Juno News - December 05, 2022Conservative MP slams Veterans Affairs minister over assisted suicide reports
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Summary
Join us as we hear from the Minister of Veterans Affairs as he answers questions from the committee regarding the case of Christine Gauthier, who claims she was offered a medical assistance in dying contract by Veterans Affairs Canada in order to be able to get a lift to her home. She has been in a wheelchair for five years and has been fighting for years for a lift in her wheelchair because of injuries she suffered serving this country. She says that Veterans Affairs will not help her to live her life, but they have offered to help her die.
Transcript
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Minister I want to get to some of the details of the of the contract in a moment but first you know
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last time you were before this committee you were discussing medical assistance in dying
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and you indicated to us that there were four four veterans who had had this issue raised with them
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by one particular caseworker and that had been referred to the RCMP. Since that time I know I'm
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certainly now aware of at least eight veterans who have had this occur and and there has been at
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least three additional case managers or or service agents involved in this so we're at a situation
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where we've got eight veterans and probably as many as four case workers and that includes Bruce who I
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mentioned to you last time as well as the one that obviously was raised in last Thursday's meeting
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and has been in the media quite extensively since and that's the case of Christine Gauthier who's in
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a wheelchair because of injuries she suffered serving this country and has been fighting with
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Veterans Affairs for five years to try to get a lift put in her house and as she said she's told
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this has been fought by Veterans Affairs every step of the way she she puts it well she said Veterans
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Affairs will won't help her to live her life but they have offered to help her die that is a statement
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that just hits hits everyone I think that hears it and it's it's something we should all be concerned
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about now she wrote to you about that back in July of 2021 and at that point in time you were aware of
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this and did nothing until August of 2022 when another veterans case hit the media can you tell us
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Minister why did you do nothing from July of 2021 onwards and put other veterans lives at risk
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thank you very much and I first of all Christine and anybody else that's out there that has any
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difficulty with this or has been involved in this issue we want them to come forward with Christine we
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want to work with her to make sure we help and provide any service that we can and I in order to help
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her but I would tell you that we have reviewed our files and what I indicated last week two weeks ago I
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believe here before the committee I indicated quite clearly that there was there was four cases involving
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one case manager totally unacceptable totally unacceptable Veterans Affairs does not provide
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maid services at all but what I can tell you is we have found nobody else that has indicated to
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we find no information minister to end I just like let me answer the question you ask the question well sure
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but let me let me interrupt because you're telling me that you still believe that there's only four
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when we've had Christine Gauthier come forward we've had Bruce come forward and I'm aware of at least a
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couple of others now I granted they haven't come forward but what we know that a couple of them have
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administered beyond that in July of 2021 you say you want them to come forward Christine Gauthier
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came to you in July of 2021 she did come forward and you did nothing do you not see that as a problem
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I made it quite clearly that in your statement I believe that Christine Gauthier was offered this
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service I I have to be very careful what I indicated about specific files excuse me but I believe that
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I would have to ask my deputy to respond I just want to be careful I do not want to affect the
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investigation what we want to find out it's exactly what happened when it happened and who was involved
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but I would ask my deputy to respond to that and just before before before that you do that the
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minister I can appreciate that you you don't want to you know do anything that would cause a harm to
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the investigation however can you tell us has have you done anything I mean you only you were aware of
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this case back in July of 2021 clearly didn't pay attention to it but now at least that it's come to
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light in the media and in this committee since last Thursday have you investigated what happened or done
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anything to try to investigate what happened in that period of time thank you very much as I indicated
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previously said the meeting upon hearing this I asked my deputy to conduct an investigation there
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in doing that I indicated to my I was briefed a couple of weeks ago and I asked my deputy to expand
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the investigation he has done that it has been referred to the RCMP that has been done what we want
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to do is make fully sure that anybody that has any difficulty in this way but I think in all fairness
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we have to let the deputy respond to the to the what you indicated to the committee sure that's what I have
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done go ahead sure enough just before you do that um yeah no no no minister sure I will uh you know and but
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you're you're the one responsible and you were this was brought to your attention in July of 2021 and you did
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nothing for over a year now you're telling us well there's an investigation great that's wonderful and we're glad to see that's
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happening but you're you keep telling us there's four we know there is more than four and without a doubt
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you know I'm aware that the the previous case that came in the media that the the agent was involved was
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is in British Columbia Christine Gauthier is located in Quebec she had indicated to on I heard of her on a podcast
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this weekend where she indicated she had two separate caseworkers that that both suggested made to her one was male and one was female
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female so there is more than one caseworker involved here there clearly is so I wonder what you've done
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to investigate it and can you maybe tell us if whoever's going to answer it uh how many total times
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has your investigation uncovered that made excuse me excuse me Mr. Richards I'm sorry
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just to kind of wrap up our previous discussion I mean I think it's fairly clear to see why veterans
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fail to have trust in and confidence in you and your department when you despite hearing you know that
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the case of the veteran known as Bruce coming forward and indicating that he was offered medical assistance in
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dying despite hearing that Christine Gauthier came to this committee and indicated that and indicated
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that there was two separate agents that offered her medical assistance in dying when she was seeking
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for help in getting a lift put into her house and then you wonder why veterans don't feel comfortable
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coming forward when you sit here and tell us we still think there's only four cases despite the fact
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that you've got veterans who have come forward and in one case came to you as early as 2021 well before
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this ever made the media and you sit here and continue to tell us oh there's only four and there's
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only one agent when veterans have clearly indicated that that's not in fact accurate so I really hope
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Minister that you're going to go away from this meeting and think really long and hard about how you've
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failed our veterans in this regard and how you're going to have to do better because you've put potentially