Juno News - July 30, 2025


“I’d probably be dead right now”— MP sounds alarm on Canada’s suicide agenda


Episode Stats

Length

19 minutes

Words per Minute

189.46729

Word Count

3,738

Sentence Count

205

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show. Thank you so much for joining us
00:00:07.980 today. We are going to cover a very sensitive, very dark topic today. And I want to just start
00:00:15.300 by talking about the rise of euthanasia in Canada. This is from a Cardis report. Cardis is a wonderful
00:00:21.880 organization, does research into this kind of thing. So here is what they write. From exceptional
00:00:26.940 to routine, MADE in Canada is the world's fastest growing assisted dying program. Here are some of
00:00:33.740 the key points. The number of Canadians dying prematurely by what we call medical assistance
00:00:38.860 in dying. We're using euphemism MADE to make it just seem like a normal procedure or another
00:00:44.600 bureaucratic acronym from the government. No, we're talking about dying. We're talking about people
00:00:49.960 being killed by medical practitioners and using the government to help them commit suicide.
00:00:57.620 Well, this assisted dying has risen 13-fold since its legalization in 2016. The number of people dying
00:01:04.580 in this way was 1,018. In 2022, the last year that we have data available, it is 13,241. This makes MADE
00:01:14.920 in Canada the world's fastest growing assisted dying program. This is a serious concern, people,
00:01:22.120 because this is not normal, right? Look at the assisted deaths as a percentage of total deaths
00:01:28.880 in other countries around the world. You can see Canada is that red line. We just introduced this
00:01:33.800 program in 2016, and it goes straight up. So other countries, European countries, have been doing this
00:01:40.380 sort of thing for a generation now, and their levels are still growing in a concerning, alarming way,
00:01:47.020 but nothing like the growth in Canada. And the things that the government, the Liberal government,
00:01:52.680 is now applying this program to are concerning to all. We saw a proposal that it gets applied to
00:01:59.380 minors, and now we have one that it would be applied to people with mental illness. Well, that is why
00:02:05.580 I'm pleased to announce and to report that the Conservative Party is pushing back. A Conservative
00:02:12.540 MP has introduced a private member's bill to ban medical assistance in dying. I prefer to just
00:02:18.300 call it by what it is, assisted suicide, for mental illness. So back in May, Tamara Jensen,
00:02:24.300 who is a Conservative member of Parliament for Cloverdale-Langley, tabled Bill C-218, a private member's bill
00:02:29.820 that seeks to amend the criminal code to explicitly exclude mental disorders from being considered
00:02:35.100 a grievous and immutable medical condition for the purposes of MAID eligibility. If the bill passes,
00:02:42.380 individuals would qualify for assisted death on the basis of mental illness alone. So that private
00:02:49.180 member's bill was introduced. And I'm happy to announce that Conservative MP Andrew Lawton has also
00:02:57.340 joined this campaign. Of course, Andrew is a former journalist here at True North. He was a host of the
00:03:04.060 Andrew Lawton Show before becoming a member of Parliament. He is now representing the writing of
00:03:08.940 Elgin St. Thomas, London South. And I'm pleased to welcome Andrew to the show. Andrew, thank you so
00:03:14.460 much for joining Candace. Welcome, it's so great to see you.
00:03:15.900 Hey, always good to be with you, Candace. Thanks for having me.
00:03:18.620 Well, tell us a little bit about this bill and why you've chosen to get alongside and working on this one.
00:03:25.340 Absolutely. So Bill C-218, or as we've named the Right to Recover Act, is there to ensure that people who have a
00:03:34.460 are able to be treated and supported and given hope instead of given death by the healthcare system?
00:03:42.300 Just a bit of background here, if I may, Candace. The expansion of MAID to people with mental illness
00:03:49.260 was never supposed to happen. It was never demanded by a court. What actually happened was a court decision
00:03:55.580 in Quebec said that Canada's MAID rules were too restrictive. And the Liberal government responded
00:04:00.860 with a significant expansion. And then the unelected Senate unilaterally decided to put in
00:04:07.420 this additional change that if you had only a mental illness, no physical ailment whatsoever,
00:04:13.260 you'd be eligible for MAID. They passed it, they kicked it back to the House of Commons,
