I already boosted this, but I want to add more emphasis. I think every Canadian citizen of the Fediverse ought to sign this petition to get the Government of Canada off Xitter: https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-5359

Could anyone who has any Canadian followers please boost or just re-post it yourself? This matters.

#cnpoli #fediverse

Petition e-5359 - Petitions

@timbray so yes, Twitter* is awful.

However, I'm much more interested in a more pressing matter, namely getting the government to recognize that MAiD, framed as it is as a cost-saving measure, is a fundamental breach of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and must be ended. Would you happen to know of petitions I can point people to on that matter?

*In sharp contrast to my policy for actual human beings, I am fine with deadnaming awful companies.

@davidfetter @timbray

"...MAiD, framed as it is as a cost-saving measure..."

When did this happen?

@csstrowbridge @timbray pervasively, out of the gate. How did you manage to avert your attention from this?

@davidfetter @timbray

Because I've seen a lot of people talk a lot of crap about MAiD that directly contradicts the law.

For example, I've seen people attack MAiD, because of reports that doctors have pressured people to use it, even though that very specifically against the law.

@csstrowbridge @timbray ah, yes, the famous law, which everyone obeys scrupulously and whose alleged spirit no one ever violates. See also: starlight tours.

Here's a few of the things I found over the course of slightly under ten seconds' worth of searches on the terms MAiD, eugenics, and Canada.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/austerity-eugenics-canadas-assisted-dying-programme/
https://eppc.org/publication/the-cautionary-tale-of-canadas-euthanasia-regime-an-interview-with-alexander-raikin/
https://theconversation.com/maid-and-marginalized-people-coroners-reports-shed-light-on-assisted-death-in-ontario-241661

I'm sure you can do at least as well if you're actually interested in what's going on rather than, you know, pretending everything's fine.

Out of a generosity I'm running short on, I will, for the moment, assume that you would oppose a eugenicist programme if you were convinced one was going on. That assumption is subject to revision, of course. The benefit of the doubt goes away as the doubt does.

Austerity Eugenics: Canada’s Assisted Dying Programme

Assisted dying may seem to be a humanitarian measure, but in the context of rampant austerity, evidence suggests it can have very disturbing consequences, argues John Clarke The Canadian government is delaying its plans to extend medical assistance in dying (Maid) to those who are ‘suffering solely from a mental illness’.

Counterfire

@davidfetter @csstrowbridge 

Another one to add to your list:

Canadian Journal of Disability Studies
Medical Assistance In Dying: Resistance in Canada
Vol. 13 No. 2 (2024) https://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/issue/view/47

@StephBoragina @davidfetter

Did you read these? And I don't mean the foreword, but the actual testimonials. Did you read those?

@csstrowbridge yes, I did.
 @csstrowbridge 
They are worth reading.

@StephBoragina

The very first one suggests things that are already part of MAiD. You can't go through MAiD unless you've been offered other help to relieve suffering.

'People shouldn't be allowed to make end of life decisions now, because these decisions might be based on ableist and ageist prejudices.'

That is not a compelling argument to end MAiD. That is certainly not an argument that MAiD is eugenics. That's a compelling argument on teaching people so they don't have these prejudices.

@csstrowbridge e.g., from the forward (https://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/article/view/1105/1248):

When the law’s intended safeguards are easily circumvented, when ‘doctor shopping’ practices override the expertise of family physicians and others who know an applicant’s actual life circumstances over time, and when even the courts are helpless to intervene, Canada’s MAID regime has become what one journalist described as “an unholy mess.”

View of MAID Resistance in Canada: Sounding the Five-Minute Entreaty | Canadian Journal of Disability Studies

@StephBoragina

"When the law’s intended safeguards are easily circumvented..."

Citation needed.

Anyone can make claims. I want to see proof.

@csstrowbridge
Well, that particular sentence cited https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-if-not-a-judge-then-who-can-find-proof-of-oversight-on-maid

But, the testimonies speak more broadly to the issues.

For example, Bill Adair's speaks to the problems with only requiring a 90-day wait period (his argument is well-supported by another book I'm reading right now: Suicidal: Why we kill ourselves, by Jesse Bering), and the lack of real choice for a person when they are offered MAiD. (Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry's and Ramona Coelho's testimonies are similar.)

Chris Selley: If not a judge, then who can find proof of oversight on MAID?

An Alberta judge has concerns about a 27-year-old woman's euthanasia application, but no standing on which to question it.

nationalpost

@csstrowbridge Michael Bach speaks about the role that stigma may play in the case of advance requests.

Neil Belanger speaks about the challenge of accessing appropriate healthcare for Indigenous people suffering from mental health challenges versus the relative ease of accessing MAiD.

@csstrowbridge
Krista Carrr's testimonial points out that the current version of MAiD creates two classes of people: those with disabilities and those without, and those with disabilities are now offered less protection. She calls for a return to "only permitting MAiD for those near the end of life. In this context disability is not a prejudicial factor."

@csstrowbridge
Christine and Alucia Duncann speak about their mother's request for MAiD that was granted:
"On October 14, 2021, she asked her GP to assess her for MAiD but he refused as he did not feel she had followed his medical recommendations and he did not believe she was on a trajectory for death.

After his refusal, she was assessed for MAiD by Dr. Grace Park and 2 days later by Sean Young, a nurse practitioner, who approved her to die 48 hours later after meeting her only once."

@csstrowbridge
They ask:
"How did the opinion of someone who had been caring for my mother for over 20 years carry less weight than the opinion of two people who had just met her and in essence simply ticked off boxes in a MAiD assessment form?"
@csstrowbridge
And the rest of the testimonials give other insights into the lack of safeguards and lack of due consideration to the case of mental illness, in particular (e.g., see Ellen Cohen and Neil Belanger).