The 'Unnoticed' Presence of Islamist Terror Groups in Canada

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre

"Those allegations [accusations of paramilitary group Kata'ib Hezbollah linked to the IRGC] include two attacks here in Canada; the March 10 shooting at the United States consulate in Toronto and an attack against a Canadian synagogue."

"He [Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi] also allegedly said he was running multiple teams and sought help carrying out further attacks against Jewish and other targets in Canada and the United States." 

"There is no justification for the delay [in placing the group with Canada's terrorist list]."

"Jewish Canadians have watched their synagogues, schools and businesses targeted by shootings, vandalism, firebombings and threats."

"Iranian Canadians who escaped the brutality of the Islamic Republic have faced surveillance, harassment and intimidation from the same regime on Canadian soil." 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, Parliamentary opposition

Counter-rally against the Al-Quds day event in Toronto  The Hub

 

The Liberal government of Canada -- under both prime ministers Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney -- has failed to stem the duress under which Canadian Jews have found themselves over the past three years, assailed verbally and physically, threatened and slandered by 'pro-Palestinian' groups in Canadian society led by Palestinian student groups supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran and funded by Qatar. Led by the fundamentalist Islamist focus on jihad. This is a jihad that penetrates Western society through sanctimoniously disingenuous diplomacy that government cannot see through, and the violent jihad of the terrorist battlefield. 

 

While moderate Islamic governments in the Middle East recognize the Muslim Brotherhood and its many offshoots and associates for the threat they represent not only to the West but to their own governance and security, and have taken steps to outlaw it, the West is amenable to its presence, its infiltration through ingratiating itself as a reasonable, moderate representative of Islam to be respected and heeded as a portal to understanding and welcoming the presence of inordinate numbers of Muslims through immigration, refugee intake and migrant presence. 

 

The little-recognized presence of terrorist groups within Western society working to undermine democracy and to silence critics and opponents present the other side of penetrative jihad. These groups, like the members of the Islamic Republican Guard Corps whose presence in Canada affront and concern Canadian Iranians who fled their brutal dictatorial rule in Iran, operate with impunity, with little-to-no 'notice' taken of the menace they represent, by Canada's Liberal government.

 

Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pointed out to Canada's Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree through a letter, that American authorities arrested Mohammad Baqer Saad Daewood Al-Saadi, senior commander of Kata'ib Hezbollah, accused of coordinating dozens of attempted and completed terrorist attacks in Europe and North America. 

 

Founded in 2007, Kata'ib Hezbollah, according to the office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, has some 7,000 to 10,000 members. They operate primarily in Iraq with a purported presence in Bahrain, Iran, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. They were listed in 2009 as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Mr. Poilievre asked the Minister of Safety to investigate whether operatives for the group have established networks in Canada. To further investigate linkages between Iranian terrorist proxies and organized crime. 

 

Further, that it be disclosed the number of operatives connected to the Iranian regime and its proxies that have been identified, denied entry, investigated, detained or removed from Canada. Previously Minister Anandasangaree, pressed by the opposition why the government had deported only one Iranian official from among the dozens known to be present in Canada, the minister cited a requirement to follow due process, to explain the delay. The reality is that of 24 individuals identified as former IRGC officials, one only has been deported.

 

Iran-Inspired Al-Quds Day rally in Toronto    The Hub

 

The Liberals have failed to enforce Canada’s terrorist laws with the urgency and strength Canadians expect. Parliament did not list terrorist entities merely to put their names on a government website. Canadians expect their laws to be enforced to the fullest extent: terrorist assets frozen and seized, financing networks dismantled, and operatives stopped at the border or removed from the country. Yet Canadians have seen little evidence of serious enforcement against the IRGC and other listed terrorist groups threatening our people, our communities and our national interests. A terrorist listing is only as strong as the action that follows it.

Jewish Canadians have watched their synagogues, schools and businesses targeted by shootings, vandalism, firebombings and threats. Iranian Canadians who escaped the brutality of the Islamic Republic have faced surveillance, harassment and intimidation from the same regime on Canadian soil.

