The Candice Malcolm Show - June 15, 2022


The government is expanding and advocating for euthanasia (Ft. Angelina Ireland)


Episode Stats

Length

26 minutes

Words per Minute

166.83878

Word Count

4,416

Sentence Count

232

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Canada is among a handful of countries to offer euthanasia services, and now the Trudeau
00:00:05.520 government wants to expand doctor-assisted suicide to those suffering from mental health
00:00:10.480 issues. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:25.280 Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning into the podcast. So it becomes more
00:00:29.840 evident every single day that our society is sick. We're suffering from a sickness. There's
00:00:34.140 no doubt about it. I think in the United States, the Trump presidency really brought this cultural
00:00:39.000 sickness to the forefront. It revealed the long-running culture war. It brought it right
00:00:44.080 out into the open, exposed the hatred that our so-called elites and experts have for everyday
00:00:49.440 people in their values, their beliefs, and their ideals. In Canada, we saw some of these same trends
00:00:54.680 emerge during COVID. There was a complete lack of trust in the common sense of everyday
00:00:59.620 citizens. There was a reluctance by so many to defend and uphold our basic charter rights and
00:01:04.840 freedoms. And there was an expediency with which politicians and so-called experts would denigrate
00:01:11.060 and demonize the people. Every day in the news, we see reminders of our fraying civil society and the
00:01:17.640 social decay we are experiencing. Whether it's pastors being jailed, schoolchildren being massacred in
00:01:23.600 their schools, or directionless, often fatherless young men carrying out unspeakable atrocities.
00:01:29.520 In response, we see more sneering from the elites towards everyday people and these supposed elites
00:01:34.680 drawing all the wrong conclusions. Well, today, I want to look at an issue that I think really
00:01:39.940 represents the social decay happening in Canada. I'm talking about the muted discussion when it comes
00:01:44.760 to death, suicide, and our government's role not just in facilitating, but in expanding and advocating
00:01:51.080 for euthanasia. I'm pleased to be joined today by Angelina Ireland. Angelina is the president
00:01:56.880 of the board of the Delta Hospice Society. It's really an incredible organization. It's a non-profit
00:02:01.840 group promoting life-affirming palliative care. Back in 2014, while suffering from cancer,
00:02:08.200 Angelina joined the Delta Hospice Society as a patient before eventually joining the organization's
00:02:13.360 board four years later. In 2020, the Delta Hospice Society refused to offer doctor-assisted suicide,
00:02:19.940 despite the BC Health Authority making the practice mandatory at all publicly funded hospice
00:02:26.260 centers. So the BC government eventually pulled the Delta Hospice Society's funding and seized
00:02:32.360 their centers, which they'd been operating since 1991. So since then, Angelina has been an outspoken
00:02:38.100 advocate against doctor-assisted suicide and is defending natural end-of-life values. She continues to
00:02:45.500 lead the Delta Hospice Society as a virtual and call-in hospice provider. So, Angelina, welcome to
00:02:51.840 the program. Thank you so much for joining us. It's great to see you. Thank you, Candice, for having me.
00:02:57.480 So let's just talk about your organization, the Delta Hospice Society. I've been following it.
00:03:02.720 It's had certainly a tumultuous last few years, particularly in dealing with the BC government. So can you
00:03:09.060 explain to our viewers what exactly happened with your organization, why you refused to offer this service,
00:03:14.460 and what the consequences have been? Yeah, thank you. You know, we are a 30-year
00:03:20.100 private organization devoted to palliative care. And for those who don't really know, you know,
00:03:27.480 the specifics of palliative care, basically we take care of people during their illness,
00:03:34.140 during their end of life, and we also take care of their families. But what we do not do
00:03:40.080 in palliative care is kill our patients. So, you know, this is a 50-year medical discipline
00:03:47.080 in which Canada has actually had a great deal to do with in its development. So we should be very proud
00:03:52.980 of that through people like, you know, Dr. Balfour Mount out of McGill University. So, you know,
00:03:58.580 we have just been a group of private citizens opening up a palliative care organization and being very
