Canada’s double standard of death

Canada is a country that is seriously opposed to the death penalty—or at least, it’s opposed to the death penalty for murderers.

The country used to have capital punishment. While still a French colony, a cynical policy of allowing a man to avoid execution by becoming an executioner was enacted. A woman could avoid execution if the executioner agreed to marry her. Such an approach to capital punishment shows that hypocrisy and contempt for justice was always part of the judicial makeup of Canada.

Executions continued in British Canada, where sailor Peter Cartcel was hung from the yardarm of his own ship as an edifying spectacle. Canadians had such disdain for the value of human life that they didn’t even keep records of executions at this point in their history. There is no way of knowing how many men and women ended their life on a Canadian gallows.

But that’s the past. In 1963, Canada abolished the death penalty. They are so proud of this that they issued a rather pompous statement on World Day Against the Death Penalty (October 10, 2022):

Image by Andrea Widburg

Canada is proud to be part of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty… [W]e continue to oppose the use of the death penalty in all cases everywhere… On this day, Canada joins with the global movement to abolish the death penalty in calling on the minority of countries where capital punishment still exists to ensure due process and fair trials, to pause any planned executions and, to completely end the use of the death penalty.

They’re not kidding about opposing the death penalty in all cases everywhere. Canada will not extradite anyone who would face the death penalty in another country.

It’s strange that with all this loudly proclaimed respect for human life to note that Canada is one of only nine countries in the world that practice euthanasia, which Canada whimsically terms MAID (Medical Assistance In Dying). Canada is so MAID mad that MAID is the sixth leading cause of death in the country today. Canadians take exception to this statistic.

However, Jadyn Yelle, a spokesperson for Statistics Canada, says, “Medical assistance in dying is recognized as the manner of death and not the cause of death… As such, it is inappropriate to situate it among the leading causes of death.” In other words, a person dying from a terminal disease who is euthanized is listed as having their life ended by that disease, even though it was the euthanasia that made them stop breathing.

It gets worse. Belgium and the Netherlands have euthanasia, but they also have monthly commissions to review troubling cases. Canada has no such reviews. Canada is the only country that allows nurse practitioners to end patients’ lives. Ontario and Quebec instruct doctors not to indicate euthanasia at all on death certificates. Canada is the only country that allows doctors to advise patients that they can opt for euthanasia. Other countries do not allow this for fear that euthanasia might be seen as medical advice or even pressuring patients to end their lives. Unlike other countries, Canada does not require patients to exhaust treatment alternatives before seeking death.

There is an ugly trend emerging in Canada that sees patients who are not terminally ill or suffering unbearable pain being euthanized. One such patient was Alan Nichols, a mentally ill man who asked to be euthanized because he had some hearing loss. His request was granted. Some disabled Canadians have chosen euthanasia because they couldn’t handle skyrocketing medical costs. A man suffering from a degenerative brain disease, Roger Foley, was told by a hospital director of ethics that he was costing the hospital $1,500 a day. The “ethicist” then told him they had no idea about long-term care for him and asked if he had any interest in dying.

To sum up, the life of a killer is so precious in Canada that it will be guarded at all costs. The life of a sick person or a disabled person is of so little value that the priority is becoming euthanasia rather than care. There is plenty of money to take care of killers, but Canadians being crushed by medical bills are advised that they should just die. It’s plain to see that cynicism, hypocrisy, and contempt for justice are alive and well in Canada.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of The Pardon, a story of forgiveness based on the thief on the cross in the Bible.