A year-long Global News investigation reported that upwards of 700 Iranian regime-linked associates were operating in Canada and threatening the lives of Canadians. The RCMP subsequently acknowledged receiving reports of foreign interference committed by, or at the direction of, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Canadians deserve to know who these individuals are, how they entered Canada and what your government is doing to remove those who pose a threat.

The IRGC was finally listed as a terrorist entity only after years of pressure from Conservatives. Even now, your government has been unable to tell Canadians how many IRGC operatives have been identified, denied entry or removed from the country.

Listing the parent organization means little if its commanders, proxies, financiers and hired criminals remain free to operate here.

You must therefore:

• Immediately list Kata’ib Hezbollah as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code;
• Investigate whether its members, operatives, facilitators or financial networks are operating in Canada;
• Disclose how many individuals connected to the Iranian regime and its proxies have been identified, denied entry, investigated, detained or removed;
• Investigate and disclose any known links between Iranian terrorist proxies and organized crime in Canada; and
• Explain what action Canadian authorities are taking in response to the alleged Kata’ib Hezbollah-directed attacks in Toronto.

Canada must be a safe haven for Canadians, not for the terrorists, agents and proxies sent to silence the victims of the Iranian regime.

Canadians must be free to worship without fear of gunfire. Iranian Canadians must be free to oppose the regime without facing its enforcers here at home. All Canadians deserve a government that stops terrorists before they attack rather than making excuses after the damage is done.

Conservative Party of Canada  

Protesters and counter-protesters demonstrate by the U.S. Consulate during a rally for Al-Quds Day in Toronto, on Saturday, March 14, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan

 

Canada's Social Crime Rate Soaring

New Toronto crime statistics revealed which neighbourhoods had the highest break-in rates last year. Christopher Eng Wong | Dreamstime 

"Incidents that were once rare, now frequently interrupt operations, put staff and customers at risk, and strain already limited resources."

"Many businesses have adopted informal safety protocols including having a buddy system, rules about who works late, who handles certain situations, and decisions about when to lock their doors." 

"In some cases, businesses keep their doors locked all day, allowing entry only by doorbell or appointment."

"[Nearly one-third of Canadian Federation of Independent Business members -- 29 percent -- informed poll surveyors] they do not report crimes because the process feels futile, time-consuming, or unlikely to result in meaningful followup."  

Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses crime survey 

Country-wide, there has been a steady increase, reported to police agencies, of incidents of organized shoplifting where  brazen groups of thieves stroll into stores  unmasked, take their time to fill baskets with thousands of dollars in merchandise, then calmly walk back out the door as though what they are doing is not unusual and there will be no penalties for outright theft. Often enough, they're right; such thefts are no longer unusual; their frequency and the panache and entitlement with which they're carried out, while leaving store personnel open-mouthed and customers scandalized, thieves fail to be apprehended.

 

The Your Independent Grocer on Bank Street in Ottawa's Centretown neighbourhood. Ottawa police say 12 people were arrested during 'Project Pantry' at the store in January. (Brad Quinn/CTV News Ottawa)

 

From store, laden down with stolen goods, to parking lot, to waiting vehicle and an orderly removal from shopping cart to open trunk, followed by a drive-away with pilfered goods. The CFIB report points out as well that retail staff are now increasingly exposed to personal threats, physical assaults and even confrontation with lethal weapons. Business employees, for their safety, are informed by their employers that it would be best not to confront the thieves, so they stand by, witness to thefts that defy the very essence of the social order.

 

The tragic, sobering encounter by Montreal depanneur owner Chong Woo Kim was a dangerously acute example of what outraged confrontation of a theft could lead to. Xavier Gellatly who stabbed the business owner to death, and held in his murder, was discovered to have committed an earlier murder in 2012, the result of a random stabbing. He was out of prison on full parole when his encounter with Chong Woo Kim made him a murderer two times over.

 

Handguns are pictured near recovered stolen cars during a Toronto Police Service press conference in Toronto, Ontario on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. Police say the surge in auto thefts has led to rises in home invasions, violent robberies and gun violence throughout the Greater Toronto Area. (Greg Bruce/CBC)

 

A January Angus Reid Institute poll concluded that businesses were the front lines of a broad apprehension among Canadians in general, of diminished security and safety in Canada. "For those working in retail, shoplifting, verbal abuse, and physical threats have become the norm", read the poll conclusion. 

