EXCLUSIVE: Veterans Affairs Canada tried to hide euthanasia scandal paper trail

Sheila Gunn Reid looks at documents exclusively obtained by Rebel News showing how Veterans Affairs Canada attempted to hide a paper trail of evidence relating to caseworkers suggesting ailing veterans choose to access the Medical Assistance in Dying program.

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Veterans Affairs Canada began using verbal updates to communications managers and bureaucrats to prevent leaving a paper trail amongst those handling the fallout of the scandal of department case workers who offered suffering and desperate veterans euthanasia instead of treatment.

And I have the documents to prove it.

I've been examining 2,220 pages of exclusively obtained access to information documents from Veterans Affairs Canada relating to systemic advice for veterans to access Canada's euthanasia program when calling their case workers for help.

Nearly a dozen veterans experiencing acute post-traumatic stress disorder or asking for access to daily living to deal with their service-related injuries came forward over recent years to say that their Veterans Affairs Canada case workers suggested a medically assisted death to them.

At first, Veterans Affairs Canada and Minister Lawrence MacAulay claimed that just one case worker working out of one office was responsible for the scandal. However, as more veterans came forward, it became evident that other offices and case workers were involved.

I wanted to know how systemic the problem was, so I started filing for records through access to information request made possible by your crowdfunded donations to RebelInvestigates.com.

These current documents relate to the communications strategy to handle the cascading revelations against Veterans Affairs Canada case workers. I am not finished investigating these documents, but I do have some news to share with you.

We can see attempts to cover up and then to backtrack. On page 21, we can see in the media lines that Veterans Affairs officials were planning to claim there were no other incidents of Veterans Affairs staff telling veterans to kill themselves. They had to remove that from their talking points because other veterans came forward.

Staff also claimed that the other cases were just veterans calling to ask about whether getting assisted suicide would kill their benefits since it would count as self-harming.

On page 31, we have this quote:

Veterans may approach VAC following their decision to pursue medical assistance in dying. In those cases, Veterans Affairs helps the veteran and the family understand their benefits as well as other sports services that may be relevant to the veteran's unique circumstances.

Now, here's where you can see evidence of the cover-up. 

On page 679, the Veterans Affairs media team only says to provide verbal updates, writing: “recommendation to keep the updates verbally to a limited distribution but will follow DMO 0SD's preferred format and frequency.”

They didn't want things in writing because writing amounts to a paper trail, which I can access.

On page 1,219, you can see they're worried about our coverage when responding to media requests about euthanizing veterans. “Is it from Rebel News?” the bureaucrats wrote.

On page 1,220, the media team is trying to determine exactly how many veterans have been told to drop dead so they can include this information in their talking points for Veterans Affairs Minister MacAulay. But they can’t, so they don’t even bother.

On page 2,125, we can see just how out of touch these Veterans Affairs communications people are with normal people living in the outside world beyond the machinery of the Liberal government, everyday people who think veterans need care and not state-sanctioned homicide.

“Hello all, it's interesting to follow the thrice-daily media report emails to see how far the main story is traveling. Yesterday, it was reported by a couple of US news outlets, and today, it is in the UK Daily Mail,” the documents say.

“It is interesting to see how much coverage it's getting,” the bureaucrats continue. “I had wondered if there would be anyone else to come out of the woodwork to say it had happened to them too but so far nothing (thankfully).”

I'm still examining these documents, and I will release more as I go. If you'd like to contribute to our research costs, please visit RebelInvestigates.com.

SEE THE DOCUMENTS FOR YOURSELF:

news Rebel News Exclusive Canada Veterans Armed Forces canadian armed forces Medical Assistance in Dying
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