OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Canada’s top pro-life group Campaign Life Coalition is urging Canadians to tell their MPs to support a private members bill that would repeal the expansion of euthanasia laws to those suffering solely from mental illness.
Bill C-314, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying), was introduced by Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Ed Fast and a second reading of it will be voted on Wednesday, October 18.
Should the bill prevail tomorrow, it would then proceed to third reading, where it stands a good chance passing and then heading to Canada’s Senate.
“MPs should be voting on MAID with their eyes wide open,” wrote Fast about his bill on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.
Fast introduced the bill in February. It received immediate praise from Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) after it passed its first reading. Tomorrow’s debate on the second reading of the bill is expected to last about one hour.
CLC’s Director of Political Operations Jack Fonseca in an email to supporters today said Canadians need to “act right away” and send an email to their MPs telling them to vote in favor of Fast’s bill.
“I can’t even begin to imagine all the vulnerable men and women who’ll be taken advantage of and coerced into giving in and having a medical professional kill them,” wrote Fonseca.
“This is why we have to act right away.”
Fonseca urged people to send their MPs a message today to “tell them to support this bill.”
“You can even use one of our automated, pre-written messages to save yourself time.”
Fonseca included a link to CLC’s automated, pre-written messages.
CLC has said that Fast’s bill “will help save troubled souls from suicide” and “will help stop the radical expansion of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ‘MAiD Service’ euthanasia program.”
Euthanasia legalization was immediately followed by push to expand who qualifies for state-sanctioned death
The federal Liberal government under Trudeau legalized euthanasia in 2016. Since that time, it has continued to push to further expand who can qualify for state-sanctioned death.
The expansion to include those suffering solely from mental illness came as part of the 2021 passage of Bill C-7, which also allowed the chronically ill – not just the terminally ill – to qualify for so-called doctor-assisted death.
The mental illness expansion was originally set to take effect in March. However, after massive pushback from pro-life groups, conservative politicians, and others, the Liberals under Trudeau delayed the introduction of the full effect of Bill C-7 until 2024 via Bill C-39, which became law on March 9.
The delay comes after numerous public scandals, including the surfacing of reports that Canadian veterans were being offered the fatal procedure by workers at Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC).
Fast says his bill seeks to undo ‘terrible decision’ of legalizing euthanasia in Canada
Fast recently spoke about his bill during question period in the House of Commons. On October 5, he said his bill seeks to undo what he called the “terrible decision” of Canada legalizing euthanasia via “MAiD” (medical assistance in dying).
Fast mentioned an Angus Reid poll that found only 28 percent of Canadians agree that the nation’s MAiD laws be expanded to those suffering from a mental illness.
“Stakeholders have deplored the lack of social and economic supports for persons with mental illness and how this can lead people to consider MAiD,” said Fast.
Fast has also said that the Canadian federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not done good on a promise to increase palliative care and mental health funding to provinces.
“The question is this: Should Canadians be able to trust their government to act in a way that values the life of every Canadian,” asked Fast, “or do we give up on the most vulnerable among us?”
Bill C-314 reads, “This enactment amends the Criminal Code to provide that a mental disorder is not a grievous and irremediable medical condition for which a person could receive medical assistance in dying.”
Fast said of his bill shortly after it was introduced that the government expanding assisted suicde to “include mentally ill persons” and potentially even so-called “mature minors” shows Canada is on a “slippery slope.”
A ‘national horror’
Pro-life advocates at the national level have long sounded the alarm over Trudeau’s Liberal government’s euthanasia program, which has drawn criticism on an international scale.
Angelina Ireland, the president of the pro-life Delta Hospice Society (DHS) based in British Columbia, recently warned that euthanasia, since being legalized by the federal government of Trudeau, has become a “national horror.”
“Unfortunately, there is no reprieve in sight as…Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) becomes a national horror and the ‘professionals’ sharpen up their needles,” Ireland told LifeSiteNews.
Ireland warned that Canada has now reached the point where everyone needs to “protect” each other from those pushing euthanasia.
“We have reached the point where we must all protect each other from MAiD,” she noted.
Ireland in the past has also warned about the release of an initiative championed and funded by the Liberal federal government called “Medical Assistance in Dying accredited training program for health professionals.”
She warned the training program is nothing more than preparation for “the next phase of the Canadian Cull.”
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC), has praised Fast’s bill.
“The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) thanks the Hon Ed Fast MP for introducing Bill C-314, a bill that would prohibit euthanasia for mental illness,” Schadenberg wrote in a blog.
If the new government doesn’t stop it, the expansion of euthanasia to those with mental illness will automatically become law in the spring of 2024.
The CPC has said that it is against any further expansion of Canada’s “MAiD” laws.
To contact your member of parliament (MP), click here.