 

This, in a criminal justice system where overworked police forces make arrests, and when trials eventually take place, they witness with exasperation the justice system using a Liberal-government penal formula that allows for lax bail conditions, leading to frequently charged serial offenders who are streamed through an equally overworked justice system, are given paltry sentences barely reflecting the gravity of the crime committed and early release means that offenders feel free to continue their criminal activity with no penalizing incentives to cease and desist.

 

Private security details are now a common sight at retailers, banks and any number of businesses on high alert either because they've already suffered theft, or because of the general aura of apprehension among businesses in recognition of the splurge among criminal elements exercising their modus operandi with the assurance that penalties that accrue will be manageable as balanced against their gain. Grocers across Canada are equipping staff with body-cameras to help crack down on shoplifting and identification of employee assailants. 

 

Corporate Protection and Investigative Services President Ken Vongkham showing the lawn signs that they provide for their clients. Photo by PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON /National Post

 

And nor are private homes exempt from these crime sprees. One of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Toronto, Rosedale, has been experiencing a rash of property crimes in recent years, with cars stolen from driveways, armed home invasions, families disturbed at night by sounds of breaking glass and housebreaking men shouting their intentions along with threats of compliance. Armed home invasions have become common occurrences. Perhaps there's a kind of irony in the fact that these wealthy urban communities are solidly politically Liberal.

 

They've taken to paying for private security patrols at night. One security company specializes in private K9 patrols: "Our use of canine accompaniment for all daily foot patrols enhances crime prevention by creating an obvious and natural deterrent", the website promises. Spiking levels of crime and street disorder is not confined to Toronto. Canada has become a country of high walls, bars on windows, security cameras at every doorway and private security patrols.

 

Manitoba, through the course of a year, added 900 new licensed private security guards. The number of licensed private security guards surged in Ontario by75 percent in the last six years. 92,615 licensed Ontario security guards in 2020, swelled to 162,320 by 2025. In North Battleford, Saskatchewan, a plan to hire teams of private security to patrol the downtown was approved by city councillors. 

 

In Kelowna, British Columbia, according to a 2025 Statistics Canada report on crime severity, the city was ranked as the fifth-highest-crime city in the country. To which designation, the city produced a detailed analysis of 2024 crime figures finding that 1,335 police files had been opened for only 15 repeat criminals. "The pattern of persistent criminality by this select group is staggering and relentless", the report pointed out.   

 

Ontario Provincial Police and the Canada Border Services Agency said they've seized 598 stolen cars that were destined for export at the Port of Montreal, during a news conference on April 3. The vehicles had an estimated value of $35.5 million dollars. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

 

 

Canada's Liberal Government; Complicit in Sordid Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories

"While receiving this significant amount from taxpayers, Marouf published vile antisemitic statements, including  calling Jewish people 'loud-mouthed bags of human feces', and even fantasized about shooting Jewish people."

"Granting Marouf this money was a massive failure by the Liberals, and recovering the funds was the very least they could do to address the harm done to the Jewish community from this blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars."

"But now, through a written inquiry from Conservatives, we have learned that the Liberal government secretly struck a deal with Marouf and are refusing to make the details public."

"The Liberals failed to deliver on their promise and are trying to hide it from Canadians."

Ontario MP Melissa Lantsman/Alberta MP Rachael Thomas 

Laith Marouf renewed his online incitement following previous controversies over federal funding and history of antisemitic remarks. (Photo: Screengrab.)

 

In 2022 the man in question, Laith Marouf, signed a contract with Heritage Canada as an 'expert' consultant on human rights, meant to lead training workshops in  human rights for public servants. At those workshops he unleashed personal opinions of Jews and Israel vilifying both as examples of human rights abusers of Palestinians. His anti-racism lectures gained him $122,661 for participation in the government program.

