DELTA, British Columbia (LifeSiteNews) – The Delta Hospice Society (DHS) scored a huge win for life at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) this past Saturday, electing a full pro-life board and voting in a new constitution which affirms life to its “natural end.”
The triumph for life, said DHS’s pro-life president Angelina Ireland to LifeSiteNews, was “a clear victory for life–affirming Palliative Care in Canada.”
“With a huge margin, all 10 pro–life, pro-palliative care candidates have been elected by its members to govern the Society,” said Ireland.
“Delta Hospice Society is committed to a traditional understanding of the principles of palliative care, which excludes Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD), prohibiting the Society from engaging in any MAiD-related activities, and requiring all new applicants and renewing members to demonstrate a commitment to this traditional understanding of the principles of palliative care.”
Vote tallies from the AGM resulted in each of the 10 pro-life candidates on average getting 75 percent of the vote, Ireland told LifeSiteNews.
The slate of pro-euthanasia candidates dubbed “Take Back Delta Hospice” received 25 percent of the vote.
Ireland told LifeSiteNews that the special resolution to amend DHS’s constitution and bylaws was carried by a vote of 73 percent in favor to 24 percent against.
“It required a 66 2/3 percent supermajority to pass. Our Constitution now states explicitly that we are a palliative care organization that will do nothing to hasten death, and our bylaws prohibit any participation in euthanasia,” said Ireland.
Well over 5,000 people attended the DHS’s first-ever virtual AGM on Saturday, which originally was scheduled to be held on March 26, but had to be postponed due to technical difficulties.
The good news from this Saturday’s AGM, Ireland told LifeSiteNews, “gives a clear mandate that our members want us to move forward with our vision of Hospice Sanctuary: Safe places for the dying, free from euthanasia.”
“The focus of the Board of Directors going forward will be to create such a space for people who do not want to be killed at the end of their lives, but rather to be cared for and supported to live their best life until their natural end. It is our hope and prayer that other organizations will follow suit and outlaw participation in euthanasia,” said Ireland.
The new board of DHS is made up of the following individuals: Angelina Ireland, President; Rev. Danielle Martell, Vice President; Mark Ruelle, Treasurer; Jim Canil, retired educator, Secretary; Kathlyn Palafox, nurse emeritus, Canadian Nurses Association, Director; Jim Taggart, retired business professional, Director; Dr. Richard Smyth, retired surgeon, Director; Alexander Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Director; Elizabeth Lawson, retired teacher, Director; Lorena Angus, retired teacher, Director.
The DHS had earlier urged all of its pro-life members to attend the AGM to ensure enough votes to pass a revised constitution and bylaws that “affirm life to its natural end.”
Ireland had earlier told LifeSiteNews that the DHS’s 2022 AGM would be the “ultimate showdown between our members for control of the Delta Hospice Society.”
Last year, Ireland told LifeSiteNews that the goal of the “pro-death” side of the divided society is to take DHS’s assets and “use them in conjunction with the Government’s ‘MAiD’ agenda, promoting thinly-veiled slaughterhouses they call end-of-life care centers.”
The DHS won a legal battle regarding voting rules concerning its AGM last year. On July 13, a judge ruled that a virtual “Special General Meeting (SGM)” could be held to “ask our members if they want a virtual/electronic AGM.”
As a result, the DHS put out a call to all pro-lifers to join the society by October 22, the cut-off date for membership, to help safeguard its future.
While most DHS board members are Christians who oppose assisted suicide, and Ireland herself is Catholic, euthanasia activists went to court for the right to join the society. The British Columbia Supreme Court ruled that the DHS could not exclude membership applications from euthanasia supporters.
LifeSiteNews previously reported that a local group called Take Back Delta Hospice, with the help of the euthanasia lobby group called Dying with Dignity, has been trying a hostile takeover of DHS since April 2020.
The Canadian government legalized euthanasia — the lethal injection of sick patients — in 2016. Since that time, DHS had been under attack by both the provincial government and euthanasia activists, because it refused to allow the practice at its palliative care hospice.
Those interested in becoming members of the DHS can email [email protected] or call 1-800-232-1589.