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Veterans Affairs says worker ‘inappropriately’ discussed medically assisted death with veteran


From the NP

It’s gruesome reading.
In recent times the politicians and corporations have begun to understand and use the value of the speaking point, constructed cliche above the actual realities of the people who are experiencing it directly. And many just eat it up. I was wondering what the actual story was when I saw that add on tv... Best course I have ever taken was Rethinking Disability via the Socially Constructed Disability Lense.
 
In recent times the politicians and corporations have begun to understand and use the value of the speaking point, constructed cliche above the actual realities of the people who are experiencing it directly. And many just eat it up. I was wondering what the actual story was when I saw that add on tv... Best course I have ever taken was Rethinking Disability via the Socially Constructed Disability Lense.
I get MAID for people who are truly fooked, like very painful and terminal conditions like late stage cancer (as one of many examples)

However in Jennyfer Hatch's case, if I understand it, she could have had some quality of life with her condition? I must plead ignorance on her condition. Med dudes, got more info?

However look how easy the medical system hooked her up for MAID. No hesitation it seems, practically rolling out the red carpet.

This bothers me. When do the "enlightened" for the sake of "food supply/climate/stopping hate/etc" decide maybe we should euthanize disabled people (I have a son in this category), addicts, homeless, or damn, too many whites (insert your race, culture or religion)?

This really strikes me as a slippery slope Canada is standing on.
 
So does this mean he lied under oath???



Cabinet minister now says Veterans Affairs never offered MAID — after testifying they did​


Lawrence MacAulay said VAC 'never has and never will' offer MAID in a tweet Monday. But, in his testimony on Nov. 24, he said VAC offered it to as many as five Canadian Forces members

Author of the article:
Bryan Passifiume
Published Dec 20, 2022 •


OTTAWA — Despite proffering a public apology and claiming the case was under police investigation, Canada’s veterans affairs minister now says Canadian soldiers were never offered a medically assisted death by members of his department.
In a late-night Monday tweet, Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay denied that Veterans Affairs caseworkers had offered medical assistance in dying (MAID) to Canadian Forces veterans, contrary to numerous news reports and his own testimony before a Commons committee.
“This is incredibly false and harmful misinformation,” MacAulay tweeted in response to a tweet by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who condemned the practice.”Veterans Affairs Canada does not offer medical assistance in dying to Veterans, never has and never will.”


The minister’s tweet runs counter to his testimony before the House of Commons veterans affairs committee in November, when MacAulay not only admitted that as many as five Canadian Forces members were offered MAID by VAC, but said the caseworker accused of being behind the offers was suspended and the case was now before the RCMP for possible criminal charges.“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it once again, what happened was totally unacceptable,” MacAulay said during his testimony last month.
“There is no way to justify it, and I will not try to do that today, or ever.”


An internal investigation led by his deputy minister, Paul Ledwell, uncovered a total of four cases where veterans were offered MAID, MacAulay told the committee — all allegedly by the same caseworker.
The committee hearing took place one day after a fifth case was revealed by the National Post in which an active service member calling himself “Bruce” told Tango Romeo podcast host Mark Meincke that a VAC caseworker had offered him MAID the previous year, without any prompting or previous mention of suicide.

The story initially broke over the summer with reports of a VAC caseworker repeatedly suggesting MAID to a veteran calling for help dealing with PTSD.
The caseworker allegedly told the unidentified veteran that Veterans Affairs had helped other veterans take their own lives, and that MAID was a better alternative to “blowing your brains out.”
During his testimony last month, MacAulay described a second instance that occurred in December 2021, followed by a third in 2019 where the minister said MAID was “inappropriately raised,” and a fourth this past May when the caseworker again provided MAID information to a veteran.

Earlier this month, veteran and Paralympic athlete Christine Gauthier told the committee she was offered medical suicide at least twice during interactions with VAC seeking assistance in building a wheelchair ramp at her home.
MP and committee vice-chair Blake Richards said he’s aware of at least eight veterans offered MAID, and told the committee there may be many more.
MacAulay admitted the December 2021 case ended with the veteran taking his own life with medical assistance.
Both MacAulay and Ledwell said the caseworker involved in four of those cases was suspended and the matter forwarded to the RCMP.


Reaction online to MacAulay’s tweet was swift. Richards tweeted a video of MacAulay’s testimony from the Nov. 24 committee meeting, captioned with “Has your story changed yet again, Minister?”
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner included a screenshot of a news story of the minister’s Nov. 24 testimony, telling MacAuley that “gaslighting doesn’t fix the problem, Minister.”

MacAulay’s spokeswoman, Ericka Lashbrook Knutson, said the tweet is being misinterpreted and “doesn’t at all” say the minister denied that VAC caseworkers were offering medically assisted death to soldiers.