00:04:17.900 and the Liberal government under Trudeau, with David Lamedi at the time being the Attorney General,
00:04:22.940 decided to move this forward in spite of massive pushback from the mental health field, the healthcare
00:04:29.820 field, disability rights activists, a lot of people in this space from a number of different sectors,
00:04:35.980 conservative, liberal didn't matter. And what they did is they put in place a date that this would go
00:04:41.900 into effect and said, well, we'll figure out the details later. We'll figure out how we prevent abuse
00:04:47.500 later. They couldn't do that in time. They still haven't done that. They've had to extend this date
00:04:52.540 a couple of times. But right now, if nothing happens, as of March 17, 2027, people with a serious
00:05:00.300 mental illness will be able to go through the MAID process. Now, this was something that is very near
00:05:05.740 and dear to my heart. I've shared publicly, I've shared it with my former listeners and viewers
00:05:10.380 here. I am a suicide survivor myself. I almost lost my life about 15 years ago to a suicide attempt
00:05:17.180 after a prolonged battle with mental illness that very nearly took my life. I'm convinced that I would
00:05:24.540 have gone through the MAID system 15 years ago. And given how we've seen this system unfold, I might
00:05:30.300 have been successful in getting that sign off and having my life ended, which means I wouldn't be here
00:05:35.340 today. I wouldn't have a loving wife. I wouldn't have the career I have. I wouldn't have all of the
00:05:40.140 wonderful people I've met and worked with over the last decade and a half. So that was why I launched
00:05:45.820 the I Got Better campaign to highlight stories of healing and show why the stakes are so high
00:05:51.740 if we go down the road of granting MAID for people with mental illness.
00:05:56.700 Well, it's unbelievable. And Andrew, I thank you for sharing your story. I saw that you posted a video on
00:06:01.580 social media telling your very personal story. And I know it's not easy to do that. You sort of go
00:06:07.740 through what personally happened to you. I do say I want to say, you know, it takes it takes a strong
00:06:13.260 man to come out and admit that you you suffered through that you had a problem. I'm just reading
00:06:18.860 some of the comments here. Mario Zaleja, he writes what a legend takes a strong confident man to talk
00:06:23.900 about this. Congrats on overcoming this and the massive impact you're having on society. And I think
00:06:29.580 especially to young men, I think I think I think that what you're going what you went through,
00:06:34.620 a lot of other people are going through, we saw a huge increase in the sort of diseases of despair,
00:06:40.300 especially during COVID, and particularly how it hits young men. And so I'm just wondering,
00:06:45.980 like, what what is your message to other other young men out there that that might be suffering
00:06:50.300 through something like this? One of the things that's really important about mental illness is
00:06:54.940 it affects different groups differently. And you know, there is a huge push now,
00:06:59.020 I shouldn't say huge, but there's a larger push now around men's mental health, because people have
00:07:04.220 realized how men have a unique hurdle on seeking help for this. And it's not to say that it's worse
00:07:11.260 or better, it's just different. You know, there are pressures that men put on themselves, there are
00:07:15.660 pressures that society puts on men, the pressure to provide the pressure to perform to be a certain way.
00:07:21.980 And there's also this expectation of being stoic and strong and tough. And I think this is where it's
00:07:29.180 really, really important to have these conversations to ensure that there are supports available there,
00:07:34.460 and that we're not normalizing the desire to end your life. And that's the other key here is that
00:07:40.860 there are going to be people that because of their mental illness go through the MAID process,
00:07:45.420 because they're going to be permitted to do that. But by giving that eligibility, we also create this
00:07:51.820 other problem, which is that we basically give a green light to the idea that ending your life
00:07:57.340 because of mental illness is the right thing to do. And I'm actually, and again, this is speculative on
00:08:02.460 my part, but I am worried that there's going to be an increase in non-MAID suicides. Because now,
00:08:08.140 all of a sudden, we've said, you know what, this actually makes sense. This is a logical,