00:04:09.920 committed and devoted to doing some very good work and actually, you know, supporting the public
00:04:19.500 health care system. Over our years, we have probably given close to $30 million to the public health care
00:04:26.980 system, 750,000 volunteer hours to the public health care system. So ultimately, it's been a
00:04:34.400 really good deal for the taxpayer. And before euthanasia became law, the government thought
00:04:40.960 that we were a really good partner. And so, I mean, this conversation sort of came up very quickly
00:04:46.800 and Canada became one of the first countries in the world to legalize, basically, doctor-assisted
00:04:53.000 suicide. So the idea behind the Hospice Society and hospices around Canada was to take people out
00:05:00.680 of hospitals and allow them to go to a place, you know, in their final days, weeks, or months and
00:05:07.040 sort of die with dignity in natural ways. And then this law came out saying that that's not the way
00:05:15.100 that end of life is going to happen in Canada. Can you sort of walk us through that battle,
00:05:19.740 how it happened, how these laws got introduced, and how it affected your group?
00:05:24.220 Yeah, I think that, you know, ultimately, I can say it in that we're undergoing a coercive makeover
00:05:30.760 of palliative care in this country. So when C-14 was first introduced, it allowed, was basically an
00:05:38.660 amendment to the criminal code so that doctors and nurses would not get charged with murder when
00:05:44.000 they helped people kill themselves. And so with that being passed, and because, you know,
00:05:51.660 healthcare is a provincial jurisdiction, it was passed down to the provinces to allow people
00:05:56.720 access to this kind of procedure. Now, out here in British Columbia, I have to say that the NDP
00:06:02.640 government just, you know, accepted this with like an enthusiasm with like, you know, and they were going
00:06:08.000 to just make sure that every single bed in British Columbia was going to offer euthanasia. So they
00:06:14.300 exalt, you know, they kind of exalted euthanasia is like the king of all procedures. And anybody getting
00:06:19.520 any kind of government money was going to have to provide this service. So, you know, we as a private
00:06:27.020 organization, in 2010, we fundraised and we built a hospice and a palliative care center next to it
00:06:36.560 for support counseling. That was the kind of services that I, you know, took care of when I
00:06:41.460 was a patient myself. So we got into a contract with the government, with the Fraser Health Authority,
00:06:48.860 which is the authority in our area, to provide 10 palliative care beds to the public health care
00:06:56.740 system for $1.4 million. Now, when MAID came into law.
00:07:03.540 And MAID is the sort of euphemism that the government uses to describe this process.
00:07:09.440 Medical assistance is dying, because that's kind of a nice way of saying, you know, they'd like to
00:07:12.260 say euthanasia. They don't like that word because it's not as, it's not as pretty and comforting.
00:07:18.320 So they came to us and said, you're going to have to provide euthanasia. And we said, no,
00:07:23.820 because we're a palliative care organization. That's why we're a private organization providing
00:07:28.560 palliative care. Why would we do that? Besides, right next door to us, like a minute is the Delta
00:07:34.460 Hospital, and they provide MAID there. So there's, you know, clearly there's access to euthanasia within
00:07:40.720 this community. So there's no need for that to be forced upon us. So our first battle was with the
00:07:47.500 government. And they said, no, not only no, but they became ruthless against us. So it wasn't just
00:07:57.680 enough that they take away their contract from us, which is fine, we accepted that. So they would have
00:08:05.040 taken away the $1.4 million. And we were happy to fundraise that amount of money. We have a store, which
00:08:12.500 is a revenue producing property. So we were quite content to be able to provide to the public health
00:08:18.280 care system, 10 palliative care beds at no cost to the taxpayer. But no, that wasn't enough for the
00:08:26.220 government. They thought somehow that perhaps we were so non-compliant, and such instigators,
00:08:33.620 they were going to try to crush us completely. So they took away our funding. And then they alerted us
00:08:40.600 that they were going to take away our hospice. So we built our hospice on a 35-year land lease,
00:08:48.220 okay, a registered lease that was not a license just to be there, a lease that was, you know,
