From LifeSiteNews

By Jonathon Van Maren

Premier Danielle Smith is following through on a promise to address growing concerns with Canada’s euthanasia regime.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has sent a mandate letter to Justice Minister Mickey Amery directing him to draft and introduce new legislation on euthanasia to ensure better oversight of so-called “medical aid in dying,” or “MAiD” and to prohibit it for those suffering solely from mental illness.

In December of last year, Smith’s United Conservative government indicated that they would seek to address growing concerns with Canada’s euthanasia regime. Mainstream media outlets attacked the move, with the CBC actually reporting that: “Some are concerned new limitations could impact already vulnerable Albertans.”

Premier Smith has now followed through on that promise. The September 25 mandate letter, which lays out directives on a wide range of issues, calls for the justice minister to take steps to protect vulnerable Albertans suffering from mental illness:

As lead, work with relevant ministries to introduce legislation to provide greater oversight and appropriate safeguards for medical assistance in dying and prohibit medical assistance in dying where a person seeks this procedure based solely on a mental illness.

In an email to the CBC, Amery stated that while euthanasia law is under federal jurisdiction, healthcare falls under provincial jurisdiction. The CBC falsely claimed that mental illness “has never been an approved sole eligibility factor for MAID, though the government has considered permitting it.” In fact, the Trudeau government passed Bill C-7, which legalized MAID for those struggling with mental illness, in 2021.

That eligibility expansion has been delayed twice—in 2023 and 2024—and is now slated to come into effect in 2027. Despite those delays, Bill C-7 is still law. MP Tamara Jansen and MP Andrew Lawton are currently championing Bill C-218, the “Right to Recover Act,” which would reverse this and make it illegal to offer or perpetrate euthanasia on someone struggling solely with mental illness.

The CBC’s coverage of this move was predictably repulsive. In addition to their disinformation on euthanasia for mental illness, they reported that “Smith’s letter directing new provincial legislation on MAID comes almost a year after the government surveyed just under 20,000 Albertans on whether they think the province should step in. Nearly half of those surveyed disagreed with putting in more guardrails on MAID decisions.”

“Nearly half” is an unbelievably deceitful way of reporting on those results. In fact, 62% were in favor of legislation for a dedicated agency monitoring euthanasia processes; 55% were in favor of a MAID dispute mechanism allowing families or eligible others to challenge decisions to protect vulnerable people, such as those with disabilities or mental health struggles; and 67% supported restricting euthanasia to those with physical illnesses rather than mental illnesses. The CBC did not report on a single one of those numbers.

Provincial legislation to protect people with mental illnesses is badly needed, although I pray that by the time Justice Minister Amery gets around to drafting it, the Right to Recover Act will be passed in Parliament, and provincial action will be unnecessary. In the meantime, it is increasingly clear that much of Canada’s mainstream press coverage of this issue actively threatens the lives of the suicidal and those struggling with mental illnesses. If their dishonesty and attempts and manufacturing consent were not so routine, they would be breathtaking.

Jonathon Van Maren

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

Looks like we made it. For another weekend at least. Until sanity settles down into the head into the head of the federal government that remains fixated on the killing of 399 healthy ostriches. As the clock wound down today, an announcement from the farm proclaimed, “We made it today,” calling it another “miracle Friday.”

WATCH TODAY’S Miracle Friday Announcement

Earlier in the day, Rebel News’ Drea Humphrey reported, “There’s apparently a SWAT team up the road, I hope that doesn’t mean they’ve gotten bad news,” wondering “if the police were preparing to aid the CFIA in the cull.”

Dacey Media reported that the farm said that “Ostrich Hunters” were also spotted at Universal Ostrich Farms according to Katie Pasitney The “kill pen” is fully set up and CFIA have been luring ostriches into it.

But as of 5:30 ET, it seems the farm and the ostriches may have escaped to live another day as the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) did not hand down a decision to grant a further leave to the farm to prepare its case, or dismiss the case, allowing the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to proceed with their “cull” to kill 399 healthy ostriches.

The palpable, raw government over-reach that includes over 100 Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) that have occupied the farm highlights the mismanagement of the CFIA and may be one of the reasons that the SCC has hesitated in making a decision before the weekend.

Call to Dismantle the CFIA

On today’s Stand on Guard interview Katie Pastiney, spokeswoman for the Universal Ostrich Farms in British Columbia called for the dismantlement of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. She says that the CFIA:

“Needs to be dismantled and we need to rebuild this organization back up from the ground up and we need to have a new vision.