00:08:11.500 reasonable, reasonable thing to want. And that to me is very concerning. And I can't stress enough,
00:08:16.780 this is a life or death issue. And Bill C-218 will save lives if it's passed.
00:08:21.980 Well, I do want to shift it back to medical assistance and dying, the euphemism that we use,
00:08:27.580 really, it's euthanasia, it's assisted suicide, it's going to a doctor and saying that, you know,
00:08:34.220 my life is over now, or whatever the circumstances. Andrew, you've seen this during your time at True
00:08:40.140 North, there have been reports of doctors or even government officials offering this
00:08:45.420 as a solution to people who are suffering. So, I mean, now that you're on the other side,
00:08:50.780 and you're a member of parliament, is this something that concerns you that not only is this just sort of
00:08:55.180 available in the background, but it's something that's often actively promoted and given as an
00:09:01.900 option to Canadians who would not have otherwise considered it?
00:09:04.940 We have all heard the horror stories of the veteran that wants a wheelchair lift
00:09:10.540 and is instead offered MAID, or people who have sought it and been granted it because of poverty,
00:09:16.300 because they don't like their living conditions. And these situations are tragic. And I think the
00:09:20.940 one most important thing here is that we have to support people in what they need to want to live
00:09:27.740 their life. And that's oftentimes what's missing in this. And if you look at some of the numbers,
00:09:33.020 even from the Canadian MAID reports, you see people that, you know, they're dealing with a medical
00:09:37.420 issue, but they also put as a reason for wanting MAID loneliness. They put poverty, they put isolation,
00:09:45.580 they put these other things in there, which are not medical things, are not medical qualities. It could
00:09:51.500 actually be combated in a very real way. There was a case recently where Scott Adams, a cartoonist in the
00:09:59.900 United States, I was just reading about this, was very close to using MAID and his life because of
00:10:04.620 cancer. But he finally found one treatment that was able to ease his suffering long enough to want to
00:10:11.420 be alive, even though he knows his days are numbered. We see time and time again, people who go through the
00:10:17.740 system and there are other externalities beyond their immediate suffering that are causing them to
00:10:24.540 seek this. And, you know, what we're dealing with in this legislation is the mental health component,
00:10:28.780 because that same issue is there. We know that there is treatment and support available. And we
00:10:33.580 also know there's a capacity issue as well. When someone wants to end their life because of a mental
00:10:38.780 illness, that we typically view that as a symptom. And we treat it and intervene. And actually, the state
00:10:44.700 has the right to commit someone to stop them from ending their life because we realize that protecting the
00:10:51.420 vulnerable is one of the areas where you have a role for government. So if I go in to a doctor's
00:10:59.660 office and I say, doctor, I'm dealing with depression, it's really difficult, I want to end my life. Well,
00:11:05.820 how do we know when that legal and ethical responsibility to stop me kicks in versus the
00:11:11.100 provision of services of, okay, here's a MAID pamphlet? Well, I mean, that's the shocking part of it all.
00:11:17.340 I don't know if you've read Tristan Hopper's book, but he talks about how Canada has become like a
00:11:21.900 cautionary tale. And when they were debating having some kind of a euthanasia program in the UK, both
00:11:27.340 parties were worried not to allow their system to become like Canada, where it is just too often
00:11:33.260 used. I mean, the fact that it's such a leading cause of death in Canada now, that we've seen this
00:11:39.420 13 fold growth just in less than a decade since it's been brought in. It seems like a big issue,
00:11:47.100 Andrew. And yet we don't really hear a lot about it aside from, you know, the bravery it took for
00:11:51.740 you to put out this video in this private members bill. You know, is this something that you think
00:11:56.300 that you will get support across the aisle from? Are there other MPs, even from other parties and
00:12:01.420 within your own party that agree that this program has probably gone too far?
00:12:05.420 We're hoping. I mean, this is and should be a nonpartisan issue. There was a bill in the
00:12:10.780 previous parliament seeking to do exactly what this one is. And it fell short by only a handful
