Special to WorldTribune.com, July 1, 2024

Corporate WATCH

Commentary by Joe Schaeffer @Schaeff55

This is not merely an account of the state of things in Justin Trudeau’s Canada but a preview of what is right around the corner here in America today.

On June 25, Delaware became the latest state to allow “physician-assisted dying,” otherwise known as euthanasia. Canada has been way out in front of the field on codifying medically-induced suicide into a “human right.” As experience has long shown since the 1960s, once a social evil is crowned with that sacred Western word “right,” it is only a matter of time before intolerance and deep hostility is openly displayed against those who dare to oppose the new norm.

In Canada, that hostility is currently being aimed at religiously-affiliated hospitals who refuse to kill the patients under their care.

The Vancouver Sun reported June 17:
 

The family of a woman who was denied the chance last year to have a medically assisted death in her hospital room is suing the province and health officials, alleging a Catholic hospital’s ban on the practice deprived their daughter of her constitutional rights.

Gaye O’Neill filed the lawsuit on behalf of Samantha O’Neill, who at age 34 chose MAID during her struggle with terminal cervical cancer but was denied the opportunity to have a medically assisted death in her hospital room, according to the claim in B.C. Supreme Court.

It should be positively head-spinning to observe how quickly the slippery slope descends into an unabashed attack on religion once a decreed individual “right” is invoked:
 

“They can’t go on hurting people,” said Gaye O’Neill on Monday. “They violated her choice of religion” by imposing Catholic beliefs on her.

“It hurts us,” said Jim. “Fourteen months later, we keep reliving that awful day.”

Dying With Dignity Canada is the leading activist organization pushing euthanasia in the Great White North. It is shockingly forthright in stating that traditional Christian proscriptions against suicide are an unacceptable roadblock to the exercising of what is now an inherent right possessed by every Canadian to extinguish themselves with no encumbrances whatsoever. The parents of Samantha O’Neill penned an article on the DWD Canada website that displayed a marked loathing of the religious values of the Catholic hospital involved in their daughter’s case:
 

Sam was forced, at the most painful and vulnerable time of her young life, to accept hypocritical terms and be made an example of as a heathen in the eyes of the Catholic Church and Providence Health Care, which was condoned and funded by the Province of B.C.

Sam suffered through a painful, undignified forced transfer from St. Paul’s Hospital under a ‘religious umbrella’ to St. John Hospice operated under the same religious umbrella by Providence Health Care. Sam suffered because her beliefs did not align with that of a religious group who did not share her vision.

Set aside proper sympathy for grieving parents for a moment. For there is a larger issue involved here, and its implications are terrifying. This is how the road to tyranny is paved. Emotional appeals meant to trump logic demand that a religious organization must give way to the “beliefs” and “vision” of the New Society, even when those beliefs fundamentally run counter to its core values.

If they can do this to a religious denomination, they can do this to you. Ask Colorado baker Jack Phillips how that works. Or simply think back to the heyday of the coronavirus hysteria three short years ago, when the religious objections of individual Americans were mocked and derided by ruling establishment vaccine zealots. At the end of Gaye and Jim O’Neill’s article, Dying With Dignity Canada added this ominous note:
 

If you or a loved one have experienced an Institutional Religious Obstruction to health care such as a forced transfer to receive MAID, you can write a letter and tell your local representative that all health care facilities that receive taxpayer funding must permit MAID onsite, and you can share your story with us at DWDC.

DWD Canada has a strong focus on the religious objection matter. An entire section of its website is devoted to dealing with “Institutional Religious Obstructions.” Also as always, the sledgehammer of “taxpayer funding” is used to crush any opposition to the newly minted “right.” If a religiously affiliated school, hospital or child care and adoption service receives so much as $1 in government money, it must abandon all its principles on demand. This is the dark spirit conjured by the headlong rush into euthanasia going on to our immediate north today. It is a bizarre spirit as well.

We hesitate to present a social media post as fact but consider the mindset at least if you doubt the authenticity of the content. A June 15 DWD Canada Facebook post on the “forced transfer” issue contained this response from a reader about a MAiD suicide:
 

I had the same experience with my mum in Concordia Hospital in Winnipeg except she had to be transported to a completely different hospital. To make matters worse, the transport was screwed up and were not going to be able to get her to the Deerlodge Hospital where we were all waiting for several hours.

That meant if she hadn't arrived before 5:00 pm [t]he "procedure" would not take place and would have to be reschedule[d]. Can you imagine the emotional agony my mom and family were put through? Ultimately, my brother put her in a wheelchair and drove her to us at the Deerlodge. It was probably one of the most horrific experiences I've ever had.

I should add, the MAID team were wonderful with us and my mum. The transport issue was completely out of their control.

Are things like this really happening in Canada today? What exactly do you say to your mother as you’re driving her to her appointment with death? Also par for the course when it comes to promoting a novel social agenda is the presence of credentialed experts in big-box media outlets chiming in against opposition to the new norm. Thus we see the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation platforming this esteemed professor:
 

Daphne Gilbert, a University of Ottawa law professor who assisted with the legal challenge, said there are similar faith-based organizations across Canada, so the judgment in B.C. could reverberate across the country.

"We argue this is the state imposing religious values on people who don't share those convictions," Gilbert said. "And those Charter arguments would be the same in any province that allows faith-based hospitals to dictate care."

Yes, the CBC notes that Gilbert “assisted with the legal challenge.” It did not state that she is vice chair of the Board of Directors at Dying With Dignity Canada. Her bio fully displays her radical roots:
 

She also teaches a course on Animals and Law. Her research interests lie primarily in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with a particular emphasis on equality rights, reproductive rights, Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) and sexual violence.

Her most recent work considers the impact of physician and institutional conscience protections on access to MAID and abortion in Canada. She is President of the Board of “Women Help Women,” an international abortion service provider and a Board member of International Planned Parenthood Federation Canada.

Yes, to nobody’ surprise, euthanasia is part of a larger Culture of Death that also features abortion and gender mutilation. From an expansive June 28 CBC feature article titled “MAID lawsuit shines spotlight on faith-based health organizations”:
 

"Assisted dying is the focal point for this case. But the case has implications beyond that," said Jocelyn Downie, a professor emeritus in the faculty of law and medicine at the University of Dalhousie, who has spent years researching health delivery at religious-run health networks across Canada.

"Canadians need to recognize that they can be denied care much beyond assisted dying," Downie said.

"There's all kinds of care that they could be denied because governments are allowing faith-based institutions that are publicly funded… to deny care based on their religious beliefs and values."

And there you have it. The new rights must have right of way over the religious rights of others. It is happening in America too, just as it is happening in all the nations of the West. Powerful forces are helping promote this insidious new way. 2023 donors to Dying With Dignity Canada include Google and Microsoft (page 65 of pdf).

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