“The minister has been very, very clear,” she said.”The tweet says it is not a VAC policy, never has been and never will be — this was one rogue employee, MAID is not to be brought up with veterans.”
That caseworker, she confirmed, is no longer employed.
Veterans are still free to bring up MAID with their caseworkers if they wish, she said, but those cases are now to be immediately forwarded to management.
Meincke, a veterans wellness advocate and podcaster who also testified before the committee on the issue, said MacAulay’s tweet was devastating.

“I warned him to come clean because I’m not going to quit, and it’s all going to come out — I guarantee everything’s going to come out with solid proof,” he said.
“So get out in front of it and tell the damned truth.”

Meincke, who spoke with three of the veterans who’ve come forward, said he found MacAulay’s tweet even more confusing considering he was sent a letter from the minister himself apologizing for caseworkers counselling Canadian soldiers to kill themselves.
“Our examination has uncovered four confirmed cases of inappropriate discussion on medical assistance in dying,” MacAulay wrote in his letter to Meincke, which was seen by the National Post.
“I understand that other veterans have reached out to you to share their experiences, and I am committed to hearing their stories and doing anything in my power to correct any harm.”


Meincke remains unconvinced that either the minister or VAC is taking the matter seriously.
“We do need an external investigation on this,” he said.
“We can’t have the fox watching the hen house on this.”
 
The VAC employee is no longer a VAC employee, though VAC is being cagey about how employment ceased. VAC is saying they’ve reviewed 400,000 cases and thus far have only been able to find four instances all linked to the same former employee.

 
The VAC employee is no longer a VAC employee, though VAC is being cagey about how employment ceased. VAC is saying they’ve reviewed 400,000 cases and thus far have only been able to find four instances all linked to the same former employee.


I've got a better idea... ;)

blood beheading GIF by History UK
 
The VAC employee is no longer a VAC employee, though VAC is being cagey about how employment ceased. VAC is saying they’ve reviewed 400,000 cases and thus far have only been able to find four instances all linked to the same former employee.

Probably moved to a "new and challenging position " within the Federal Government.
 
So that communications training contract that got Minister Ng into trouble for is sure paying dividends! LOL!

On other fronts, that bit of honesty from the government ministers we saw at the Trucker Hearings has been completely tossed out the window and we are back to the good ole days of "message control".
Fan fu**ing tasktic.

Liars They Lie GIF by Judge Judy
 

In Canada, MAID has become a matter of ideology​


Consider the controversy over doctors and staff initiating unprompted conversations with patients about MAID. Such incidents are understandably disturbing because no one should suggest to another person – especially someone living with a disability – that their life is not worth living.

So it is striking that Canada’s main MAID-provider organization, the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers (CAMAP), has been promoting the practice of bringing up the procedure unsolicited. The organization, which received $3.3-million from the government to develop a curriculum for MAID providers, has set this out as not merely something permissible, but as a “professional obligation.”

It is difficult to overemphasize how radical this position is.

Such unprompted initiations of MAID conversation are prohibited in the Australian state of Victoria, and in New Zealand (both jurisdictions in which the procedure is legal). One does not have to be a fan of gag rules – and, to be clear, I’m not – to see that such prohibitions are meant to draw attention to a clear boundary: Even when MAID is legal, it should be an exception to the practice of medicine, not something to be taken into its very bosom. There is a reason why all MAID laws regulate how to respond to requests, not how to promote it.

Presumably CAMAP has become expert in the field - now they are drumming up business

Consider a patient who still has good (even curative) treatment options left, but who refuses them and requests MAID instead. In the Netherlands, a doctor who believes that the patient indeed has genuine options would be violating not only the law but also their professional ethic as a doctor if they sign off on MAID in such a case. Since MAID is a last-resort exception there, a Dutch doctor must exercise their professional medical judgment to determine that no medical intervention will alter the outcome for the patient.

In contrast, a Canadian doctor faced with a MAID request from a patient with a curable disease can put aside such an ethic (or, as one psychiatrist in such a situation put it in an interview with The Globe and Mail, go “against her better judgment”) and terminate the patient’s life. Why would well-meaning Canadian doctors discard their professional ethic? Why do they not feel the force of it to guide their practice?

To see why, we only need to return to the CAMAP document on bringing up MAID with patients. CAMAP repeatedly calls MAID a “treatment option” and a “care option” that is “medically effective.” This kind of Orwellian word game has chilling consequences. MAID is now a treatment option that a doctor may provide instead of even a curative option; after all, both are “medically effective” care options.

The medical profession now has a medically effective treatment for depression, the common cold, rising health care costs, povery and rising welfare costs and Anthropogenic Global Warming.....
 

In Canada, MAID has become a matter of ideology​




Presumably CAMAP has become expert in the field - now they are drumming up business



The medical profession now has a medically effective treatment for depression, the common cold, rising health care costs, povery and rising welfare costs and Anthropogenic Global Warming.....

I've been pretty upfront about my support for MAID. But it has to the option the patient chooses and initiates, IMHO.
 
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