00:12:15.980 of votes. It had support from all of the Conservatives, all of the New Democrats, both of the Greens at
00:12:21.500 the time, and eight Liberals as well. And this current bill, which we're putting forward, I'm hopeful
00:12:28.220 will receive support from across the aisle. If the Conservatives and the New Democrats and the
00:12:34.460 Green MP Elizabeth May all support it, it will pass if 20 Liberal MPs get behind it.
00:12:40.460 20 Liberal MPs. That's the math on that. So there are some Liberals on there that have been
00:12:44.860 very outspoken in support of what we're trying to do. I hope to see more of that. This is again,
00:12:50.620 a Liberal government that claims it's a new government. Perhaps Marnie will do the right
00:12:54.780 thing here as Prime Minister and have his Attorney General get behind this. I do not want to score
00:12:59.500 political points off this. I want to save lives and I want to prevent people going through what
00:13:04.140 I went through 15 years ago from doing something irreversible. And I hope we can get support from
00:13:09.020 that. And that's my call to action to all of your listeners and viewers, Candace. No matter where you
00:13:13.900 are in the country, no matter who your MP is, whether you like them or not, reach out to them and ask them
00:13:18.540 to support this bill. Ask them to support C218. If you have experience with mental illness yourself,
00:13:24.140 share that with your Member of Parliament. Make sure they know there's a human face on this.
00:13:27.900 And that's the spirit behind the I Got Better campaign, which at the risk of shamelessly
00:13:32.380 plugging is at igotbetter.ca. Well, what a great initiative, Andrew. I really
00:13:36.540 applaud you. Congratulate you for that. While you're here, I want to ask you though, because
00:13:40.140 we've talked about this on the show yesterday. This has become a huge firestorm in the middle of
00:13:43.740 the summer. Usually summers are quiet for news stories, but I think a lot of people are concerned
00:13:47.900 by the story of Sean Foyt. So basically the CBC painted this guy as if he was some kind of an extremist,
00:13:53.660 to some kind of a mega rock star because he supports Republicans and Donald Trump in the States.
00:13:59.740 That doesn't really have anything to do with his concerts though. He's a worship leader,
00:14:03.900 a Christian singer. He had a tour planned across Canada. Apparently it's his third year
00:14:07.660 in a row touring across Canada, but suddenly he became very controversial and has had his permit
00:14:13.100 revoked in cities across Eastern Canada from Halifax to Montreal. In Montreal, we saw that showdown with the
00:14:19.100 police with Antifa where they firebombed a church using a smoke bomb in the middle of a performance,
00:14:24.860 which is as I walked through on the show yesterday, there is a criminal code offence
00:14:29.660 against interrupting a church service or a service of worship. And that's exactly what these Antifa
00:14:35.420 thugs did right in front of the police. I saw that you wrote a lengthy post about this on X,
00:14:42.140 Andrew. And I'm wondering if you can comment on, on what's happening and what you make of it all.
00:14:49.500 Look, the idea that you need a permit to engage in work, regardless of your religion,
00:14:55.500 is absolutely absurd. I have been clear going into politics and throughout my media career that that
00:15:01.180 freedom of expression is my hill to die on. And when I see the interruption of a religious concert,
00:15:08.140 which is, again, it's worship, I'm very concerned by it. Again, I stand up for freedom of expression
00:15:13.820 and freedom of religion on principle. I don't need to agree with or share someone's religious practices
00:15:19.020 or what they say. And I say that not as a denunciation of Sean Foyke, but I literally had
00:15:25.020 never heard of him before, before, you know, two or three days ago, whenever it was that this came up.
00:15:30.220 And, you know, I don't actually care what his beliefs are. I care what he says. I would stand
00:15:35.260 up for his right to engage in the work that he's doing and not be harassed by bureaucrats.
00:15:41.500 Now, again, I mean, the nature of freedom of expression is that you have to protect people
00:15:45.420 who are saying things that you disagree with if you want to have any consistency and moral clarity on
00:15:50.940 this. And, you know, in this case, it's a Christian singer. And I get people have raised all sorts of
00:15:55.980 issues with him about, you know, how he's run his business and all of that. And none of that
00:16:00.540 matters. All of that's a distraction. At the end of the day, you know, his right to speak, his right
