[Vancouver – Canadian Catholic News] – Combat veteran Kelsi Sheren told an Ottawa news conference she joined the Canadian Armed Forces at 18 knowing she might die for her country, but she never imagined her own government would one day offer to help her do it.
“Behind closed doors, in quiet conversations, veterans are being offered medical assistance in dying not therapy, not recovery, not support, but death,” Sheren said. “When somebody’s drowning in trauma and desperation, that’s not a choice. That’s coercion wearing a polite face.”
The former artillery gunner and mental-health advocate spoke at a Euthanasia Prevention Coalition news conference with other anti-euthanasia voices calling on MPs to support legislation blocking the expansion of medically-provided euthanasia — known as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) — to people suffering solely from mental illness.
Bill C-218 is a private member’s bill introduced in June by Conservative MP Tamara Jansen (Cloverdale–Langley City). The bill would permanently exclude mental illness as a sole qualifying condition for MAiD.
Sheren, who served in Afghanistan and lives with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and major depressive disorder, pointed out several incidents of veterans seeking help instead being “offered medical assistance in dying not therapy, not recovery, not support, but death.”
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“This isn’t compassion,” she said. “It’s a moral rot disguised as mercy. Veterans are being told their lives cost too much money. That’s not health care, it’s surrender.”
Gordon Friesen, EPC’s president, said the coalition’s message was simple: “No euthanasia for mental illness.”
The government plans to expand medically-provided death to make it available to individuals whose only medical condition is a mental disorder. Friesen said that would violate the original safeguards promised when Parliament legalized assisted dying in 2016.
“MAiD was only to be for people who are dying, only for adults, and only for people able to truly choose,” Friesen said. “Unfortunately, all of those promises have been broken.”
Friesen warned that allowing medically-provided suicide for people with psychiatric disorders “destroys all notion of MAiD as an authentic patient choice,” since mental illness can directly impair judgment and decision-making. He cautioned that “once the door is opened,” other vulnerable groups such as children or people with dementia could follow.
EPC executive director Alex Schadenberg said the coming change “should never even be considered.”
He said Bill C-7, passed in 2021, removed the requirement that a person’s death be “reasonably foreseeable” and laid the groundwork for extending euthanasia eligibility to non-terminal illnesses. Although Parliament has twice delayed the mental-illness provision, now set to take effect in March 2027, the expansion remains law.
“This undermines the whole concept of whether someone can properly consent,” Schadenberg said. “Whether they are truly consenting, whether they are of their right mind, whether there are alternatives for them.”
Schadenberg shared a letter from a woman named Andrea, who had attempted suicide multiple times and might have qualified for medically-provided euthanasia under the pending criteria. If MAiD had been available, “she would have wanted it and she would have been dead,” Schadenberg said. “Today she’s married, expecting her first child, and well. That’s why we can’t allow this.”
Montreal family physician Dr. Paul Saba, who has long opposed euthanasia, said people requesting death because of mental illness “cannot make a free and informed consent.”
“The desire to die, in most cases, is a symptom of a mental illness such as depression,” he said. “This is not compassion; it’s a failure of care.”
Dr. Saba called on MPs “who truly value life” to support Bill C-218 and reject any future expansions.
According to the federal government’s 2023 MAiD annual report, 15,343 Canadians died through medically-provided euthanasia that year, up nearly 16 per cent from 2022, accounting for 4.7 per cent of all deaths nationwide. Federal data and academic reviews show that loneliness or social isolation were cited as contributing factors in nearly half of all non-terminal requests.
Schadenberg said those figures reflect a deeper problem. “When we start offering death instead of care, we stop being a compassionate country,” he said.
The Ottawa news conference followed a local roundtable Oct. 18 at Jansen’s Langley, B.C., constituency office, where about 50 people, including pastors, priests, and lay leaders from Orthodox, Catholic, Mennonite, Baptist, and Calvinist churches, as well as a Sikh representative, met to discuss the bill.
One participant called it a show of unity across faith traditions.
“This is about loving our neighbour,” Jansen told the gathering. “Our neighbour is at risk.” She called the pending expansion of medically-provided suicide for mental illness “a freight train coming,” and urged churches to circulate petitions and write letters to MPs. “The bigger the support, the better.”
Jansen also rejected claims that mental illness is irremediable. “You can flourish with the right treatment,” she said.
Among clergy present were Rev. Dr. Yuriy Sakvuk, chancellor of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of New Westminster, and Deacon Steve Potusek of St. Matthew’s Parish in Surrey, BC.
Fr. Augustine Obiwumma, pastor of Star of the Sea Parish in Surrey, said afterward the meeting was valuable. “It was good to see Christians and pastors of all denominations speak with one clear voice about the dignity of every human being,” he said. “As Christians, we are called to be agents of truth, compassion, love, and hope not agents of death. The sick, the suffering, the terminally ill, and the dying need our love and support.”
In a follow-up email to attendees, Jansen thanked participants for their leadership and support of the bill, attaching background materials and a petition for signatures. She said endorsement letters from faith and community leaders “will play an important role in showing other Members of Parliament … that this issue unites people across many backgrounds.”
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