Pete Baklinski is the communications director for Campaign Life Coalition.I’ve often wondered if there is anything effective one could say to brainwashed members of a destructive cult to help them realize the peril of their situation in time to change their minds, exit the cult, and save their lives. What might one have said to the US citizens of Jonestown prior to the 1978 “white night” mass suicide of over nine hundred men, women, and children? These were members of the Peoples Temple cult who perished along with their delusional leader, Jim Jones. What words might have turned the victims away from willingly and knowingly drinking fruit punch laced with sedatives and cyanide?Death in suicide cults does not happen suddenly or unexpectedly. Members are indoctrinated over long periods of time into accepting that suicide is the only real solution to whatever problem the cult is facing. The grim act of self-destruction is spoken of in glowing terms and cloaked in euphemisms. Suicide is portrayed as something good and dignified, as an act of hope, self-determination, or even revolution.How does this kind of indoctrination happen? What psychological mechanisms are at play in a suicide cult that strip a person of one of the strongest driving forces of human nature — the will to live (self-preservation)? In the late 1970s, Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones moved his followers out of the United States to the small South American country of Guyana. He was attempting to escape scrutiny from an antagonistic press investigating his growing, politically influential quasi-religious movement, one he had built through fake healings, false prophecy, and manipulation. Jonestown was sold as a “promised land,” a “paradise of freedom,” far removed from pesky reporters and meddling government agencies.What Jones delivered, however, more closely resembled a labour camp than a workers’ paradise. When reports eventually leaked back to the US describing forced manual labour, deliberate sleep deprivation, malnutrition, armed guards, and torture as punishment, a California congressman, Leo Ryan, decided to investigate.Jones, fearing that his socialist paradise would be exposed for the hell-hole that it was, had long been preparing his followers for this moment. He was grooming them to willingly commit suicide together as the solution to being exposed. But he did not call it that. He framed it as something noble and high-minded..Deborah Layton, a survivor of Jonestown and author of Seductive Poison (1999), described in a 1978 affidavit the technique Jones employed to desensitize his followers to their own deaths. She wrote this after escaping Jonestown months before the massacre: “At least once a week, Rev. Jones would declare a ‘white night’ … The entire population of Jonestown would be awakened by blaring sirens … a mass meeting would ensue … During one ‘white night,’ we were informed that our situation had become hopeless and that the only course of action open to us was a mass suicide for the glory of socialism…”“Everyone, including the children, was told to line up. As we passed through the line, we were given a small glass of red liquid to drink. We were told that the liquid contained poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told…”During these suicide rehearsals, Jones broadcast words of encouragement over loudspeakers. Followers were told they were committing a glorious revolutionary act and would be remembered in history as heroes who chose their own way to die.As Jones feared, the visit from the congressman went awry. Some cult members wanted to leave with the congressman, which was an unpardonable offence in Jones' eyes. A cult member attempted to stab the congressman to death. When the congressman left the commune, Jones ordered that he be pursued and killed. The congressman, along with some of his entourage, was intercepted and shot to death at the airstrip. Realizing that his “paradise” was lost, Jones ordered the final “white night.” This time, it would not be a drill. .Jones, whose speeches were routinely recorded, told his followers they were committing “revolutionary suicide” and must die “with a degree of dignity.” Cries and screams of dying children and adults can be heard on the infamous “death tape.” Evidence later showed that those who resisted were forced at gunpoint or injected by syringe.“I tell you, I don't care how many screams you hear,” Jones can be heard telling the commune on the recording. “I don't care how many anguished cries ... death is a million times preferable to 10 more days of this life … If you knew what was ahead of you, you'd be glad to be ‘stepping over’ tonight.” What happened in Jonestown follows a familiar pattern seen in suicide cults: people are conditioned to believe that killing themselves is a justified solution and a valid expression of self-determination. Euphemisms are used to make the act palatable and to conceal the gruesome reality — the termination of human life. The mass suicide was euphemistically called a “white night,” a phrase meant to conceal the fact that the entire commune — including some 300 children — would be poisoned