 

Three consultative events took place in Montreal, Vancouver and Halifax, according to Community Media Advocacy Centre where Marouf was listed as a senior consultant, proficient in leading seminars. He was in fact the only consultant at the Centre, which he had himself launched as a consulting enterprise. An independent investigative journalist ran a background search on Marouf and what he discovered was a series of vile, racist declarations on social media.

 

The Canadian Press reported on screenshots of Marouf's X posts under his name and boasting his photograph. One of the offensive posts had been emailed to Mala Khanna, at the time associate deputy minister at the Department, of Marouf referring as a 'house slave' to an Indigenous individual. As well, he described Francophones in Quebec as 'frogs' on social media.

 

The Community Media Advocacy Centre had applied to Canadian Heritage under its Anti-Racism Action Program for funding, which was approved in July 2021. When Heritage officials learned of allegations of racism against Marouf in 2022, the funding was suspended. And that was because the situation had become a public embarrassment for the Department which had obviously not bothered to vet the man they contracted with to lecture on human rights.

 

When Conservative Alberta Member of Parliament submitted a written inquiry related to the Heritage grants she asked in particular how much of the funding received by Marouf had been recovered. The response in December, two months after the request for information had been received, was that a "settlement agreement was reached in March 2025 with the community Media Advocacy Center. The agreement contains a confidentiality clause that prevents disclosure of the details." 

 

"At a time when antisemitism is rising across Canada, the government's secrecy only deepens the hurt felt by the Jewish community and further erodes public trust" the joint statement by MPs Lantsman and Thomas emphasized, calling on the Liberal government to "release the full details of this settlement and explain why they are protecting Laith Marouf".  

 

They are missing the point. It is not Laith Marouf that is being protected by the Liberal government whose caucus is replete with Muslim MPs who make no secret of their loathing of Israel and support for the 'Palestinian cause'. It is their own sorry record of aligning themselves with the large and growing influx of immigrants, refugees and illegal migrants whose backgrounds have never been properly investigated to determine whether they represented good candidates for citizenship, sharing traditional Canadian values.

 

Now that the Muslim population of Canada represents a significant total with political flex, while the Canadian-Jewish demographic is one-quarter that of the former, it is obviously the voting impact of the greater population that is of concern to the Liberals determined to hang onto power, prepared to surrender the concept of 'equality' and the government obligation to ensure that all Canadians are equally protected and secure, while allowing raucous, threatening, slanderously antisemitic 'protests' glorifying Palestinian terrorism to overtake the streets of Canadian cities.

 

Laith Marouf has not finished with his Jew-hating agenda, having launched an anti-Israel media outlet, Free Palestine Television, where he is free to post his venomous accusations and spread the vile potency of viral antisemitism to all that it appeals to. 

  

"Investing" in Canada's Future

"We are very close to the breaking point due to the excessive number of asylum seekers arriving in Quebec month after month. The situation has become unsustainable."

"Asylum seekers have trouble find a place to live, which contributes to accentuating the housing crisis. Many end up in homeless shelters, which are overflowing."

"The possibility of entering Canada from Mexico without a visa certainly explains part of the influx of asylum seekers."

"The airports, particularly in Toronto and Montreal, are becoming sieves and it is time to act."

Quebec Premier Francois Legault 

RCMP officers unveil a new sign at Roxham Road. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)

 

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau has much to account for; its laissez-faire attitude toward illegal entry into Canada has come home to roost. The acute housing shortage that Canada and Canadians have encountered, with the younger demographic marrying and preparing to raise a family experiencing the rude awakening of recognition that the normal trajectory of young adults moving into an era of their own where they expect to buy a home to get on with their lives with the same kind of comfortable predictability as their parents is no longer possible.

People get off a bus at a gas station to take a taxi to cross into Canada at Roxham Road on March 25. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)

 

There is general agreement among financial houses, economists and the broader public that recognizes the influx of people as a result of immigration, refugee intake, student study visas, work visas and illegal migrant arrivals have stretched Canada's resources -- not just housing, but medical and hospitalization, and other levels of social services, including emergency housing of the unhoused and homeless -- beyond its capacity to absorb any more.

