OTTAWA, Canada, March 19, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A law newly passed in Canada this week allows more Canadians to use doctor-assisted suicide as the final solution to their problems, including those with mental illness and those who are suffering while not terminally ill.
The slippery-slope expansion of the country’s assisted suicide regime called MAiD (medical aid in dying) went into effect Wednesday evening after the Senate voted 60-25 (with 5 abstentions) to accept a version of Bill C-7 that had been revised by the House of Commons last week. The bill received royal assent hours after the vote.
The bill was crafted in response to a 2019 Quebec Superior Court ruling which struck down as unconstitutional restrictions in federal law that limited doctor-assisted suicide to those whose natural death was “reasonably foreseeable.” An estimated 20,000 Canadians have opted to have themselves killed since assisted suicide was first legalized in 2016.
Bill C-7 expands euthanasia in a few ways, one of which is by removing the requirement that a person’s “natural death be reasonably foreseeable,” thus opening the door to allowing people who are not terminally ill to choose to die by assisted suicide. Amendments to the bill that were passed by the Senate last month allowed doctor-assisted suicide for people with mental illness (but not for another 18 months) along with “advance directives” for people to be killed by means of MAid should they become incompetent in the future, as in the case of someone with severe dementia.
The government accepted last month the Senate’s amendment of allowing assisted suicide for people with mental illness but added that if the bill becomes law there will be a two-year waiting period before allowing such a practice to come into effect. It rejected the Senate’s “advance directives” amendment. The House of Commons voted 180-149 on March 11 to pass the bill and sent it back to the Senate, where it was passed on March 17.
“For Canadians who are suffering intolerably, this process has taken too long, but their wait is now over,” Justice Minister David Lametti tweeted in response to the bill receiving royal assent. “This is an important milestone but there is more work to do.”
Conservative MP Derek Sloan, however, called the bill “tremendously irresponsible.”
Powerful nations of the world, including China, the UK, and Canada are discussing plans to require so-called 'vaccine passports' as a condition for travel, and possibly to restrict entry to shopping and entertainment venues.
Israel has already put in place a system to discriminate against those who choose not to take the COVID vaccine, and, in the United States, Joe Biden has signed a new executive order which could pave the way for the implementation of a 'vaccine passport' system. [See more below.]
This kind of medical dictatorship must be resisted, and therefore, we must act quickly before these authoritarian notions take root and spread!
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition to SAY NO to government 'vaccine passports.' Tell your legislators to respect your freedom not to vaccinate without fear of repercussion.
People should not have to live in fear of government retribution for refusing a vaccine which is being rushed to market by Big Pharma and their fellow-travelers in NGOs, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
It would be intolerable and immoral for the government to coerce someone, and their family, to take a COVID vaccine against their will just so they can do their weekly grocery shopping, go to a high school soccer game, travel on public transport, or visit their relatives who live in a different part of the country, or overseas.
Medical freedom must be respected in principle and also in practice.
So, it is now time that our policy-makers listen to all voices involved in this vital conversation, and start to represent those who will not tolerate being punished, restricted, or tracked for refusing an experimental vaccine.
Simply put, legislatures must begin to act as legislatures again.
Questions must be asked. Hearings and investigations must be held. And, the legislatures of each state and country must return to the business of representing the people who voted for them, assuming their rightful place as the originator of legislation.
We will no longer accept the dictates of executive branches without question. And, neither can we accept the dictates of some doctors who seem detached from reality and from science.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition which asks national political leaders (as well as state and provincial legislators in the U.S. and Canada) to pledge to respect the rights of those who refuse a COVID vaccine, and NOT introduce 'vaccine passports,' or any other system which would discriminate on the basis of taking the COVID vaccine.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Biden executive order directs government to evaluate ‘feasibility’ of vaccine passports' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/biden-executive-order-directs-government-to-evaluate-feasibility-of-vaccine-passports
'China lobbies WHO to develop COVID vaccine passports for all nations' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/china-lobbies-who-to-develop-covid-vaccine-passports-for-all-nations
'UK advances plans for vaccine passports to travel, enter stores' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/uk-advances-plans-for-vaccine-passports-to-travel-enter-stores
'Canada’s health minister: Gov’t ‘working on the idea of vaccine passports’' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/canadas-health-minister-govt-working-on-the-idea-of-vaccine-passports
'European Commission president plans to introduce vaccine passports' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/european-commission-president-plans-to-introduce-vaccine-passports
'Israel’s ‘Green Passport’ vaccination program has created a ‘medical Apartheid,’ distraught citizens say' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/israels-green-passport-vaccination-program-has-created-a-medical-apartheid-distraught-citizens-say
'LA schools to track every kid using Microsoft’s ‘Daily Pass’ COVID app' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/la-schools-to-track-every-kid-using-microsofts-daily-pass-covid-app
“During a pandemic — with heightened mental illness, addictions, and suicides; this is tremendously irresponsible. Sadly, I have no doubt the passage of C-7 will lead to many people with disabilities and mental illness choosing to die, rather than to live,” he commented after the bill had passed the House of Commons last week.
“I ask how we can have any meaningful suicide prevention if we’re simultaneously offering that person the option to die. I am deeply saddened by this unnecessary and callous treatment of human lives.”
Sloan said the bill is the Liberal government’s attempt to “socially engineer” the “most vulnerable” Canadians to “choose to die.”
“I’m troubled beyond words,” he said.
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, commented on his blog that many Canadians have reached out to him in disbelief that the country’s government, currently headed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, would permit euthanasia for people with mental illness.
“The fact is that the Liberal government, the BQ and the euthanasia lobby have clearly told Canadians where they stand. They are not concerned about the lives of people with disabilities or those who live with chronic conditions. They are not concerned about people who struggle with mental illness or other psychological conditions. They are not concerned about people who are at a vulnerable time of their life. They are not concerned about honesty and transparency,” he said.
Schadenberg said that in the face of this new law, Canadians who want to honor and respect all human life must rise up to the challenge of caring for those who need care.
“More and more our message is accepting the challenge of caring for our family, friends, and neighbours. Protecting the equality and life of people with disabilities and other chronic conditions is about recognizing that we live in solidarity with others,” he said.
“Caring for and protecting others is based upon recognizing that each human being has equality which cannot only be recognized by words but by actions. Death is truly dignified when it is shared with those who care about that person until their natural death,” he added.
Alberta Conservative MP Garnett Genuis commented last week when the bill passed in the House of Commons that the two-year wait before the law comes into effect allowing doctors to kill mentally ill patients gives time for Parliament to “repeal” the law.
“I was disappointed to see the 43rd Parliament endorse medically-facilitated suicide for those facing mental health challenges,” he wrote on Twitter last week. “But we now have a 2 year window to fix this before that part takes effect. Let’s fight to ensure the 44th Parliament is prepared to repeal.”