By Terry O’Neill, The B.C. Catholic
[Vancouver – Canadian Catholic News] – Pro-life voices are welcoming a United Nations report citing the need “to ensure the right to life for persons with disabilities” in the face of Canada’s growing MAiD culture.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has delivered what one critic has called “a stunning and comprehensive rebuke” of Canada’s permissive euthanasia law.
As part of an exhaustive review of Canada’s human-rights record dealing with the disabled, the committee called for the repeal of the 2021 extension of medically-provided euthansia availability to those whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable.
Moreover, in proceedings leading up to the release of the report, one committee expert, Australian human-rights advocate Rosemary Kayess, went so far as to ask whether Canada’s euthanasia regime was a de facto eugenics program.
The report also listed “similar concerns” about the adverse impact of Canada’s so called “Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD)” euthanasia system’s impact on the disabled, expressed by agencies examining discrimination related to women, poverty, and seniors.
The report was immediately embraced by pro-life advocates in Canada who have long decried the country’s euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide regime.
“I’m shocked that the UN actually came out with something like this, because it is not known for denouncing things that are seen as progressive,” Fr. Larry Lynn, the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s pro-life chaplain, said in an interview. “So this came as a real pleasant surprise for me.”
Lynn said the UN committee’s denunciation of Canada’s “MAiD” law means that a major international body believes Canada has simply gone too far in providing euthanasia.
The report also appears to make a mockery of the government of Canada’s boast, on its main website, that the country has been “a consistently strong voice for the protection of human rights in the world dating back to its “central role” in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights almost 80 years ago.
Despite this, no federal political leader has addressed the UN report. As well, federal Justice Minister Gary Anandasangaree did not answer The B.C. Catholic’s emailed questions on the issue.
Health Canada did, however, issue a statement to CTVNews.ca saying it had no intention of repealing the 2021 expansion of medically-provided euthanasia availability, explaining that it believes “enhanced safeguards” are in place to protect vulnerable persons.
“It’s no surprise we’ve yet to hear from Prime Minister Carney or his cabinet,” Mike Schouten, executive director of the Association for Reformed Political Action, said in an interview. “Since 2016, Canada’s government has been focused on expanding euthanasia and assisted suicide rather than addressing the root causes of suffering.”
Schouten, who lives in Chilliwack, added “Instead of offering death as a solution, this government should prioritize access to proper medical care, mental health supports, housing, and other essentials.”
Writing for the online Western Standard magazine, Jonathon Van Maren said the UN report should be one of the biggest Canadian election stories because “The committee’s conclusions were a stunning and comprehensive rebuke of Canada’s assisted suicide laws.” He called on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to pressure Prime Minister Mark Carney “to reverse course” on medically-provided death.
The UN committee said in its report, made public March 21, that it “is extremely concerned” about the 2021 amendments, which created an avenue – called “Track 2” – for euthanasia to be made available to persons whose deaths were not foreseeable.
Parliament passed those amendments following the Superior Court of Quebec’s 2019 Truchon decision, which found that the original MAiD law, which limited euthanasia to those near death, was unconstitutional.
The committee called on the Canadian government to repeal Track 2, not to enact the planned 2027 extension of medically-provided death to persons whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness, and not to support proposals for the expansion of MAiD to include mature minors and advance requests.
In explaining its reasons, the committee charged that the Track 2 extension “establishes medically assisted dying for persons with disabilities based on negative, ableist perceptions of the quality and value of the life of persons with disabilities.”
The committee said these “ableist perceptions” included the perception “that ‘suffering’ is intrinsic to disability rather than the fact that inequality and discrimination cause and compound ‘suffering’ for persons with disabilities.”
The UN committee further criticized Canada for creating a “false dichotomy” by setting up the idea that, if persons with disabilities are suffering, it is therefore valid for Parliament to enable their death.
Compounding the problem, the report said Canada’s euthanasia regime was enacted at a time of “systemic failures” to address poverty, access to health care, accessible housing, homelessness, gender-based violence, mental health, and unemployment.
Australia’s Kayess, who chaired the UN Disability Committee from 2021–22, led its review of Canada’s human-rights records for the disabled. Committee records show that, in a section labelled “Questions by Committee Experts,” Kayess “asked if the Quebec judgment was seen as a step back into State-based eugenics programmes [sic]?”
She is also reported as saying that the disproportionate impact on the disabled, of unmet needs, represented a “systemic failure” by Canada, and “underpinned the so-called choice for seeking medical assistance in dying as an alternative. How was this not State-sanctioned euthanasia?”
The B.C. Catholic reached out to Kayess for additional information, but did not receive any response by deadline.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Human Rights Commission told The B.C. Catholic it was barred from commenting on the UN committee’s report because of the current federal election. The spokesperson did, however, point to the commission’s submission to the UN committee, which said it was “unacceptable” that some people with disabilities were requesting medically-provided death “because they feel they do not have any other options to live in dignity.”
Kelsi Sheren (BC Catholic – CCN)
Nevertheless, the commission stopped short of calling for a repeal of Track 2, opting only to suggest that the federal government conduct a “thorough examination” of the impact of current euthanasia laws before further expanding eligibility criteria.
Anti-euthanasia activist Kelsi Sheren of White Rock said in an interview that she believes “strongly” that Canada’s medically-provided death program “is flat-out eugenics. And it is being slow-dripped to the population, not as a solution to the problem, but as the only solution to the problem.”
Sheren, a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces who is now an author and podcaster, says an attitude has developed within the medical and political establishment that if a person does not take advantage of medically-provided death, “then they are looked at as a burden on society.”
“The way that this program is being run currently indicates very clearly that when you tell someone – when you dangle the carrot of euthanasia – it is almost an expectation of the population, and if you don’t utilize the program you are seen as individuals who are eating up health care for the healthy population. And if you don’t choose euthanasia, you are a bad person. It’s, ‘How dare you want to live to your natural end of death.’ This is very much the condition of a very, very sick society.”
The most recent statistics show that, in 2023, 96 per cent (14,721) of euthanasia cases in Canada involved individuals whose deaths were reasonably foreseeable (Track 1), while 4 per cent (622) qualified under Track 2. Overall, the 15,343 euthanasia deaths represented a 15.8 per cent increase over 2022’s figures.
The 2023 figures also appear to support fears that the disabled are being disproportionately impacted by the Track 2 expansion. The report states that 58 per cent of Track 2 individuals who completed a survey self-reported that they had a disability, compared to 33.5 per cent of Track 1 persons.
Lynn, the pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Coquitlam, said the UN report adds more evidence to his belief that the pendulum is swinging back to a greater respect for life in Western society.
“It turns out that something is changing,” he said. “I call it providence. I call it the effect of the prayer that our prayer warriors have been doing, relentlessly, fearlessly, and with great perseverance through the years. And we thank God for that.”
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