The federal government, it has been revealed, introduced a million newcomers to Canada through refugee intake, immigration, student visas, work permits and migrants in the last year alone. And it has stated it has no intention to cut down on absorbing new waves of people into Canada's population. Canada has always welcomed newcomers, but never on this scale; among G7 countries Canada absorbs far more people than its nearest contemporaries. Canada sees it as a competitive story; as populations are failing to reproduce themselves and becoming older, the economy suffers with not enough people to  fill employment needs.

 

Quebec's premier has now formally requested that the Trudeau government cut back on its embrace of asylum seekers. In 2022, he pointed out, Quebec absorbed more asylum seekers than the rest of the country combined through the unofficial Roxham Road crossing point south of Montreal. COVID slowed the influx. "However, t he arrivals have continued to increase at airports. The number of people arriving on a visitor visa and applying for asylum is also increasing significantly", he wrote.

 

 In the first 11 months of 2023 close to 60,000 new asylum seekers registered in Quebec, which has placed the province in a position of "very significant pressure" on services. Asylum seekers awaiting work permits, stressed the premier, receive financial assistance from Quebec. Some 43,200 asylum seekers received $33 million in aid last October. Mexican nationals represent a growing proportion of asylum seekers arriving, among those from the Middle East, Africa and Central America.

Legault's recommendation is that the federal government take serious action to tighten its policies of granting visas. As well the "equitable" distribution of asylum seekers across Canada should be an issue to be studied, possibly by busing them to other provinces. As well, he expects the federal government to reimburse Quebec for the $470  million it has cost the province on taking in asylum seekers in 2021 and 2022, and formalize reimbursement for subsequent years.

People wait at a gas station to take a taxi to cross into Canada at Roxham Road, an illegal crossing point from New York State to Quebec, in Plattsburgh, N.Y. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)

Ethics? O Canada My Home And Native Land!

"Over the last five years and on several occasions, I have observed senior officials being unaware of their obligations and mistakenly making assumptions."

"Offers to provide training and educational sessions on a variety of topics have been offered to all federal parties and to regulatees, yet we continue to see a succession of mistakes that are largely attributable to the inability to recognize the need to seek consultation [with the Ethics Commission]."

"As a parliamentary secretary since 2015 and having served for several years on both the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics and the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, Mr. Fergus [veteran MP and parliamentary secretary] should be well versed on the functioning of both regimes and the importance of consulting the [Ethics] Office." 

"I am quite concerned that someone with the breadth of experience of Mr. Fergus would fail to recognize the possibility of a contravention."

"The Act has been there for 17 years, for God's sake, so maybe the time has come to do something different so that we don't keep repeating the same errors. After 17 years, maybe we should realize that something is not working."

"I don't think the crafters of the Act envisaged the situation where a prime minister would be found in breach himself. So it has created a very special situation. It's a funny situation to be in and it was not envisioned by the crafters, obviously."

Federal Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, Ottawa

Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, who has announced he will be leaving his post, says he has seen little evidence during his tenure that the federal government takes ethics seriously. Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press/File

"If the [Liberal] party disagrees with Trudeau, finds that he shouldn't be a serial violator, then they would remove him."

"If Trudeau is not going to hold himself accountable, and the party is not going to hold him accountable, well he kind of has to not hold them accountable in return."

"It's kind of a quid pro quo with his own party members. Trudeau's caucus failed the [ethics standard] system."

Ian Stedman, ethics law expert, associate professor, York University school of public policy and administration

After studying a concerning "succession of mistakes" from senior government officials who have a propensity to break ethics laws, the federal Commissioner of Ethics, Mario Dion, called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to order all his ministers and parliamentary secretaries to seek out additional ethics training. All of whom have been exposed in the past to such training. Before they even take their seats in Parliament, newly-elected Members of Parliament routinely receive a round of ethics training to ensure they are fit to sit in government as lawmakers.

Mr. Dion tabled a report finding that Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, Greg Fergus broke ethics laws by contacting the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to influence the board to allow a small television company mandatory carriage in Quebec. Fergus is chair of the Parliamentary Black Caucus and sought to further the aspirations of a Black-owned company attempting to gain a significant windfall of revenue.