to death. Jones assured his followers they were “not committing suicide.” “It’s a revolutionary act,” he said. He called the poison “medication” and insisted it was “humane.”It was a death with “dignity,” he promised. But everything Jones said was a lie. His language was carefully chosen to distort reality and manipulate his victims into believing they were performing a noble act. Hundreds of innocent victims, including those who drank willingly, were killed because of those lies and manipulation.As I researched destructive cults — not only Jonestown, but others such as Heaven’s Gate (1997, 39 victims) — I began to see alarming parallels with Canada’s court and government-backed suicide regime known as Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD)..Prior to 2015, assisting in a victim’s suicide was a criminal offence in Canada. Doctors were prohibited from killing or helping patients kill themselves. This prohibition was based on over two millennia of medical ethics, rooted in the teachings of the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, who required physicians to vow to use the art of medicine only to heal, never to take a life. It was also grounded on the Judeo-Christian principle that life is sacred. This principle, as summarized in one of the Ten Commandments, states simply: “You shall not murder.” This changed in February 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled in Carter v. Canada that the prohibition against assisted suicide violated Charter rights. In a striking inversion of language, the Court declared that “the prohibition on physician-assisted dying infringes the right to life.”The judges accepted the argument that the right to life includes “a right to die with dignity” and even “the right to determine whether to take one’s own life.” In other words, the right to life now includes the right to death.This Orwellian doublespeak — killing oneself is living — set the stage for Parliament to legalize doctor-assisted killing the following year. In practice today, medical professionals do not simply “assist” patients in ending their own lives; they directly euthanize them. The law was framed as an “exception” to homicide. Killing was reframed as care.So-called safeguards were put in place in an attempt to assure citizens that MAiD was under control. But they were quickly eroded. Eligibility expanded, and continues to expand to this day. The next expansion is to include those with mental illness and is set for March 2027. There is already pressure to include “mature” minors (young persons under 18) and even newborn infants.This year (2026), the number of Canadians killed by MAiD is expected to surpass 100,000, making it one of the leading causes of death in Canada. If MAiD follows the same legal trajectory as abortion in Canada, it may be only a matter of time before the service becomes available to any citizen who wants it, for any reason — or no reason at all. As safeguards collapse, euthanasia on demand may soon become the norm. Some already fear a future where consent is no longer required. There are already anecdotal reports of coercion that have begun to surface..When I made a side-by-side comparison with Jonestown and what is happening in Canada today with MAiD, the parallels were chilling. Like Jonestown’s victims, Canadians are being conditioned into accepting killing as a caring solution..One question remains: who leads today’s suicide cult? It is tempting to blame activist groups like Death with Dignity or fringe figures, such as “Dr. Death” Jack Kevorkian, who died in 2011. Pope John Paul II, however, warned of a deeper problem, what he called a pervasive “culture of death” that no longer recognizes the inherent dignity of the human person created in the image of God. Killing a patient, no matter how it is framed, can only flourish in a society that has lost sight of the true dignity of the person. Jonestown survivor Deborah Layton once wrote that no one is immune to being ensnared by a cult. It’s easy for “good, smart, idealistic people” to get caught up in the “machinations” of such a cult, she warned. “It is only by knowing the warning signs that we can protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our children,” she continued. She wished someone had explained to her “what cults are and how indoctrination works” so that she might have made different choices. Canada has embraced a system that teaches its citizens that killing is care. No one is immune — not doctors, judges, politicians, or patients. Many already know someone who has “drunk the Kool-Aid.” The bodies are piling up. Medical Aid in Dying is killing cloaked as compassion. The only remaining question is this: what are we doing to help those most likely to be ensnared by this system recognize their peril in time to change course, step away, and save their lives — and their dignity? Every human life is precious and deserves dignity, respect, and protection until its natural end.Pete Baklinski is the communications director for Campaign Life Coalition. He holds a master’s degree in theology and lives in Ontario with his family. He can be found on X at @petebaklinski.
