OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian MP recounted to her fellow members how she is “proud” that her terminally ill brother stood up and turned down “relentless” attempts by hospital staff to take his own life via state-sponsored euthanasia, noting how his final months of life were worth every second.
While speaking to her fellow MPs on September 23, in the House of Commons, Conservative MP Tamara Jansen noted that her little brother, Johan, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2023.
“He knew he was dying, but he wanted to live. However, the medical staff at the Abbotsford hospital seemed to want to end his life,” she said.
“While lying on a bed in the hallway on the oncology ward, he was asked not once, not twice, not three, four or five times but six separate times if he wanted MAID. They were relentless.”
While recounting her brother’s fight to live, she noted how hospital staff “pressed him” to take his life, “saying that they did not think they would be able to control his pain, scaring him out of his wits, but he still had a will to live.”
“I am very proud of my little brother for standing up for his life, for having the courage and the commitment to make a statement that his life was still worth living, even if it was for only another eight or ten months. He had time to mend fences, make friends with the people at the hospice and say goodbye to his family,” she said.
Jansen’s persona fight against Canada’s ever-expanding euthanasia laws
MP Jansen’s fight against euthanasia expansion is very personal. This is why she sponsored a bill before the House, which, if it becomes law, will stop a planned expansion of the deadly practice to those with mental illness as the sole reason.
Bill C-218 was introduced by Jansen and passed its first reading on June 20, 2025, as reported by LifeSiteNews, and is now in second reading.
LifeSiteNews noted at the time that Jansen said that allowing so-called “medical assistance in dying” for those with mental illness is “not healthcare, that’s not compassion, it’s abandonment.”
Jansen noted that her brother’s plight, along with many others who have experienced similar dealings with hospital staff in Canada, means that Bill C-218 is ever more needed.
“This is why Bill C-218 is necessary, because not everyone will have the will and the ability to fight the way my brother fought. Not everyone will have the strength to say no six times,” she told MPs.
“When someone is sick, frightened, depressed or unable to see any hope for tomorrow, surely the responsibility of our medical system is not to reinforce the despair but to protect them while they are vulnerable and help them find their way back to hope.”
Jansen’s bill faces stiff opposition from the ruling Liberal Party under Prime Minister Mark Carney, along with most NDP and Bloc Quebecois MPs.
Indeed, as reported by LifeSiteNews, Liberal MP Kevin Lamouroux, during the same debate day as Jansen’s when she told of her brother’s fight for life, fully opposed her bill.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre supports Jansen’s Bill C-218 and said that “thousands of lives will be saved” after earlier in the year the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying recommended against the planned expansion of euthanasia in Canada to those with mental illness.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Canada’s Catholic bishops have said they “support” Bill C-218.
The expansion of euthanasia for the mentally ill is slated to become law in 2027 as a consequence of the passage of Bill C-7.
Euthanasia in Canada has become so prevalent that recent statistics show the nation has recorded more deaths by euthanasia than murders by guns in the United States in 2024.