As MP Fergus well knows there is a clear prohibition under ethics laws for senior officials wishing to exert any form influence or pressure on a tribunal; that very issue is one repeated frequently in reports and public guidelines on the website of the Ethics Commission. The report the Ethics Commissioner released on this matter is the second in a three-month period where a Liberal MP was found by Mr. Dion in breach of ethics laws. International Trade Minister Mary Ng was reprimanded for her personal involvement in two contracts issued by her department to a company owned by her "close friend", a former Liberal staffer. 

Mr. Dion's predecessor prior to 2018 when he took the office, published a report that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke conflict of interest laws by accepting two flights from the Aga Khan (who petitions government) and vacationing with his family on the Aga Khan's sumptuous private island. Since then, Mr. Dion completed two dozen additional investigations into Liberal ministers (including the prime minister in two more occasions), MPs and top public servants and government agency administrators subject to the Conflict of Interest Act.

No fewer than five senior Liberals were found in violation of ethics laws, including Trudeau and the-hen Liberal Finance Minister. Over the period of his mandate as commissioner Dion's office gave 140 presentations on ethics and conflict of interest obligations to thousands of attendees, one third of those lectures Mr. Dion presented himself. "Giving a contract to a friend, I don't think you require much training to understand this isn't appropriate", commented Mr. Dion. "Something has to be done" to show they "are taking this seriously". 

The Conflict of Interest Act, points out Mr. Dion, states specifically that respecting that law represents a "condition of employment" for public office holders it applies to. In theory, anyone who breaches the act could lose their job if the individual at the top takes the Act seriously. "I don't think the crafters of the act envisaged the situation where a prime minister would be found in breach himself. So it has created a very special situation", added Mr. Dion.

"Twice already, Canada's conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, has found the prime minister violated ethics rules. The first occasion was in 2017, when former commissioner Mary Dawson ruled on Trudeau and his family accepting a vacation on the Aga Khan's private island in the Bahamas."

"The second occasion was just last year, when the current commissioner, Mario Dion, found that Trudeau had tried to influence then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to overrule a decision not to grant a deferred prosecution agreement to SNC-Lavalin."

"Dion already had announced he would be looking into the decision to grant the WE Charity a sole-sourced contract to administer the Canada Student Service Grant when the charity revealed it and its affiliates had paid the prime minister's mother and brother about $300,000 for speaking engagements over the last four years."

"When photos were published in the midst of the last campaign showing that Trudeau had worn blackface on multiple occasions before entering politics, there was enormous potential for a career-ending blow to the prime minister."

Éric Grenier · CBC News · Posted: Jul 12, 2020 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under fire for his government's decision to award a contract to WE Charity, an organization with ties to himself and his family. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

A Procedure That Kills People

"[Such a measure -- upturning the Criminal Code ban on doctor-assisted suicide -- would violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms] underlying hypothesis [of the sanctity of human life]."

"Given the concerns about abuse and the great difficulty in creating appropriate safeguards, the blanket prohibition on assisted suicide is not arbitrary or unfair."

Supreme Court of Canada 1992 ruling 

"[The Supreme Court agrees] that a permissive regime with properly designed and administered safeguards was capable of protecting vulnerable people from abuse and error."

"We should not lightly assume that the regulatory regime will function defectively."

Supreme Court of Canada, 2015

"The risk we have is sending a message to the country that life is expendable, that we are prepared to say that we do not care enough for people to take care of them."

Member of Parliament Joe Comartin, NDP

Vancouver man Ray Chwartkowski holds up a picture of his sister Cheryl (seen as a child in the picture with her mother, Rose). Cheryl received medical assistance in dying in 2019 at age 50 and Chwartkowski believes his sister (who suffered from lifelong mental health issues) should not have been eligible as she did not have a terminal illness.  Photo by Jason Payne/ PNG

It's a long and wicked, winding road that leads to federal legislation legalizing assisted suicide. Most Canadians weighed their thoughts over the grave issue involved...should people suffer horribly from end-of-life pain and anguish when it is clear they haven't much longer to live and see no value to them in continuing to live out the very last days, weeks or months of an existence that promises them nothing but pain and misery until mind and body can absorb no more and nature takes its course?