00:08:56.720 in the land titles office and everything else. What they did was they cancelled that lease.
00:09:01.860 That was not necessary, but it was punitive. They cancelled that lease and they evicted us
00:09:09.200 from that property with 25 years left on that lease. Not only did they evict us, they evicted our
00:09:17.800 patients, our dying patients from our hospice. The Fraser Health Authority sent around a notice
00:09:24.400 telling the people there that they're going to have to leave in two months. So within that time,
00:09:30.100 a couple people passed away. But the remaining people, they shipped off to another hospice in the
00:09:36.680 Fraser Health region. They then basically gave us 30 days to get out. And we had to fire all of our
00:09:44.640 staff. We had to move. And we had to be out of those premises in 30 days. So, you know,
00:09:52.780 this just goes to show that when you stand to defy authority, you know, they will go to every length
00:10:02.200 to crush any independent initiative. It's really unbelievable that that story. I'm wondering if
00:10:10.040 you can help explain to the viewers, Angelina, what's the difference between the services that
00:10:15.260 you would provide at your hospice versus a hospital? Like, what was the difference for those
00:10:21.280 patients when you got evicted moving to the other facilities? Would they have been sort of offered
00:10:26.340 or presented with the option, I guess you call it, of being euthanized? Is that what happens over there?
00:10:35.400 Well, you know, interestingly, once they kicked us out, they reopened our facility two weeks later
00:10:40.860 under their authority. And now they operate it and they provide euthanasia there. So, you know,
00:10:48.360 they sort of carted off a few people for the interim to another hospice, you know, and I use the term
00:10:56.680 hospice now very loosely because hospices were never a place where you came to die. Hospices were a place
00:11:04.440 where you came to live and where we took care of you. We took care of you, not only your physical,
00:11:09.600 but your, you know, psychological and spiritual needs and those of your family. Now you can go to a
00:11:17.660 hospice and your worst day can become your last day because you can ask for, to be euthanized and you
00:11:25.420 can be killed that day. So now people are taking, and they don't use palliative care so much anymore
00:11:30.960 in this province. They use words like end of life care, right? They try to steer away from, you know,
00:11:37.400 any kind of connection to, you know, a very noble medical discipline because they know that what they've
00:11:45.640 done in this province is pretty much destroy palliative care. And it's so sad given what
00:11:51.480 you're just describing about how Canada was once sort of a world leader and we have 50 years of
00:11:56.340 experience in really dealing with this very difficult, challenging part of life. Death is a
00:12:02.300 part of life. I'm wondering if you can explain, because I think that the broader discussion kind of
00:12:09.340 gets tied up, people who oppose this way of dying and this idea that the government will just sort of
00:12:15.520 facilitate death if a patient asks for it. I'm wondering if you could walk us through why you
00:12:21.820 personally oppose this method, this doctor-assisted suicide, why your group specifically decided to
00:12:29.100 fight against it? Because there's so few voices and so few groups doing what the Delta Hospice Society
00:12:34.000 did. And in some ways, it's really inspiring to see what you're doing in other ways. It's like,
00:12:39.220 why isn't there pushback on this stuff from people all over the country? So I'm wondering if you can,
00:12:43.700 if you just walk us through your views and then your society's views as well.
00:12:48.200 Yeah. I mean, you know, ultimately we wanted to stand for palliative care. You know, we consider it to
00:12:54.340 be a national treasure. Not only that, but you know, it's a gift to humanity, right? When you go
00:13:01.200 in a sort of sacrificing selfless way, take care of the most vulnerable among us, you know, that is,
00:13:09.220 that's a noble cause. That's something that this organization has spent 30 years
00:13:15.020 uplifting and providing, you know, and so what we have seen now is, you know, those people who would
00:13:23.760 prefer a different end of life experience, they, you know, we're not even going to say anything
00:13:31.180 about that. What we're going to say is if that's what you want, then you go build it. But what we
