Weak safeguards put MAID on very dark path
We are going down a very dark road. Just how dark and bleak and utterly wretched that road is remains to be seen, but the glimpses we are getting reveals it to be verging on the edge of pitch black.
On Thursday, another Canadian veteran, Christine Gauthier, who is also a five-time world champion at the Paralympics, told how she was offered medical assistance in dying (MAID) as she tried to access care from the Veterans Affairs Department.
Gauthier now makes at least six injured veterans who were asking for help from Veteran Affairs but instead got an offer of MAID.
Another former soldier on Thursday told MPS that the state of Veteran Affairs was “apocalyptic” and painted a picture of hopelessness.
Bruce Moncur had five per cent of his brain removed following an injury suffered in 2006 during Operation Medusa in Afghanistan, one of the deadliest operations in recent Canadian history.
“There’s a lot of frustration and futility that goes with trying to navigate through Veterans Affairs. And eventually it causes soldiers to lose hope and think about taking their lives. And it’s the triple D policy: delay, deny (and) dead veterans cost no money,” he told a parliamentary committee on veterans.
If we can’t give adequate care to our veterans (who are supposed to have a whole government department to look after them) what about other vulnerable members of society?
Early next year — in March — the government will extend MAID to the mentally ill. Can anyone — given what is happening to our veterans — have the slightest confidence that mentally ill people won’t be pushed or persuaded that MAID is a better option than living?
Meanwhile, Quebec wants to explore the option of killing suffering babies.
A mere six years ago, Canada started out wanting to relieve the intolerable suffering of the terminally ill.
Now it seems we have transitioned easily into offering MAID to depressed veterans even if they haven’t asked for it. This issue with our veterans shows how inadequate are the safeguards surrounding MAID.
Veterans are supposed to have a network dedicated to helping them overcome physical and mental injuries, to help them transition back into civilian life and work.
But we are failing them so badly that our government’s response to their suffering is to offer medically assisted death.
Christine Gauthier was in the regular force field artillery for 10 years before a training accident in 1989 resulted in injuries to her knees, hips, neck and back. She is now in a wheelchair.
Gauthier told MPS of her frustration with Veterans Affairs during almost 24 years of dealing with the department. On the table beside her was a suitcase absolutely full of documents.
Was that all her documentation with the VA during those 24 years, asked an MP.
Gauthier scoffed. “This is just the last four years,” she said, prompting gasps from MPS.
Then she added, “With respect to MAID I have a letter in my file because I had to face that as well.”
She described the letter as saying, “If it’s too difficult for you to continue living, Madam, we can offer you medical assistance in dying.”
The revelation shocked Rachel Blaney, NDP MP from British Columbia.
“I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by what I just heard,” Blaney said. “I just want to extend my deepest apologies. I’m in shock. Thank you for bringing forward this reality.”
Gauthier said veterans wanted to be treated with “fairness, dignity, courtesy, all these words are to be found in the Charter of Rights, but do we have them?”
And the answer is no. We could blame an overworked and under-resourced Veteran Affairs, we could blame a Liberal government that has persistently been challenged by veterans for failing to ease a backlog of disability claims, and we could blame Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence Macaulay who at the parliamentary committee on Thursday was accused of failing to consult on new plans to change the way physical and mental rehabilitation services are provided to injured vets.
There is plenty of blame to go around. But it is clear that there is a crisis in how we are dealing with veterans — or, more specifically, how we are not dealing with them.
Why is it that five years after first dealing with Veterans Affairs about getting an elevator in her house, Ms. Gauthier is still waiting?
Think about that: a wheelchair-bound, former corporal in the Canadian Armed Forces has been fighting Veteran Affairs for five years for an elevator.
And when we consistently fail veterans, our answer is to offer them medical assistance in dying.
This week Montreal-based clothing retailer Simons issued a three-minute commercial celebrating the “beauty” of doctor-assisted death.
“The most beautiful exit,” said the glamorous, romantic even, ad.
But for too many the reality is harsh, ghastly and bleak.
We now know that MAID has been offered to veterans with PTSD who can’t get help; to the disabled who can’t get community support; and to a mother because she couldn’t get the health treatment she needed. This isn’t caring for people, it’s failing them.
We are going down a very dark road. And we are going down it blindly.