 

That same empathetic public could not have foreseen that enacting legislation for assisted suicide would gradually undergo 'adjustments' in widening eligibility from those suffering from untreatable conditions in agony with a foreseeable end, to accepting requests for an expedited death from an increasingly wider group of people dissatisfied with life itself and looking for state agency in ushering them out of existence. To the point where people with mental illness that is treatable, including youth, are given the option of medical assistance in dying. 

Criminal Code bans on doctor-assisted suicide was enabled by a 2015 Supreme Court decision. A decision that led the current government to encode legal euthanasia into law. This, after two decades earlier the Supreme Court unequivocally rejected the legal concept of assisted suicide.  Until the Supreme Court interpreted the denial to citizens of an option to end their own lives, violated Charter guarantees against the "security of the person", after all.

Belgium had already experienced years of legalized euthanasia. And there a number of controversial cases where state-sanctioned death was extended to citizens with no terminal illnesses had arisen. When the Supreme Court was debating within itself the direction it should take on the issue, it sought consultations. One of which was Belgian bioethicist Etienne Montero, flown in to speak before the Court.

"Strict safeguards", he averred, was illusory. "Once euthanasia is allowed, it becomes very difficult to maintain a strict interpretation of the statutory conditions." A forewarning gained through unfortunate experience. Enter this gate and expect to remain there; for there is no exit. The Canadian justices chose to dismiss the Belgian experience as "the product of a very different medico-legal culture", offering no lessons for Canada.

Consequently, federal legislation extended medical assistance in dying (MAID) only to "competent adults whose deaths are reasonably forseeable", meant to defend the "interests of vulnerable persons in need of protection". A non-partisan cross-section of Members of Parliament during parliamentary debates over the bill spoke to their fears of green-lighting an assisted suicide regime that might over time extend to the disabled or the mentally ill.

 

In 2019, the Quebec Superior Court ruled that a violation of the "security of the person" was in fact a fault of the legislation in extending assisted suicide only to Canadians with terminal illnesses. "The fact that doubts have been raised is one thing, but any possible slippery slope' remains theoretical", read the court statement. The federal Supreme Court took notice and so advised the government.

 

The government reaction was to remove terminal illness as the qualifying requirement for MAID. Beginning in 2023 MAID will extend assisted death to Canadians with a sole underlying condition of mental illness. People with severe disabilities have already joined the roster of eligible candidates for euthanasia, to the shock and horror of disability advocates.

 

In June, Trish Nichols whose suicidal and severely mentally ill brother was granted assisted death at a British Columbia hospital when MAID was still theoretically limited only to those with terminal illnesses, spoke to the Medical Assistance in Dying Committee. His family had brought her brother to hospital following a psychiatric episode. Minutes prior to a lethal injection he screamed uncontrollably though the hospital gave assurances he had chosen a medically assisted death "of sound mind". 

 

In this 2020 photo, Minister of Justice David Lametti gives a thumbs up as he rises to vote in favour of a motion on Bill C-7, which dramatically liberalized euthanasia access in Canada. Photo by The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

"Would you feel safe now, bringing your suicidal loved one to seek medical care for recovery when there are no oversights or stringent safeguards surrounding a procedure that kills people?"

Trish Nichols testifying before the Medical Assistance in Dying Committee

Canada, Lagging on Administering COVID Inoculation

"Successive Liberal governments including this one, have created an unfavourable environment for investment and commercial success for innovative pharmaceutical companies in Canada."

"They have made it very difficult for Canadian CEOs to attract investment to Canada despite many attempts by the industry to work with governments to do so."

"They have made no effort to work with the innovative industry to encourage a partnership that could deliver tremendous value to the health-care system and the economy and give Canadians early access to new medicines and vaccines."

Paul Lucas, retired, past president, CEO GlaxoSmithKline  

 THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tara Walton

 

At the present time, Canada ranks tenth worldwide in vaccine doses administered per 100 population for COVID-19. This is the reality. The fantasy is as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau states whenever he feels cornered over Canada's poor response and logistics to the pandemic where COVID-19 has extracted a huge infection and death toll, and flattened the economy is breezily declaring "We are better on vaccines than just about every other country".