00:13:36.320 find now happening is that this new political movement wants to walk in and literally steal
00:13:43.200 everything that we've created over the past 50 years, instead of going and doing their own work,
00:13:49.760 you go fundraise, you go open your maid centers, right? And you become then a choice to the public
00:13:56.300 in terms of an end of life marketplace of services available. Because I'll tell you,
00:14:01.560 we have many, many people who want the kind of services that we provide. So no, they don't just
00:14:07.700 get to have, you know, because they have a loud, obnoxious group of people who are demanding to be
00:14:14.860 killed, you know, on demand. That's fine. But we're not going to fight you. What I'm going to say to you
00:14:21.920 is go do your own work. Because the work that we have done for the past 50 years is important.
00:14:29.680 People look to us, they trust us to protect them. And we are not going to just surrender,
00:14:37.860 right, everything that we've created, because it will be more convenient for you.
00:14:42.880 So you go make your own spaces, and we'll have our spaces. I mean, that's, you know, on principle,
00:14:49.580 that is really one of the one of the reasons why we fought so hard. You know, second is all that,
00:14:54.800 you know, we have within palliative care, a real respect for the dignity of life, the sanctity of life
00:15:02.860 to its natural end, and how much we can do to provide people with an incredible ability to have
00:15:11.600 time at their end of life, to have a reconciliation with their loved ones, right, to be able to
00:15:18.860 physically, emotionally accept the next stage. That's very important, because we can see the
00:15:26.160 trauma that family members go through when they're when their loved ones just, they show up to see them
00:15:31.840 and they're dead, they're gone. They decided in the middle of the night, with I will say some
00:15:37.480 influence of perhaps some healthcare providers that they should just put themselves out of this misery
00:15:44.900 and not be a burden to their families, and they're gone, right? So, you know, we provide
00:15:51.400 that experience of time to honour who we are as human beings, and to give, you know, those people we
00:16:01.340 love the opportunity to also be able to accept and to heal before we say our ultimate goodbye.
00:16:09.520 Right. It's so interesting that, you know, you have different opinions, right? If some other family,
00:16:15.200 if there's Canadians out there who either don't want their loved ones suffering, and they make this
00:16:19.520 decision altogether, there's space for them, right? There's places where they can go. But it's so
00:16:23.920 interesting that the people in charge, the politicians, the bureaucrats, the experts, say no to the
00:16:29.480 Canadians who don't want this kind of service offered to their loved ones, and they don't believe
00:16:33.500 in it, and it goes against their morals and values, there's no space for you in our society. We're going
00:16:38.840 to go after this little Delta Hospice society and just eliminate them. And it's really telling that
00:16:45.960 that that's the attitude that they had. You know, you talk about sort of the influence, I would call it
00:16:50.980 coercion, of healthcare providers pushing this idea of medically as is it dying. Last month, there was a big
00:16:57.720 news story. There was an individual named Donna Duncan, who was an Abbotsford nurse and mother who
00:17:02.600 died on October 29, 2021. So almost a year ago, police are investigating this medically assisted
00:17:09.380 death of Duncan and her daughter said the death should not have been approved for the procedure
00:17:13.760 based on her mental health at the time. This is terrifying and chilling that these daughters
00:17:19.560 placed their mother in care and came one day, like you said, and their mother was gone. And this
00:17:25.120 decision had been made, and it seems like they didn't consult the family. So I'm wondering,
00:17:31.000 you know, why aren't we talking more about these kind of stories? And how is this even happening
00:17:35.900 in Canada? How can we push back against it? Well, we do, you know, and I think that people
00:17:41.140 need to understand there are choices, that we should be allowed to have choices. We as a private
00:17:46.500 organization, we're literally told by the government that we have no right. We have no right to our
00:17:54.160 conscience. We have no right as taxpaying citizens to be able to have the kind of service that we
00:18:01.060 actually pay for, right? We've become disenfranchised. We've become like indentured
