violated the law.

The Ontario MAiD Death Review report has three parts (Part 3) (Part 2) (Part 1).

The federal government needs to do a complete review of Canada’s experience with euthanasia.

Reprinted with permission from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

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2025 Federal Election

Euthanasia is out of control in Canada, but nobody is talking about it on the campaign trail

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From LifeSiteNews

By Jonathon Van Maren

While refraining from campaigning on the issue, Poilievre, to his credit, has said previously that he will ‘scrap’ the Liberal’s plan of expanding euthanasia to the mentally ill ‘entirely.’

Canada’s euthanasia regime should be one of the key election issues on the campaign trail, but thus far, there seems to be little interest in discussing the issue. 

This despite the fact that last month, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities took the stunning step of publishing a report calling on Canada to halt “Track 2 MAID,” stop the planned 2027 expansion of euthanasia to those suffering solely from mental illness, and reject “advance directives” for euthanasia. 

Track 2 MAID was legalized in Canada in 2021, when a lower Quebec court ruled that restricting euthanasia to those with “reasonably foreseeable death” was unconstitutional and expanding eligibility to a wide range of Canadians suffering from various conditions. The floodgates opened; over 60,000 Canadians have died by euthanasia since legalization. 

In fact, the vice-chair of the UN committee, at a hearing in Geneva, went so far as to ask a Canadian government representative how it was possible not to view Canada’s euthanasia regime as a “step back into state-sponsored eugenics.” 

When Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre was asked on the campaign trail if his government would make any changes to Canada’s laws, he responded: “People will continue to have the right to make that choice, the choice for themselves. We are not proposing to expand medical assistance in dying beyond the existing parameters. That said, we also believe that we need better healthcare so that people have all sorts of options.” 

 

Poilievre then pivoted to discussing his policies to fix Canada’s broken healthcare system, making it quite clear that this is an issue that he is not eager to discuss—likely because of high support for euthanasia in Quebec. Indeed, Dying with Dignity—Canada’s relentless and well-funded euthanasia lobby—has been releasing polling data designed to discourage politicians from addressing the issue, emphasizing public support for their agenda. 

Rebecca Vachon of Cardus has a good breakdown of DWD’s data that highlights the truth of the old political adage that polls are often commissioned to shape public opinion rather than measure it: 

 

Indeed, in response to a request for comment on the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities report and recommendations from Canadian Affairs, Health Canada ignored the condemnation of Canada’s regime and instead simply reiterated the current framework—including the planned 2027 eligibility expansion. In summary, if the Liberals are re-elected at the end of this month, it is full steam ahead—and Canadians with disabilities will simply have to live (or die) with it. 

Despite the Conservative Party’s clear disinterest in campaigning on the issue, the choice before Canadians is still clear. Make no mistake: Expanding euthanasia to those with mental illness would be one of the greatest national tragedies since the 1988 R v. Morgentaler decision. If you have found the stories of the past several years horrifying, remember: They are nothing compared to the stories that we will all be forced to read, and perhaps even experience, once a Liberal government begins to facilitate suicide for those suffering solely from suicidal ideation.  

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Jonathon’s writings have been translated into more than six languages and in addition to LifeSiteNews, has been published in the National PostNational ReviewFirst Things, The Federalist, The American Conservative, The Stream, the Jewish Independent, the Hamilton SpectatorReformed Perspective Magazine, and LifeNews, among others. He is a contributing editor to The European Conservative.

His insights have been featured on CTV, Global News, and the CBC, as well as over twenty radio stations. He regularly speaks on a variety of social issues at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

He is the author of The Culture WarSeeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of AbortionPatriots: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Pro-Life MovementPrairie Lion: The Life and Times of Ted Byfield, and co-author of A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide with Blaise Alleyne.

Jonathon serves as the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

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MAiD

Disability rights panel calls out Canada, US states pushing euthanasia on sick patients

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From LifeSiteNews

By Calvin Freiburger

Physician-assisted suicide programs in the United States and Canada are discriminating against patients with serious medical conditions even when their cases are not terminal, in many cases pushing to end their lives for financial reasons rather than medical.

Catholic News Agency reported that a panel of disability-rights advocates recently examined the landscape of the issue during the Religion News Association’s 2025 annual conference. During the panel, Patients Rights Action Fund (PRAF) executive director Matt Vallière accused state euthanasia programs of discriminating against patients with life-threatening conditions in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, noting that when a state will “will pay for every instance of assisted suicide” but not palliative care, “I don’t call that autonomy, I call that eugenics.”

Inclusion Canada CEO Krista Carr, meanwhile, discussed her organization’s lawsuit against the expansion of Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) program to “people with an incurable disease or disability who are not dying, so they’re not at end of life and their death is not reasonably foreseeable.”

More astonishingly, she added, this “funded right” to lethal injection is slated to be expanded to mental illness in 2027.

“By setting out a timeline of three years, it’s an indication that the systems need to move towards readiness in two years. There’s the opportunity to do another review, and to assess the readiness of the system through a parliamentary process,” Health Minister Mark Holland said in February of the move, which Dying with Dignity Canada presents as a matter of “equality” for “those whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness.”

“It’s being called a choice,” but “it’s not a choice,” Carr said. Rather, these programs are pushing the “choice” on patients in “a desperate situation where they can’t get the support they need.”

As LifeSiteNews recently covered, the “most recent reports show that (medical assistance in dying) is the sixth highest cause of death in Canada. However, it was not listed as such in Statistics Canada’s top 10 leading causes of death from 2019 to 2022.”

In America, nine states plus the District of Columbia currently allow assisted suicide.

Support is available to talk those struggling with suicidal thoughts out of ending their lives. The American Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and the Canadian Suicide Crisis Helpline can both be reached by calling or texting 988.

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