MAiD
Official data shows euthanasia deaths in Canada rose significantly in 2023
From LifeSiteNews
Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) increased 42% in 2023 in Quebec alone.
Deaths of Canadians by state-approved euthanasia have risen sharply in most provinces according to recent data, with approximately 16,000 people dying in 2023 alone, a significant increase from 2022 and an “out of control” rate, the nation’s leading anti-euthanasia advocacy group warned.
Official MAiD data from Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta shows the shocking level of deaths. In 2022, there were 13,241 Canadians who died by MAiD.
According to data from the Quebec Commission on End-of-Life Care’s eighth annual report, 5,211 people died by MAiD from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023, which is a large increase from 3,663 in the previous reporting period.
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC), wrote in a recent blog that he predicts that 60,000 Canadians have died by MAiD since the deadly practice was legalized in 2016, with the rate increasing every year.
“Euthanasia is out of control in Canada,” Schadenberg said.
The EPC noted that deaths in Quebec from MAiD increased 42% in 2023, accounting for 6.8% of all deaths in the province. The report also shows that from April 1 to June 30, 2023, the number of MAiD deaths in the province went up 24%, which the EPC noted is “a slower pace of growth, but substantial considering the massive number of euthanasia deaths.”
The EPC also reflected that “Shockingly, 15% of those who died by euthanasia in Quebec were not terminally ill.”
MAiD data from Ontario released late last year shows there were 4,641 deaths in 2023, an 18% increase from 3,924 in 2022.
Data from Alberta shows that since June 2016 there have been 3,914 reported deaths by MAiD. However, 977 were in 2023, which is an 18% increase from 836 in 2022, or 594 in 2021.
Most MAiD deaths in Canada are done by a “doctor or nurse injecting a person, usually upon request, with a lethal poison cocktail,” the EPC noted.
Assisted suicide, the EPC says, is much less common and “is done by a doctor or nurse prescribing a person, usually upon request, a lethal poison cocktail that the person would take themselves.”
Last week, notably after pushback from pro-life, medical, and mental health groups as well as most of Canada’s provinces, the federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delayed its planned expansion of euthanasia to those suffering solely from mental illness to 2027.
Canadian Health Minister Mark Holland and Justice Minister Arif Virani announced the delay but said the government is still fully committed to expanding MAiD.
The delay was welcomed by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, but Schadenberg told LifeSiteNews that euthanasia “should be scrapped altogether.”
“We will be active in the next election reminding voters of the Members of Parliament who voted against Bill C-314 last fall, a bill that would have scrapped euthanasia for mental illness,” Schadenberg said.
Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) said that Canadians need “compassionate care, not killing,” and has urged Trudeau’s federal government to permanently scrap, not just delay, its planned expansion of euthanasia to those suffering from mental illness.
The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) under leader Pierre Poilievre is supportive of the pause but wants the expansion of MAiD to be dropped altogether.
The CPC has opposed the expansion of MAiD, but recent attempts to stop the grim procedure, such as through Bill C-314, have failed.
The current delay is the second time the expansion has been put on hold.
Originally set to go into effect in March 2023, pressure from the same groups led the Liberals under Trudeau to delay Bill C-39.
The original delay in expanding MAiD until 2024 also came after numerous public scandals, including the surfacing of reports that Canadian veterans were being offered the fatal procedure by workers at Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC).
This article supplied by Troy Media.
By Susan Korah
Carney’s throne speech offered pageantry, but ignored Indigenous treaty rights, MAID expansion and religious concerns
The Speech from the Throne, delivered by King Charles III on May 27 to open the latest session of Parliament under newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney, was a confident assertion of Canada’s identity and outlined the government’s priorities for the session. However, beneath the
pageantry, it failed to address the country’s most urgent moral and constitutional responsibilities.
It also sent a coded message to U.S. President Donald Trump, subtly rebuking his repeated dismissal of Canada as a sovereign state. Trump has
previously downplayed Canada’s independence in trade talks and public statements, often treating it as economically subordinate to the U.S.
Still, a few discordant notes—most visibly from a group of First Nations chiefs in traditional headdresses—cut through the welcoming sounds that greeted the King and Queen Camilla on the streets of the capital.
The role of the Crown in Canada’s history sparked strong reactions from some Indigenous leaders who had travelled from as far as Alberta and Manitoba to voice their concerns.
“It’s time the Crown paid more than lip service to the Indigenous people of this country,” Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro of the Mikisew Cree First Nation told me as he and his colleagues posed for photographs requested by several parade spectators. “We have been ignored and marginalized for far too long.”
He added that he and fellow chiefs from other First Nations were standing outside the Senate chamber as a symbol of their status as “outsiders,” despite being the land’s original inhabitants.
Shortly after Carney’s election, Tuccaro and Chief Sheldon Sunshine of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation sent him a joint letter stating: “As you
know, Canada is founded on Treaties that were sacred covenants between the Crown and our ancestors to share the lands. We are not prepared to accept any further Treaty breaches and violations.” They added that they looked forward to working with the new government as treaty partners.
Catholics, too, are being urged to remain vigilant about aspects of the government’s agenda that were either only briefly mentioned in the throne
speech or omitted altogether. On April 23, just days before Carney and the Liberals were returned to power, the Permanent Council of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement outlining what Catholics should expect from the new government.
