Over the past decade, many in the international press have openly wondered how Canada’s euthanasia regime went off the rails so swiftly and so grotesquely that other nations have decided against legalizing assisted suicide for fear of turning into Canada.
There are, of course, many answers to that question, but one cannot be emphasized enough: Canada had essentially no open debate on assisted suicide in the press. After Canada’s Supreme Court magically discovered a “right to die” (in the right to life), the press celebrated. As legislation was debated, anti-euthanasia voices were conspicuously absent and ignored (with the lonely exception of Andrew Coyne, then at the National Post).
In fact, when I turned on the CBC in my car one evening in a fit of apparent masochism in 2016 and heard them announce a debate on assisted suicide, I wondered who would be representing the pro-life side. The debate turned out to be between an advocate of Bill C-14 (Justin Trudeau’s first euthanasia bill) and someone who didn’t think it went far enough. The boundaries of the media’s Overton window for debate on euthanasia nearly touched.
This became even clearer as I watched the UK’s vibrant debate on assisted suicide and euthanasia debate unfold over the past several years. Every major publication from the Guardian to the Daily Mail to the Times covered the downsides of legalization — often using Canada as a cautionary example — and platformed the views of pro-lifers and others opposed to medicalized killing. I was downright envious watching it.
Although much of Canada’s state-funded media still obediently pumps out Dying with Dignity’s talking points, the sheer scale of the killing combined with the heartbroken testimonies of grieving families has now forced a debate, although it has been infuriating to see journalists wonder how things could have gotten so bad when pro-lifers accurately predicted all of this. They just didn’t want to listen until the consequences became clear.
The poster child for the Canadian media’s cheerleading of euthanasia is André Picard, the health columnist for Canada’s “paper of record,” the Globe and Mail.
“Thanks to the legalization of medical assistance in dying, more than 100,000 Canadians have been spared unnecessary suffering at end-of-life,” Picard wrote on June 16. “As we mark the 10th anniversary of Bill C-14, Medical Assistance in Dying, on June 17, we should be celebrating, not hand-wringing.” On X, he was even blunter, calling the killing of 100,000 Canadians by doctor-administered lethal injection a “cause for celebration.” A cause for celebration. Tell that to the families mourning their loved ones that they tried to save.
In his column, Picard mocks the “anti-choice activists” who say that 100,000 is “too many.” “The culture of dying has changed fundamentally, for the better,” he wrote.“About one in every 20 deaths is now medically assisted.Life has not been cheapened by MAID. Dignity, choice, and bodily autonomy have all been bolstered.” Perhaps he is referring to the man who was cleared for euthanasia in a Tim Hortons parking lot and then driven to an industrial morgue facility to be put down.
“We’ve had endless warnings about the ‘slippery slope’ of MAID as well, frightening claims that we will see the culling of the elderly, of people with disabilities, those suffering from mental illness, and those who live in poverty,” Picard continued. “Hasn’t happened, and it won’t. Not all slopes are slippery. The cases that push the boundaries are a path to better legislation, and better care.”
It most certainly is happening, as many of his colleagues now admit. For the rest, he’s either lying or ignorant. Track 2 MAID explicitly permits people with disabilities — even those without “reasonably foreseeable death” — to commit suicide by doctor, and euthanasia for those suffering solely from a mental illness is still legal (although, thank God, it appears the government is set to put a halt to it).
Of course, Picard’s conclusion is that when the thing he says isn’t happening does happen — “cases that push the boundaries” — it’s a good thing, actually.
It appears that Picard doesn’t read his colleagues in the international press either. “Canada has been a world leader, and we should be proud of it,” he purred. “MAID is not an experiment anymore. It’s a legitimate health care choice, an integral part of end-of-life care.” Indeed. Our example has thus far killed euthanasia bills in Slovenia, Scotland, and Westminster. As it turns out, there are plenty of people who — even when they support assisted suicide in principle — are horrified when they realize where this slope leads.
Picard insists that the slippery slope doesn’t exist. The truth is that he’s at the bottom, standing atop a pile of corpses, informing the legions of heartbroken Canadians who could not stop their loved ones from being euthanized that they should be celebrating.
