The Candice Malcolm Show - The government is expanding and advocating for euthanasia (Ft. Angelina Ireland)

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 0.97

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. 0.89

00:07:03.540 And MAID is the sort of euphemism that the government uses to describe this process. 0.77

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 0.87

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 0.56

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, 0.99

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.

The Candice Malcolm Show - June 15, 2022

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

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