“Our Catholic faith provides essential moral and social guidance, helping us understand and respond to the critical issues facing our country,” they wrote. “As the Church teaches, it is the duty of the faithful ‘to see that the divine law is inscribed in the life of the earthly city (Gaudium et Spes, n. 43.2).’”
The bishops expressed concern about the lack of legal protection for the unborn, the expansion of eligibility for medical assistance in dying (MAID)—which allows eligible Canadians to seek medically assisted death under specific legal conditions—and inadequate access to quality palliative care. They also reaffirmed the Church’s responsibility to walk “in justice and truth with Indigenous peoples.”
Although the speech emphasized tariffs, the removal of trade barriers and national security, it made no mention of the right to life, MAID or the charitable status of churches and church-related charities—a status the Trudeau government had considered revoking for some groups.
On Indigenous issues, the government pledged to be a reliable partner and to double the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program from $5 billion to $10 billion. The program supports Indigenous equity participation in natural resource and infrastructure projects.
Canada deserves more than symbolic rhetoric—it needs a government that will confront its moral obligations head-on and act decisively on the challenges facing Indigenous peoples, faith communities, and the most vulnerable among us.
Susan Korah is Ottawa correspondent for The Catholic Register, a Troy Media Editorial Content Provider Partner.
Troy Media empowers Canadian community news outlets by providing independent, insightful analysis and commentary. Our mission is to support local media in helping Canadians stay informed and engaged by delivering reliable content that strengthens community connections and deepens understanding across the country.
From LifeSiteNews
‘It made me wonder, were they really there to help us, or slowly groom us to say ‘here’s a solution, just kill yourself.’
Yet another Canadian combat veteran has come forward to reveal that when he sought help, he was instead offered euthanasia.
David Baltzer, who served two tours in Afghanistan with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, revealed to the Toronto Sun that he was offered euthanasia on December 23, 2019—making him, as the Sun noted, “among the first Canadian soldiers offered therapeutic suicide by the federal government.”
Baltzer had been having a disagreement with his existing caseworker, when assisted suicide was brought up in in call with a different agent from Veteran Affairs Canada.
“It made me wonder, were they really there to help us, or slowly groom us to say ‘here’s a solution, just kill yourself,” Baltzer told the Sun.“I was in my lowest down point, it was just before Christmas. He says to me, ‘I would like to make a suggestion for you. Keep an open mind, think about it, you’ve tried all this and nothing seems to be working, but have you thought about medical-assisted suicide?’”
Baltzer was stunned. “It just seems to me that they just want us to be like ‘f–k this, I give up, this sucks, I’d rather just take my own life,’” he said. “That’s how I honestly felt.”
Baltzer, who is from St. Catharines, Ontario, joined up at age 17, and moved to Manitoba to join the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, one of Canada’s elite units. He headed to Afghanistan in 2006. The Sun noted that he “was among Canada’s first troops deployed to Afghanistan as part Operation Athena, where he served two tours and saw plenty of combat.”
“We went out on long-range patrols trying to find the Taliban, and that’s exactly what we did,” Baltzer said. “The best way I can describe it, it was like Black Hawk Down — all of the sudden the s–t hit the fan and I was like ‘wow, we’re fighting, who would have thought? Canada hasn’t fought like this since the Korean War.”
After returning from Afghanistan, Baltzer says he was offered counselling by Veteran Affairs Canada, but it “was of little help,” and he began to self-medicate for his trauma through substance abuse (he noted that he is, thankfully, doing well today). Baltzer’s story is part of a growing scandal. As the Sun reported:
A key figure shedding light on the VAC MAID scandal was CAF veteran Mark Meincke, whose trauma-recovery podcast Operation Tango Romeo broke the story. ‘Veterans, especially combat veterans, usually don’t reach out for help until like a year longer than they should’ve,’ Meincke said, telling the Sun he waited over two decades before seeking help.
‘We’re desperate by the time we put our hands up for help. Offering MAID is like throwing a cinderblock instead of a life preserver.’ Meincke said Baltzer’s story shoots down VAC’s assertions blaming one caseworker for offering MAID to veterans, and suggests the problem is far more serious than some rogue public servant.
‘It had to have been policy. because it’s just too many people in too many provinces,” Meincke told the Sun. “Every province has service agents from that province.’
Veterans Affairs Canada claimed in 2022 that between four and 20 veterans had been offered assisted suicide; Meincke “personally knows of five, and said the actual number’s likely close to 20.” In a previous investigation, VAC claimed that only one caseworker was responsible—at least for the four confirmed cases—and that the person “was lo longer employed with VAC.” Baltzer says VAC should have military vets as caseworkers, rather than civilians who can’t understand what vets have been through.
To date, no federal party leader has referenced Canada’s ongoing euthanasia scandals during the 2025 election campaign.
Anti-Trump protests planned across the country on Saturday as LA violence continues
Telegram founder Pavel Durov exposes crackdown on digital privacy in Tucker Carlson interview
Carney’s Promise of Expediting Resource Projects Feels Like a Modern Version of the Wicked Stepmother from Disney’s Cinderella