00:18:06.980 serfs. Pay your money. You don't get any choices. You do what you're told. You know, I mean, ultimately
00:18:14.080 that at the end of the day, that that's what this boils down to. You know, we have many, we have a
00:18:19.660 constituency that wants what we offer, but we're not allowed to have it now because the government
00:18:26.660 deems it to be somewhat inappropriate. You apparently, you have to, you have to offer every
00:18:33.280 medical procedure in your facility that, you know, that's available. However, right next door at the
00:18:41.220 Delta Hospital, you can't have your baby there. Nobody in Delta can have their baby in Delta. You've
00:18:47.680 got to go off to some other city to have your child, but in every bed in Delta, you got to be
00:18:54.160 able to kill someone. So, you know, it's ironic. Um, it's, you know, hypocrisy. We want to say that
00:19:00.820 we see you, we see this nonsense that you're, you know, you're trying to push onto people. Um, and
00:19:08.100 you know, if I was sitting here and telling you, Oh, I'm raising money to have a no kill animal shelter,
00:19:13.080 right? Oh, I'd be getting all kinds of support from the government, but I'm sitting here saying
00:19:17.720 that I want to have a no kill hospice and I become enemy of the state.
00:19:23.580 It's really wild, isn't it? The, that that's quite a stark, uh, difference. Well, we now hear
00:19:28.400 Angelina that the federal government is expected to unveil new laws to allow doctors to offer
00:19:33.200 medically assisted suicide to the mentally ill. So that means people suffering from depression,
00:19:38.240 bipolar disorder, personality disorders, schizophrenia, even PTSD and other mental afflictions
00:19:43.400 will be offered this. Uh, what, what are your concerns about a legislation like this?
00:19:49.160 Oh, it's, you know, it's happening at the worst time. You know, we have been through as a people
00:19:55.980 the last two and a half years of a really traumatic experience. We've been locked down,
00:20:01.580 fear mongered about your, you know, put your mask on, get your shots, get your boosters. You're going to
00:20:06.240 die, right? We've got inflation going out of control. We've got war in Ukraine. They're talking
00:20:11.620 about world war three. You know, if you're not suffering some kind of mental strain in this
00:20:17.360 moment, you know, it would be, it would be a surprise. So, you know, now they want to offer
00:20:22.020 death to people who are, um, you know, mentally I'll say unstable. Well, I would argue that,
00:20:31.780 that euthanasia in this moment is being asked for because we're in a mental health crisis.
00:20:38.240 Now, instead of, uh, helping people with the tools that we have to help them, they would just prefer
00:20:46.000 to kill them. You know what? Because it's cheap. It's $400 to kill someone. And now they just have
00:20:53.120 doctor death coming once a week and they line people up and they just kill them. Well, I'll tell
00:20:59.040 you a hospice bed, for example, um, it would probably, you know, we could do it probably
00:21:03.400 cheaper, but if the government's doing it 1200 bucks a day, a day, right? So, um, we know,
00:21:12.100 we see through like the wizard of Oz thing that that's good going on, right? We know who wants
00:21:16.900 euthanasia, people who don't want to be a burden, people who are afraid of losing control of their,
00:21:23.120 their lives, people who are anxious, who are depressed. Okay. That's, that's mental health
00:21:28.900 issues. So they're trying to push death upon people with mental health issues. That's not a
00:21:36.240 loving kind or compassionate response. That's a nihilist response. And we expect more from the
00:21:44.340 government, from the people that we elect to represent us than that.
00:21:48.380 Well, especially if you look at some of the numbers, I mean, it's one thing to talk about
00:21:53.720 medically assisted dying to someone who's in chronic pain, who's in their nineties,
00:21:57.440 um, who just might say, you know, my, my life, I've lived a good life. I've lived a fulfilled
00:22:01.660 life. And to your point, I don't want to be a burden. But when you're talking about the mental
00:22:04.680 health crisis in our country right now, it's largely afflicting young people, uh, you know,
00:22:09.920 teenagers and people in their twenties and thirties. We just read a report that said 70, 69% of journalists
00:22:15.680 report feeling anxiety and depression. And the thing about depression and other disorders like
00:22:20.480 bipolar disorder is you have good days and bad days. And so if you ask someone on the very worst
