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DELTA, British Columbia, December 18, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Euthanasia activists campaigning to take over a Canadian hospice society because it refuses to lethally inject sick patients are now recruiting memberships from the Satanic Temple.

Since April 2020, a local group called Take Back Delta Hospice, aided by euthanasia lobby group Dying with Dignity, has been attempting a hostile takeover of the Delta Hospice Society by going door-to-door in the west coast community and signing up pro-euthanasia members.

The takeover attempt is part of a relentless campaign by euthanasia activists and the province’s NDP government against the hospice society that began shortly after Canada legalized euthanasia in 2016.

They insist that because the non-profit, private society is not faith-based, it cannot claim a religious exemption from what they allege is its legal obligation to allow euthanasia onsite at its 10-bed Irene Thomas Hospice.

The hospice society, however, is standing firm in its refusal to do so, citing its constitution, which does not allow any measures that would hasten a patient’s death, and the fact that euthanasia is incompatible with palliative care.

In response to the takeover attempts, the Delta Hospice Society launched a nationwide membership drive asking pro-life Canadians to buy a $10 membership to the society.

With a majority of pro-life members, the private society can then vote to amend its bylaws to stipulate that individuals who support euthanasia are not eligible to join.

But now euthanasia activists are ramping up efforts to sell hospice society memberships to pro-euthanasia individuals and focusing on atheists and members of the Satanic Temple.

Recently, the moderator of the pro-euthanasia Take Back Delta Hospice Facebook group announced that only 2,387 of the society’s now 6,119 members were from Delta.

“The current DHS board led by Angelina Ireland has used outside networks to sign up thousands from outside of Delta,” wrote Sharon Farrish.

“We were afraid of this loss of control and accountability to Delta’s own residents and what this might mean for the kind of care we can access in our community,” she added.

One member of the group stated that she had canvassed members of the Satanic Temple to buy memberships.

“I really hope I don’t get hate for this but I have reached out to the Satanic Temple for help getting the word out to push it the other way (they are not what people think they are),” wrote Billie Meech on the Facebook page.

“I will be reaching out to Dying With Dignity Canada and Freedom From Religion Foundation in the next few days,” as well as contacting “some atheist authors I know to see if they’ll make a post on facebook,” she added.

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“Atheists love a good challenge,” commented group member Angelina Delmar.

Delta Hospice Society board chair Ireland said she was “disturbed, shocked, traumatized” by these developments.

“We were all very confused about this group’s name ‘Take Back Delta Hospice.’ Take it back for whom, we wondered? Now I guess we have our answer,” she told LifeSiteNews.

“This is the level to which these people would go in order to push euthanasia into a palliative care facility,” said Ireland, adding that Take Back Delta Hospice is the group “that has done all the work to undermine and poison the community against us.”

Although the hospice society board members are Christian, and she is a practicing Catholic, the battle has been about palliative care and not about religion, Ireland said.

“It just so happens that we are people of faith and we believe in the palliative care medical discipline, and we believe in the sanctity of life.”

But euthanasia activists and many in the media have been “trying to make it very personal, and that it’s on the basis of our personal beliefs,” and “to provoke the community and incite hate, bigotry, hatred against us,” she said.

“This is Christophobia,” Ireland added.

Moreover, the leaders of the Take Back Delta Hospice group — Farrish, Chris Pettypiece and Jim Levin — took the society to court in June to stop it from launching a mail-in vote of its then 1,500 members to change to a faith-based organization.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick cancelled the meeting and ruled that the private society could not exclude membership applications from euthanasia supporters.

She also put the society under the court’s authority, so “we have to go with our hat in our hands and plead for a meeting of our members, and the Court will decide when,” said Ireland.

The B.C. appeal court upheld Fitzpatrick’s decision on November 14. The hospice society is now preparing to seek leave to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The NDP government has also been pressuring the hospice society, to the extent that Health Minister Adrian Dix announced in February 2020 that he was pulling the society’s $1.5 million public funding effective February 2021.

Significantly, neither the Supreme Court of Canada nor Parliament have mandated that euthanasia be made available in all places at all times.

With the euthanasia activists recruiting atheists and members of the Satanic Temple, the spiritual aspect of battle is starkly revealed, but “I believe that the Blessed Mother will be with me and that the Lord will take care of us,” Ireland told LifeSiteNews.

However, concrete assistance in the form of pro-life members remains vital, she emphasized.

With the courts ruling that anyone who pays the $10 fee can become a member, the society has opened up memberships across Canada, Ireland said.

“We need pro-life people to be members of our society that stand with us,” so that when the court grants permission for a general meeting, “they can participate virtually and vote to strengthen our bylaws, so we can keep people who want to push euthanasia out of our society,” she explained.

“It’s our last line of defense against these kinds of individuals.”

Please buy a $10 Delta Hospice Society membership and encourage your family and friends to do likewise. To buy a membership, go to www.savedeltahospice.com. There is no deadline to buy a membership.