MAiD for Mental Illness in Canada

"I and other colleagues are experiencing this: People are clearly getting MAID [Medical Assistance in Dying] for reasons that are frankly illegal."

"Suicide contagion is a well-proven reality. Don't pretend that it won't happen in Canada.:

"For the last 23 years, I've treated patients that other psychiatrists told me could not get better, and they get better."

"Suffering can always be reduced ... There is absolutely no such thing as 'everything has been tried'."

Dr. John Maher, psychiatrist specializing in treating severe mental illness 

Angus Reid Institute

 

"Under the guise of flimsy medical excuses", people suffering mental illnesses are already receiving assisted deaths in Canada, and others seeking MAID will "doctor-shop until dead" should euthanasia be extended under law to encompass psychiatric suffering alone, cautioned Dr. John Maher testifying before a Parliamentary committee of enquiry comprised of MPs and Senators. Should medical assistance in dying be seen as a legitimate option for mental suffering, he warned, the risk of a "suicide contagion" effect is high.

 

It's called the Werther Effect, referring to a notable increase in suicides following publicized reports of suicides among celebrities. In jurisdictions that have legalized doctor-assisted death, Dr. Maher pointed out, rates of suicide "have risen much faster after it was legalized, than before." 

 

Conflicting reports pro and con have been presented to the committee over the safety of MAID eligibility expansion to individuals having mental illness in isolation from any other medical conditions; a controversial topic that includes whether or how a mental disorder might be considered to be incurable and thus qualifying for MAID.  

"People are getting MAID for psychiatric reasons  under the guise of flimsy medical excuses."

"Prolific MAID providers are happy to assist with suicide while people are on wait-lists for effective treatment, [and] MAID is being offered to veterans, disabled people and people with very treatable illnesses." 

"People need lifeguards, not someone to push you under."

Dr. John Maher  

In 2023, urgent requests for same-day assessments and provision [less than 24 hours] were reported in Ontario, speaking to the possibility of impulsive decision-making on the part of people with mental disorders willing and determined to end their lives, under the influence of their mental delirium. This, in a background of long wait times for appointments with mental-health professionals in Canada's overworked health care system. 

 

"You're describing criminal misconduct, are you not, when you describe mental health as already qualifying people in the eyes of some assessors and providers for MAID?", asked one of the Members of Parliament on the committee. "I absolutely am", responded Dr. Maher. He informed the committee of his attempts to report his concerns with a doctor, to a provincial professional accreditation college and the response was "until the patient is dead, there is no malpractice".

 

And then, there were the counterarguments, as when University of Ottawa law professor Daphne Gilbert spoke of a small "very limited" number of people ultimately qualifying for MAID solely for mental illness. "This matters, because one justification for continued exclusion is the speculative claim that large numbers of people will become eligible if the ban is lifted. There is no evidence to support that claim." 

"[Denying MAID to those with mental illness is predicated on the belief that they lack decision-making capacity and] must be protected from themselves and that their suffering is somehow less real, or less serious."

"In 2026, we are reinforcing historic stigma and paternalistic assumptions. The law continues to infantilize those with mental illness."

Professor Daphne Gilbert, vice-chair, Dying with Dignity Canada  

 

Managing Murderous Malevolence

"You can have inmates that may lack remorse or be a psychopath, but we can still manage their behaviour in a medium security environment."

"It's important to remember that in a maximum security environment over 95 percent of the inmates that are there are there because of their behaviour. They're assaultive, they're harming other inmates, they're assaulting staff. That's not the case with this particular offender; he can actually be managed in medium security."

"Paul Bernardo spent 30 consecutive years in maximum security. He was transferred to medium security, and at this point, there's absolutely no talk of going to a lower security level."

Anne Kelly, Commissioner of Corrections Canada

Commissioner Anne Kelly says that although Bernardo was transferred to a medium security institution, 'he's a psychopath and he committed horrific and unspeakable crimes.'  Still from video, CBC

"My question to you then: if not Paul Bernardo, then which dangerous offender, rapist, serial killer needs to be in a maximum security institution?"

"If not Paul Bernardo, the worst of the worst, then who?"

