SLOBODIAN: Poilievre promises protection, not death needle for mentally ill

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre won’t give up on Canadians suffering mental illnesses by allowing them to be exterminated with a lethal poison needle.He vowed to halt what Conservatives — and anyone with a conscience and a heart who doesn’t fancy playing God — have long condemned as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government’s ever-expanding “culture of death” fixation.Poilievre championed Canadian values — widely held but for a few Grim Reapers — when he said Thursday that as prime minister, he’ll revoke the expansion of medical assistance for dying (MAiD) to include people whose sole ailment is mental illness.“MAiD will continue to be available for people who have irremediable health conditions, physical health conditions, as it is now. But it will not be expanded to include mental health as a sole reason for a lethal injection,” said Poilievre.Poilievre told emotionally-hurting people they are worthy by clearly stating the Conservatives' position. The Liberals tell them death is an acceptable solution, that they are expendable. There’s nothing compassionate or honourable in that diabolical message.“So, where Justin Trudeau has delayed this decision until after the election, we will revoke it entirely,” said Poilievre.The Liberals, knowing they pushed too far came up with some lame excuse that the health system isn’t “ready” for the MAiD expansion that was set to take effect for March 17.No! They figured out that disgusted Canadians aren’t ready for this attack on the vulnerable, who can still heal. In fear they backed down, until it would be politically safe to pounce.The Liberals introduced new legislation last week to pause MAiD for three years until March 2027. Well, that’s a respite for those living in fear that in a moment of deep despair a loved one could secretly make an appointment with someone on standby to help them kill themselves, even though maybe tomorrow or the next day they could have felt better.Health Minister Mark Holland said “we need more time.” To do what? Win the election to be held by fall 2025.No, no. More trained practitioners and psychiatrists are needed, said Holland, who admitted he never spoke with any patients. Why bother with them?“The system needs to be ready and we need to get it right,” said Holland. “It's clear from the conversations we've had that the system is not ready and we need more time.”In what civilized society would a system “be ready” to exterminate the mentally ill?A recent report by the 15-member Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, reported that the delay is needed to prepare the system to safely provide MAiD for this group. OK, so if it isn’t a political election strategy, how many Canadians suffering from, say, depression, do the Liberals expect to line up for the death needle and weigh down the health system?It's clear why Poilievre accused the Liberals of “once again being in pursuit of a radical agenda that is totally out of step with the values of Canadians.” He noted that many areas of Canada are in the throes of an opioid drug addiction crisis.MAiD started out in 2016 with a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada that only adults with “grievous and irremediable medical conditions qualified.The Quebec Superior Court ruled in 2019 that requiring a person’s death to be reasonably foreseeable to qualify for MAiD was unconstitutional on the grounds that it was “unconstitutional.”The Liberals updated that law in 2021 and added a Senate amendment deeming a two-year sunset clause was fine for people whose sole condition was mental illness.Facing a backlash in 2023 the Liberals extended the deadline until this March.“Our job is to turn their hurt back into hope,” To treat mental illness problems rather than ending people’s lives,” Poilievre said when Conservative MP Ed Fast introduced a private member’s bill last March to repeal the law allowing the mentally ill to access MAID.“Those suffering from mental disorders, including depression, deserve mental health and social support and counselling. They need to find some joy and some meaning in life,” said Fast.“It is deeply concerning that this government appears to be moving from a culture of life to a culture of death.”For some, it’s never enough MAiD. But one hurrah for the feds.The Montreal Gazette reported Friday that Ottawa had rejected Quebec’s demands to modify the Criminal Code to allow it to expand MAiD by this fall.Senior’s Minister Sonia Belanger is anxious to push it through so that anyone in the early stages of dementia can make an advance MAiD directive when no longer mentally capable of doing so. This is to protect, not seniors, but medical practitioners from being charged with homicide. Get that viper away from the elderly.The MAiD death toll keeps climbing.Euthanasia Prevention Coalition executive director Alex Schadenberg recently said there have been more than 60,000 euthanasia deaths since it was legalized.He estimated there were about 16,000 deaths in 2023, up from 13,241 in 2022 representing 4.1% of the national total.“Euthanasia is out of control in Canada,” said Schadenberg.Pro-MAiD psychiatrists bleat that excluding the mentally ill stigmatizes them and discriminates against them so the death needle should be readily available to them.No matter how qualified, it is beyond any psychiatrist’s power to predict someone’s mental health problems are irreversible. Maybe another psychiatrist is the solution, rather than assisted suicide.The election can’t come soon enough with the Conservatives led by Poilievre in power to reel in this MAiD evil.God help a country whose most vulnerable need protection from a government with a death fixation instead of a mandate to fix the health system — not to enable more death, but to equip it to deliver hope and help.

SLOBODIAN: Poilievre promises protection, not death needle for mentally ill

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