Minister denies his department offered veterans assisted suicide

In a tweet sent Tuesday afternoon attacking Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, Lawrence MacAulay denied that Veterans Affairs has ever offered medical assistance in dying (MAID) to veterans.

Minister denies his department offered veterans assisted suicide
The Canadian Press / Adrian Wyld
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Minister of Veterans Affairs of Canada, Lawrence MacAulay was responding to a video posted by Poilievre accusing the veterans' department of offering suicide to veterans instead of offering support to "make them well." 

"Never has and never will," MacAulay wrote. 

Credible reports of up to nine veterans across multiple provinces being offered MAID have accumulated over recent weeks, leading to accusations that, despite MacAulay's earlier explanations that it was one rogue VAC bureaucrat acting as an angel of death, there is a broader problem and unspoken policy within the ministry. 

Veteran and podcaster Mark Meinke testified at a Commons committee about the veterans who have come forward to him with stories of being offered assisted death instead of help from VAC. 

Christine Gauthier, a veteran and Paralympian, testified that rather than provide a wheelchair lift in her home, she was offered MAID by a VAC staffer. In 2021, she wrote to both MacAulay and Prime Minister Trudeau to inform them of what she says she was advised to do. 

After previously asking veterans to come forward with their stories, it would appear that MacAulay is now denying what they say happened to them. 

To demand better treatment and care for those contemplating a government aided death, please visit www.HelpNotHomicide.com

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  • By Sheila Gunn Reid

PETITION: Help Not Homicide

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