00:22:26.000 of the worst days, the lowest of the low, do you want to end your life? At that point, you know,
00:22:30.440 it might seem like a, like a realistic option without thinking about the fact that things will
00:22:35.420 get better and there's light at the end of the tunnel and there are things to live for. And
00:22:38.440 it's such a sad point in our society where, to your point, you know, the most vulnerable people
00:22:44.240 in our society are just being offered this, this, this way out. Well, uh, Angelina, I'm, I, I find this
00:22:52.120 issue so troubling and, uh, you know, I know that there's, there's a variety of, of opinions out there,
00:22:56.600 but I really do appreciate, uh, what, what you're doing and, and the voice that you're providing,
00:23:01.620 uh, for all this, um, for Canadians who, who don't know much about what's going on and want to get
00:23:07.380 more involved. What do you, what do you recommend, um, for them? Yeah. You know, I mean, after,
00:23:11.400 after they literally took our assets and tried to destroy us with the national activists who came
00:23:17.380 after us and, you know, you know, we've been through the, we've been through the wars here on
00:23:21.100 the, on the front line for the last two and a half years, not only against government, against activists,
00:23:26.760 uh, no opposition party in this country supported us. Um, they all closed the door on us when we tried
00:23:32.680 to speak to them. So, you know, what we, what we know now is that we need to protect ourselves.
00:23:37.380 This is where we've come to at this moment. They're not coming to help you. So in an attempt
00:23:42.300 to help protect people, um, our organization, the Delta hospice society.org has opened up a national
00:23:50.200 palliative care hotline. So, uh, 1-800-232-1589. So, but eight days a week, Monday to Friday,
00:23:59.420 sorry, eight hours a day, five days a week. We ask you to call us. If you have questions,
00:24:04.460 if you have concerns, uh, we're there to help you find places where your loved ones can go that
00:24:09.500 perhaps they could be safe. Um, you know, we'll have those conversations with you. If you need
00:24:14.420 counseling, we'll arrange counselors for you that aren't going to just affirm your, your euthanasia
00:24:20.080 and suicidal intentions. We want proper, you know, counselors. So, you know, we've done that number
00:24:25.960 one. Number two, we have created for every province in this country, a DNA, a do not euthanize
00:24:34.220 advanced directive. And we will give that to you. We ask you to come and be a member for $10
00:24:39.960 of the Delta hospice society. And we will give you an advanced directive that's been produced by a
00:24:46.320 lawyer that basically says, I do not want to be euthanized. If at any point in my, uh, sickness,
00:24:53.420 I ask you to kill my, kill me. It's because it's a cry for help. Uh, we do not approve of,
00:24:58.700 of a facility unilaterally deciding to not treat us anymore, who turns off our oxygen, our air and
00:25:06.260 our nutrition. There's a clause in there that says, if you do that, I will have my representative
00:25:11.540 sue you. So, you know, these are the things that ordinary people need to be empowered with,
00:25:17.520 uh, because we need to keep our people safe. Uh, we need to keep our homes safe. Uh, and Delta
00:25:24.520 hospice society wants to, uh, partner with you to ensure that you can at least feel some sense of
00:25:32.180 peace, um, and some sense of protection. So become a member, delta hospice society.org,
00:25:39.620 and we'll get you set up. Well, that's really wonderful. I really encourage all of our true
00:25:45.060 north, uh, viewers to look into that and, and get involved. It sounds like a great initiative.
00:25:49.040 And I'm very disappointed that, uh, even conservative politicians aren't working with
00:25:53.300 you or aren't willing to, uh, stand up against this bizarre, um, bullying that's happening towards
00:26:00.020 your organization and the sort of broader trend of, of pushing medically assisted death upon people
00:26:06.300 who are mentally ill. I think that's a very sad sign of the times and, and another sign, like I said,
00:26:12.180 off the top that our society is sick and that we're suffering from severe, uh, societal decay. So
00:26:18.660 Angelina Ayrton, I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining the show. It was great
00:26:21.920 talking to you today. Thank you, Candace. All right. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm
00:26:26.320 Candace Malcolm, and this is the Candace Malcolm Show.
00:26:28.100 Thank you.