Press Room

OTTAWA – Today the Carney Liberals tabled Bill C-41, legislation that permanently blocks euthanasia (MAiD) for mental illness while simultaneously expanding it through advance requests for people who lose capacity, such as those with dementia.

“The bill is referred to as a ‘safeguards act,’ but it would be far more accurate to call it the ‘silent death act,’” said Jeff Gunnarson, National President of Campaign Life Coalition.

Under the bill, once an advance request has been made, a practitioner is not required to inform the person what is about to happen or even speak with them before ending their life. The killing procedure may proceed solely on the basis of the earlier request and the practitioner’s assessment that the described symptoms and suffering are present, subject only to a check for what the bill calls “refusal or resistance.”

Gunnarson pointed out that euthanasia was first sold to Canadians more than a decade ago with promises of safeguards, one of which was the full and ongoing consent of the participant.

“We now see consent being whittled away when it comes to euthanizing sick people,” he said. “Where this slippery slope inevitably leads is euthanasia without consent—a horror that is not without historical precedent.”

Gunnarson strongly criticized the proposed legislation for packaging two opposing measures in the same bill: one aimed at saving lives and the other at silently destroying them.

“The government is offering protection for those with mental illness at the expense of those with dementia. It’s literally trading human lives, and it’s simply immoral.”

Gunnarson said Canadians deserve better than a government that expands death under the guise of safeguards.

“This bill raises serious questions about who is really driving this godless policy—ordinary Canadians or the euthanasia lobby,” he said.

Campaign Life will not support any bill that promotes or supports the killing of human life.