00:16:05.420 to sing, a church's right to host him, those are decisions to be made by them. And people can decide
00:16:10.620 whether they want to go. There is no place for the government in that equation at all.
00:16:14.620 Well, you raised a really interesting point. I'm just going to read a little bit about comparing it to
00:16:18.220 something that happened under the Harper government. So you wrote, 17 years ago, the Canadian arts
00:16:21.420 community and political left raised holy hell about a bill from the Harper government that would
00:16:25.740 have blocked tax credits for film projects that went against public policy. That proposal,
00:16:31.580 which the Conservatives ultimately scrapped, was lambasted as censorship. Of course, it was no
00:16:36.060 such thing. The government has no obligation to fund any particular piece of art. Punishing people
00:16:41.420 for what they create is another story. And then you write about how that reminds you
00:16:45.180 of what's happening here. I mean, I don't really expect there to be consistency from these people,
00:16:51.900 just because I'm talking about people in the world left, like, like, yeah, they'll criticize
00:16:56.540 the Conservatives for doing something, then they'll turn around and do the exact same thing without
00:16:59.580 any sense of shame or irony. But it is interesting how, you know, back then, even just saying that
00:17:07.020 we're not going to fund, and I think the specific example was like, anti Alberta energy activists or
00:17:13.740 something like that, saying that the government doesn't have to fund them. And that was considered
00:17:17.340 censorship. And here we have them actually blocking a church service, and endangering them.
00:17:22.620 Yeah. But even I mean, the fact that someone threw that smoke bomb, and you can see with such grace,
00:17:29.340 right, Sean Fout just picks it up, hands it to another church leader, who just calmly walks it out
00:17:34.140 the door, right? They weren't panicking, they weren't trying to fight, they weren't trying to agitate,
00:17:38.380 they were really just trying to pray. And the fact that the police just stood by while that happened,
00:17:43.500 and I don't think anyone was arrested, I don't think anybody was charged, seems just like a blatant
00:17:47.980 and ugly double standard. And to me, it shows anti Christian bigotry, and an anti American hatred
00:17:55.180 in our country by the same people who are sitting here saying, you have to be inclusive, we believe
00:18:00.620 in diversity, no hate, hate has no home here. And yet they're showing all of those things. I mean,
00:18:05.020 there's just so much irony here. Andrew, what do you make of it all?
00:18:07.740 I think you need to be able to apply whatever the rules are evenly. And I know people have pointed
00:18:14.220 out some very radical, hateful protests and demonstrations that have taken place in Montreal
00:18:18.940 that have not attracted the ire of Montreal by law enforcement that have not received condemnation
00:18:25.340 for operating without a so called permit. So I think at the end of the day here, what's going to
00:18:30.940 happen is we're going to have to have a conversation in this country about the assaults that are taking
00:18:35.580 place about freedoms. And if anyone's interested, I talked about this in my maiden speech in the
00:18:39.660 House of Commons, in which I said that I wanted to make Canada a freer place. And that was motivating
00:18:44.460 my entry to politics. You know, we need to have the freedom to worship the freedom to pray the freedom
00:18:49.740 to sing the freedom to engage in art the freedom to express our political opinions. And we cannot allow
00:18:55.980 governments of any level to get in the way of that. And I'm very glad that so many of my colleagues
00:19:00.940 have spoken up about this as well. And Jamil Javani has specifically talked about attacks on the
00:19:06.540 right to worship in a motion he's put forward before the Heritage Committee, which I think is
00:19:11.340 very much one that should be getting some more attention as well. Well, Andrew, I know you're just
00:19:16.300 getting started in Ottawa and as a member of Parliament, you're doing great work already. We
00:19:19.820 appreciate your time and you joining the program. Andrew Lawton, thank you so much for joining us.
00:19:24.300 Thank you, Candice. All right, folks, that's all the time we have for today. Thanks so much for tuning
00:19:27.820 in. I'm Candice Malcolm. This is the Candice Malcolm Show. We'll be back again tomorrow with all the news.
00:19:30.780 Thank you and God bless.