From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Roger Foley has been pressured to consider euthanasia while being denied adequate care, prompting a new campaign to cover his medical costs and support his fight to return home.

Roger Foley, an Ontario man, has been forced to turn to charity after being denied sufficient care from hospitals which continue to push euthanasia on him.

On September 30, the Life Care Network launched a LifeFunder to cover medical costs for Roger Foley, a disabled Canadian who is struggling to receive support in an Ontario hospital which is encouraging him to end his life with Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).

“Hospital staff have repeatedly offered and pressured me to consider Canada’s infamous assisted suicide program Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) while simultaneously obstructing the very services and supports I need to live safely,” Foley revealed in a write-up for the fundraiser.

“Despite my condition, I have fought tirelessly for my rights, dignity, and the ability to return to the community,” he continued.

Foley, who is well known for speaking out against the injustice of Canada’s euthanasia regime, suffers from spinocerebellar ataxia, an incurable brain disease that makes it difficult to move.

As a result of his, he requires caregivers to assist him in eating, drinking, and getting up. According to Foley, his caregivers mistreated him while caring for him at his home. In 2016, Foley was admitted to the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) in Ontario for food poisoning and has been there ever since.

Foley revealed that over the past nine years he has repeatedly been offered MAiD despite his desire to be released from the hospital and return home with the help of caregivers.

In May, Foley began enduring even more pain when the LHSC switched out the amber lights in his room for bright bulbs. Foley, who is light sensitive, is now in so much pain that he is unable to be lifted for meals.

“I can only tolerate fluids for a few minutes at a time using makeshift taped-together ski goggles. I am unable to eat solid food or take oral medications,” Foley explained.

“I live in constant pain, severe fatigue, and cognitive decline from dehydration and lack of sleep,” he continued. “Staff continue to impose arbitrary and unsafe ‘rules,’ including denying me side rails during transfers and barging in with bright lights – despite knowing it causes me extreme harm.”

Now Foley is seeking private funding for a Personal Support Worker to assist him with feeding, medication, hydration, and basic hygiene support. Life Care Network, an organization which assists vulnerable Canadians at risk for MAiD, has intervened to raise the necessary funds for Foley’s care.

In an interview with LifeSiteNews, Lino DeFacendis, founder and CEO of Life Care Network, stressed the importance of defending Foley from a medical system which appears to prioritize ending his life with MAiD over providing proper care.

“There needs to be a re-awakening that every life is precious and must be treated with true dignity and compassion no matter how difficult the circumstance,” DeFacendis said.

“Killing oneself via MAiD is never the answer to one’s problems,” he declared.

To support Foley’s medical care, please visit his LifeFunder page.

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.