“We need to have a new mission and a brand-new face for Canadians that will give us hope that we will be protected not attacked.”

“The Canadian Food Inspection Agency continues to overuse their authority, overuse their excessive freedom that they’ve been given, and they have zero accountability for their actions.”

The farm has been embroiled in a dispute with the federal government and its CFIA agency for close to a year. The agency claims the flock of ostriches has the avian flu, but it refuses to test the farmers’ birds, even though they have been healthy for 258 days. At the same time the CFIA will not let the farmers pay for the tests themselves, saying they will charge them $250,000 per ostrich and put them in jail for 6 months.

The federal agency and the RCMP have seized and occupied the farm since September 22, 2025. they have conducted a campaign of harassment of the farm family and their flock of ostriches that included: arresting the farmers when they were told to go feed their birds; using lights and heavy equipment at night’; sending drones to chase the birds that resulted in pushing one bird over the fence so it hurt its leg, not treating the animals properly; and not feeding the ostriches full rations of food and water and not treating the birds the CFIA injured. These activities have continued as the CFIA continues to construct a “kill box” of hay bales that have been on fire four times while under the CFIA’s supervision and occupation.

Running Out of Time

In a stunning report on X October 2nd, however, before the Supreme Court of Canada had made decision, the CFIA has daily continued to move forward to kill the ostriches ignoring the SCC legal “stay.”

Karen Esperson, Pasitney’s mother yesterday reported on X:

“We need to put CFIA in check.

“This organization feels they are greater than the Supreme Court of Canada. they are still positioning the birds and putting them in the position to be killed immediately. They are assuming they know the outcome of the Supreme Court oof Canada. Do they think they are better than the Supreme court? That they are going to for sure win?

“The Supreme Court has not decided.

“What is happening?

“We are on a stay order and yet I just got a call that they have a whole bunch of birds herded in a little circle in the kill pen.

“Waiting. This is animal cruelty.”

Efforts to Save the Ostriches

More and more Members of Parliament have been speaking up on behalf of the farmers including the local provincial representative, the local Member of Parliament Scott Anderson, who visited the farm trying to talk to the CFIA and also the Official Leader of the Opposition Pierre Poilievre spek out yesterday.

A second press conference hosted by John Catsimatidis, a New York radio host, billionaire and friend of Donald Trump and Dr. Oz, was also held yesterday. The USA Trump administration representatives including Robert F. Kennedy say they want to either pay for the ostrich testing or help re-locate them to the United States for further research opportunities. This outreach has been ignored.

CFIA Has Staff Enough to Kill but NOT Enough Staff to Test?

In my interview today with Pastiney she explained how the CFIA did originally give their ostrich farm an exemption that was later rescinded because the CFIA told them they were “understaffed and we’re not able to perform these tests.”

“There was an exemption package that was given to us on January 2nd. We have an email from Canadian Food Inspection Agency stating that we qualify for special rare genetics within our herd and that we could be exempt.

“Now when we followed through with that because we needed to test them just to show their DNA and their genetics and show their lineage that between January 2nd and January 10th something happened.

“Now we didn’t qualify we lost that right.

“And on January 10th they said sorry you don’t qualify for special rare genetics because we are understaffed and we’re not able to perform these tests.”

Why does the CFIA have staff to occupy the farm for weeks and to kill 399 ostriches as well as requisition the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) over 40 cars and reportedly more than 100 police on the farm since September 22nd, and not have the money to test the birds for the exemption?

How much has this debacle and exercise into Carney Government overreach been charged to Canadian taxpayers?

More than the tests to see if the ostriches are healthy or if they qualify for the exemption?

Other Farmers May Join in Efforts to Disband the CFIA

Pastiney says:

“I just did an interview with a farmer that this very same thing happened to them and it was based off a suspicion of tuberculosis outbreak on their farm.

“They [the farmers] had over 600 head of cattle, they had sheep, they had goats, they had pig or pigs, they had chickens.

“They [the CFIA] came in based off suspicion and off their own negligence they killed everything this beautiful older farm had to find out in the end that they tested after everything was dead and there was no tuberculosis.”

“I asked her a very important question, and I said could you trust this organization again? And she said, absolutely not.

“So, it became very clear to me after this about talking to two or three farmers that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency needs to be dismantled.”

“It is an organization that has lost the trust of Canadians.

CONCLUSION

WATCH Katie is Fighting For Everyone’s Freedom | Stand on Guard