Conservative Member of Parliament Tony Baldinelli

Karla Homolka

Paul Bernardo is the most notorious rapist, child-killer in Canada. His crimes of predation on women and girls shocked the nation. He tortured and raped, then murdered two schoolgirls, then raped and murdered his obliging wife Karla Homolka's 15-year-old sister. He and his then-wife were responsible for the deaths of 15-year-old Kristen French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy, both of whom were kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered. Before Bernardo turned to murder he embarked on a raping epidemic in the early1990s, was never apprehended, leaving an aura of terror in the St. Catharines and Scarborough area.

Paul Bernardo arrives at the provincial courthouse in the back of a police van in Toronto in a Nov. 3, 1995. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Appearing before a parliamentary committee on Monday, the Commissioner of Corrections Canada defended the decision to move Paul Bernardo, an unrepentant murderer of children, to a medium-security prison, averring he could be safely housed there. But the reasoning behind the decision to extract this man from the high-security prisons he was formerly kept in remains unclear. His wife spent a dozen years in prison for her part in his atrocities, but his term was an indeterminate one, that he never be set free into society. 

MPs on the House of Commons Public Safety Committee were tasked with studying the reclassification from maximum to medium security that was made in a surprise move earlier in the year. It seems that under the new 'consciousness' ideology that has swept the country with DEI, postmodernism, cultural relativism and empathy for the criminal class, the motivation though unspoken, may have been to enrich the incarceration experience of this man, who as a certified psychopath utterly lacks empathy for anyone else and feels no need to address the impact of his sadistic malevolence in sexual violence pathology.

The decision to transfer this monster arrived out of an extensive internal review at Corrections Canada. In their concern over improving the well-bring of Bernardo it appears to have occurred to no one in authority that it might be a good idea to alert the French and Mahaffy families prior to the transfer taking place; likely it did occur, but the decision was taken to act, rather than help set in motion actions brought by the French and Mahaffy families to stop the transfer from taking place.

When news broke, back in the summer of the fait accompli, the public was outraged, demanding an explanation. And that demand, naturally enough, led to the striking of a parliamentary committee to look into the matter, reflecting in part the disturbance felt by many parliamentarians at this flouting of a judge and jury's decision on the federal justice system's obligation to punish this inhumane transgressor of humanity's most sacred right; that of life itself.

 

A man watches an interview with Karla Homolka on television station RDI in Montreal. ((Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press))

 

The Commissioner stood before the committee to state that irrespective of Bernardo's viciously savage history as a predator of the first order, he 'qualified' for the transfer based solely on the internal correctional system's rules. According to Ms. Kelly, the medium security facility to which Bernardo was transferred has the very same high walls, guard towers, food and size of cells. The difference, she stated, was that there Bernardo was permitted more time away from his cell and with other prisoners, enabling him to take part in more programming.

In previous testimony, she raised the issue of Bernardo's life being in potential danger from other inmates in maximum security. No one could possibly be over-concerned over harm being done to this man while in the prison system. Yet with that issue in mind, allowing him more time out of the protection of his cell, and greater time in the company of other prisoners viewed in the light of his personal safety, the original concern seems to have been set aside.

Because of the nature of the crimes he committed and the utter lack of remorse he has demonstrated, Ms. Kelly stated that Bernardo is considered a high risk to the safety of the public. Given these realities, any further reduction in his security classification is therefore made unlikely. The very thought of this odious killer being given even greater freedoms in a minimum security establishment is mind-boggling; one assumes that this was brought up as a reassurance it would never occur, given his ongoing public threat status. And this reassurance is meant to reflect well on the decision-making of the authorities at Corrections Canada?

The House of Commons is prepared to debate a Conservative private member's bill to prevent anyone convicted of first-degree murder more than once or classified as a dangerous offender, from being moved. When Ms. Kelly was asked to comment, she responded it would create major issues for Corrections Canada and needlessly, since the agency ensures at all times that people who cannot safely be moved away from maximum security must remain there.

"We might need more space at maximum security and also, at this point, there's no incentive for offenders to participate in rehabilitation programs, in terms of maintaining good behaviour."

"The fact is that, you know, we have security classification, we have processes, but they are inmates that will never make their way to minimum security."

Anne Kelly, Commissioner of Corrections Canada