What he really means through this contorted reasoning is that Canada was too late in recognizing the SARS-CoV-2 virus wreaking havoc in the country in deciding to order vaccines against COVID. By the time his government took the necessary steps, Canada was away back in the lineup of countries taking the solid measures needed to protect their populations. What Canada did do, was sign an agreement with a Chinese pharmaceutical company, SinoVac, to partner in the development of a COVID vaccine.

This government, clearly delusional, given Beijing's reputation for volatile reaction and blunt decision-making, put its eggs in the wrong basket, and when the time came for SinoVac to send on samples of their vaccine for testing by the National Research Council as agreed, the shipment was stopped by Chinese authorities. Then, and only then, did the government in a bit of a panic order doses of vaccine from a variety of sources amounting in total to far more than Canada would ever need, vastly in excess of the population total.

The vaccines would eventually arrive, later than they should, had the government been adequately alert and resolute in its actions. So that, even as the provinces have created the required logistics for vaccine delivery and inoculations, the federal government is unable to access the number of vaccine doses required until possibly April at the earliest. Yes, there have been initial doses received, enough to vaccinate a small number of vulnerable health-compromised elderly in long-term care among whom 92 percent of the deaths in Canada have arisen.

People wait to receive a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, Israel, Tuesday, Dec. 29. 'We are a small country with a relatively good infrastructure of medicine and a lot of good-willed people who are willing to help to get the country to be vaccinated in record time,' one expert said. (Tsafrir Abayov/The Associated Press)

 

Some health-care workers whose positions make them particularly exposed to contracting COVID have also been vaccinated, reflecting a relatively tight number of individuals. The 1.2 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines set to have been received by January's end has been set back by Pfizer's declaration that shipments to Canada from its Belgian manufacturer will be cut in half, because of a factory overhaul, partially suspending operations.

Six million doses were expected by the end of March and that number too will be impacted downward, meant to vaccinate about 3 million citizens, out of a total of 38 million, so representing less than ten percent of the Canadian population, while other countries have received significantly greater numbers of doses on a population-adjusted basis. Clearly the government erred in not building a supportive relationship with vaccine makers.

Presenting as a purchaser/regulator guarantees no speedy access, and Canada went to the end of the queue in its tardy response. In point of fact the global innovative pharmaceutical industry has no home in Canada. Without full patent protection and the profit gleaned from that protection, pharmaceutical companies are unable to plow a good part of their profits back into research, innovation and development of new drugs. Back in 1968 the government of Trudeau senior enacted legislation to diminish the impact of pharmaceutical patents.

Which meant an earlier elapse of patent protection, and the rise of generic drug manufacturers in Canada taking advantage of the investment, time and innovation to produce new drugs on the part of pharmaceutical companies unprotected by full-length patents, vulnerable to generics swooping down to produce drugs at lower cost using formulae they did not generate themselves. The pharmaceutical innovators warned that without full patent protection their earnings would be reduced and their strategies to research new drugs would be impaired.

Understandably, they saw fit to move their operations elsewhere where patent protection would remain intact. Off went the industry to the United Kingdom, The United States and the European Union where an innovative-positive environment remained and there they perform their function of research and innovative development of new patented drugs. And there, the U.S., U.K. and E.U. have better, quicker access to the vaccines desperately needed to control the global pandemic in their jurisdictions.

According to a senior public health official in Israel, one of the reasons they have outdistanced all other countries in their handling of the coronavirus is attributable in large part to their ability to acquire large quantities of doses thanks to amicable relations with the pharmaceutical industry. Canada, in contrast, sent the innovative industry packing, welcoming the emergence of a generic-company oligopoly. Which doesn't produce vaccines.

The Conservative-led governments of Prime Ministers Mulroney and Harper made an effort to support the innovative pharmaceutical industry, improving the patent landscape, but recovery has been only partial and competitive patent protection still does not exist. A new federal pricing regime through the Patented Medicine Price Review Board regulations will help further stifle innovation. 

The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are delivered to the Maimonides CHSLD, Monday, December 14, 2020 in Montreal. The long-term care facility is slated to be one of the first in Canada to administer the vaccine. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz