first reading: hundreds seeking death due to loneliness — inside canada’s new maid figures
in quebec, one in every 14 deaths is now from assisted suicide
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with only two weeks left to go in 2024, health canada has finally released the official figures on medical assistance in dying (maid) deaths in 2023. the fifth annual report on medical assistance in dying in canada, published on wednesday, reveals that one in every 20 canadian deaths is now due to assisted suicide.
there were 15,343 total maid deaths in 2023, the median age of successful assisted suicide applicants was 77.7 years, and 622 people received maid for a non-terminal illness.
but beneath those banner figures are some more surprising takeaways that are largely flying under the radar. below, a cursory look at just how much of an outlier canada is on assisted suicide.
canada has likely already surpassed the netherlands as the world capital of assisted suicide
as per the new report, canada is second only to the netherlands in terms of the percentage of overall deaths attributable to assisted suicide.
in 2023, about five per cent of dutch deaths were due to euthanasia, just ahead of canada’s 4.7 per cent. but as detailed below, canada’s growth rate is way higher than the netherlands. the dutch took 22 years to reach five per cent, compared to just seven years for canada.
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so, given that the 2023 figures are now almost a year old, canada is likely already in a situation in which a higher proportion of canadians are dying by assisted suicide than in any other country.
and that’s definitely true at the regional level, with some provinces already posting maid deaths well in excess of any comparable world jurisdiction.
quebec accounted for a remarkable 36.5 per cent of all canadian maid deaths in 2023, despite representing less than a quarter of the national population. this easily makes it the world’s most euthanasia-heavy jurisdiction. quebec’s 5,601 maid deaths in 2023 represented 7.2 per cent of the province’s total deaths — about one in every 14.
b.c. is not far behind; maid now represents 6.1 per cent of all deaths in that province.
the total number of maid provisions in 2023. note that “track one” refers to those with a terminal illness, while “track two” refers to those without.
health canada
the growth rate remains higher than anywhere else
for the first six years of legalized maid in canada, the rate of deaths grew by at least 30 per cent per year. this was the fastest and most sustained growth rate of any assisted suicide regime in the world, and it utterly blew past official expectations.
as recently as 2018, health canada is on record as estimating that maid provisions wouldn’t exceed 2.05 per cent of total deaths — a ratio that has now more than doubled.
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the new report shows that 2023 was the first year in which maid deaths didn’t soar by the usual 30 per cent — but they still grew by 15.8 per cent.
these remain wild numbers by international standards. in the likes of switzerland or belgium, for instance, euthanasia percentages have plateaued at around two per cent of total deaths — and there are some years in which the number of euthanasia deaths actually goes down. even at 15.8 per cent growth, canada is still well within a streak of soaring euthanasia cases unlike anything ever seen before.
half of non-terminally ill people applying for maid report being lonely
when applying for maid, patients are asked to detail all the types of suffering they’re experiencing in order to determine if their condition qualifies as something “grievous and irremediable” — and thus eligible for death.
health canada’s report reveals that 47.1 per cent of non-terminally ill canadians who applied for maid reported “isolation or loneliness” as one of the causes of their suffering.
this was significantly higher than the number of terminally ill applicants who said the same (21.1 per cent).
if that 47.1 per cent figure is roughly applied to the 622 canadians who were approved for maid despite not having a terminal illness (health canada calls them “track two applicants”) — that’s roughly 300 canadians who cited “isolation or loneliness” as to why they should be allowed a premature death.
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nearly half of all maid applicants expressed fears they were becoming a “burden”
the “reported nature of suffering” figures also reveal that about just under half of all canadian maid cases (terminal and non-terminal) indicate that they want an early death in part lest they become a “perceived burden on family, friends or caregivers.”
virtually every maid applicant says they want to die because they fear “loss of ability to engage in meaningful activities” and “loss of ability to perform activities of daily living” — and it’s those two reasons that have been most often cited in legal or legislative discussions about assisted suicide.
but the 2023 report reveals that 45.1 per cent of terminally ill applicants also cited “perceived burden” in their request to die, and 49.2 per cent of non-terminally ill people said the same.
just 89 people are responsible for carrying out a third of all maid deaths
canada’s most famous maid practitioner is probably ellen wiebe. she’s administered life-ending drugs to more than 400 patients — as per a 2024 national post profile — and her conspicuously cheery demeanour made her one of the more memorable interviews in better off dead?, a recent bbc documentary about assisted suicide.
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according to health canada, more than a third of maid cases are administered by practitioners like wiebe; physicians and nurse practitioners who effectively perform maid as their primary job. in 2023, just 89 practitioners were responsible for roughly 5,344 total deaths — an average of 60 each.
very few maid requests are denied
this report is the first to count “non-verbal” requests for maid as an official request. in prior years, you actually had to fill out a form before health canada would record that you’d officially made a request for a premature death. but now, any “intentional and deliberate request” is counted, presumably even if it’s just a “can i have maid?” query lobbed at the nearest hospital worker. “this approach is expected to better capture more subtle demonstrations of interest in maid,” it reads.
the report notes that this change may result in the number of “rejected” maid applications seeming inflated. but even then, in 2023 there were 15,343 maid provisions against 915 requests deemed ineligible.
so for every 17 maid requests, there’s one rejected application. and even a rejected application is not necessarily a barrier to obtaining maid anyway; the canadian system allows a patient to simply travel to a new jurisdiction and try again.
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the rejection rate is much steeper for “track 2” requests, however. against 622 canadians given maid despite not being terminally ill, 246 requests were rejected.
in other news
the national post’s adrian humphreys bothered some actual legal scholars about what the paperwork might look like if u.s. president elect donald trump were to follow through on his troll to make canada the 51st state. the short answer is that it basically couldn’t happen without some kind of formal conquest of canada or internal revolution that tears up its existing constitution and starts fresh. joining the u.s. would require abolishing what the constitution acts describe as the “office of the queen,” and you can’t do that without the unanimous consent of all 10 provinces – which is essentially impossible (it was hard enough in 1867).
there was an opening ceremony thursday for ottawa’s new memorial to the victims of communism. canada’s various refugee streams over the years have given it a rather diverse population of people who have fled communism. it was supposed to be unveiled a year ago, but the department of canadian heritage put the whole process on hold after that unfortunate incident in 2023 where parliament gave a standing ovation to ss veteran yaroslav hunka. the feds reportedly used the interim 12 months to make sure that the memorial didn’t include the names of any other nazi collaborators.
tony caldwell, postmedia
polls about canadian feelings on immigration typically stick to a polite suite of “goldilocks” questions: is immigration too high, too low, or just right? but a new leger poll by the association for canadian studies just directly asked people if we should start mass deportations. and 48 per cent said “yes” – roughly the same proportion as americans favouring promised mass deportations under the presidency of donald trump.
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