Justice Minister contemplates delaying program expansion
By Quinton Amundson, The Catholic Register
[Toronto – Catholic News Service] – A glimmer of Christmas hope emerged for objectors to Canada’s euthanasia regime.
Justice Minister Arif Virani said Dec. 13 the Liberals are contemplating pausing plans to broaden the eligibility of medically-provided suicide (known as Medical Assistance in Dying or MAiD) to individuals solely with a mental illness as of March 17. Cabinet will weigh the feedback offered by a joint parliamentary committee, medical professionals and other stakeholders.
“We’ll evaluate all of that comprehensively to make a decision whether we move ahead on March 17 or whether we pause,” said Virani.
Conservative MP Ed Fast, long a critic of the government’s assisted suicide policy, told media outlets he liked what he heard from Virani.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen a glimmer of hope come from the Liberal government that they’re prepared to reconsider their decision to move ahead.”
Fast’s Bill C-314, which would have permanently quashed euthanasia’s expansion to include mental illness, was defeated 167-150 at the second reading in October.
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC), wrote that the EPC “is pleased that Virani may hit the ‘pause button’ on euthanasia for mental illness.” EPC is launching a campaign in January to convince MPs “that people with mental health concerns should not be abandoned to death by MAiD.”
On Dec. 14, Schadenberg moderated a webinar discussion with Tyler Dunlop, a 38-year-old man from Orillia, Ont., who began the MAiD process this past January because of homelessness and hopelessness. His story showed that there is hope for those suffering from mental illness.
“I had been experiencing homelessness on the street for several months,” said Dunlop. “I was exhausted. I was malnourished. The cold had broken down my spirit… (I was) exhausted, and at my wit’s end with my spirit totally shattered, I went to my hospital in Orillia to apply for medically assisted death.”
His decision shocked health-care professionals as he was healthy and non-disabled. He told OrilliaMatters.com at the time he was so dead set on his decision that he refused to submit to psychiatric testing.
Dunlop was not alone in feeling compelled to end his life to escape from poverty.
In December 2022, the CEO of the Mississauga Food Bank, Meghan Nicholls, told The Catholic Register that some clients informed food bank staff “they were in such a desperate state mental health-wise and their outlook on improvement was so poor they were considering ending their own life.”
The one-year legislative delay in enacting medically-provided suicide for the solely mentally ill prevented Dunlop’s request from being granted. But his testimonials went viral. During the year, people rallied around Dunlop and offered him support. Among these champions was Tim Den Bok, a writer based in Collingwood, Ont. Over the past few months, Den Bok supported Dunlop as the latter wrote the autobiographical novel Therefore Choose Life: My Journey from Hopelessness to Hope.
Dunlop credits Den Bok for helping him choose life over death.
“We struck up a friendship and a collaboration of ideas,” said Dunlop. “(Tim) was very integral in helping me change my mind. He is well-versed in philosophy, which appealed to me because I’m a philosophical thinker. He helped me change my mind. He humanized me, if you will.”
Den Bok encouraged Dunlop to share his life story as it could help people facing homelessness, addiction and mental health issues, as well as spawn empathy in people not experiencing those plights. He said fans of the book have commended Dunlop’s unflinching frankness.
“I encouraged Tyler from the beginning of the book to be brutally honest, to even talk about things that are embarrassing to himself,” said Den Bok.
“I said, ‘If you do that, people will know you are telling the truth.’ People don’t tend to reveal things that are embarrassing. I think what a lot of people like about the book is it is very transparent.”
A Christian, Dunlop told webinar viewers that “constant prayer and reading a lot of Scripture” have provided him strength and comfort as he strives to author a more hopeful chapter of life.
“I am a very spiritual person. That is the tool that gets me through. It is the tool that has always gotten me through. That is what I am going to continue to practice.”
His go-to verse is James 4:8, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”
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