If you want technology as a friend, learn its values, side effects and track record. Particularly when discussing issues like medical aid in dying
I count myself lucky to have been born when death was still pretty much a mystery, more the prerogative of poets and other artists, philosophers and religious teachers than of scientists and doctors. I grew up surrounded by death. I served as an altar boy at dozens of funerals, attended the wake of my maternal…
By choosing not to report on mental health or suicide, journalists only perpetuate the stigma for those living with a mental illness
Three years ago, comic icon Robin Williams was found dead. His death was subsequently confirmed by California police as a suicide. The coverage was overwhelming: articles, blog posts, live coverage, television segments and an outpouring of emotion over social media. There have been similar public responses more recently with the deaths of Chris Cornell, frontman…
If the NDP is going to lose the next election, the government should just fall on its sword and introduce a sales tax
As a baby boomer, I’m very concerned about my future dignity in Alberta. For the past two months, my 85-year-old mother-in-law, who suffers from dementia, has lived in Foothills Hospital because there are no long-term care facilities that can accept her. Her days (and nights) are spent locked in a chair because she wanders and…
We need to learn from the lessons of history when considering assisted dying for those with disabilities – no matter how unsettling that history may be
History has a role in the national conversation about medically-assisted death, despite protests to the contrary. A respected physician and scholar recently stepped down as chair of the expert working group appointed to study the issue of advanced directives for medically-assisted death. Named to this position only two weeks earlier by the Council of Canadian…
One year after Trudeau took power, he has failed miserably to protect Aboriginal Canadian children
A year ago today, the Liberal Party of Canada won a big election victory. One year later, what do we know? We know that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his party are still very popular. Polls say so. Against his opposition – both essentially leaderless, both seemingly directionless – he seems unbeatable. We know that, when…
Publicly-funded Catholic hospitals have no institutional claim to Freedom of Religion
Canadians are grappling with one of the most difficult legal issues we have faced in decades: our collective responsibility to facilitate medically-assisted death for those who choose it and satisfy the legal criteria. Ever since the Supreme Court decided in Carter v Canada that individuals have a Charter protected right to a dignified death of…
It's time to try again – this time without the bad luck, the divisions, the parliamentary brinkmanship and the flying elbows
Some of us aren't enthusiastic about assisted dying. Although, in the case of the Senate, we will happily make an exception and assist. The Senate – that undemocratic, unaccountable, unwanted monstrosity that has affixed itself to the side of Parliament like an ermine-garbed parasite – is in the news again. And, yet again, for all…
The dynamics of inducement are at the heart of disability rights groups’ urgent calls for a cautious approach to medically-assisted death
For some of us, the book of life will close abruptly. A sudden pop, crunch or snap, and we’ll be gone. Perhaps some body part or system will betray us, utterly and fatally, in an otherwise banal moment of the day or night. Or perhaps some force of nature or violent strike will pluck us…
The Supreme Court Carter decision normalized suicide, turned it into a medical treatment and trivialized life
The outrage came fast and furious. Within hours of the federal government releasing its draft legislation on assisted suicide, politicians and the public were clamouring for more permissive legislation. A majority of Canadians accept assisted suicide as a national value. This is evident in polls, in the language we use and in the national conversation…
We can prevent tragedies like that in Attawapiskat by focusing on culture, connectivity and commerce
The tragedies of Attawapiskat – suicides, hopelessness and poverty – have touched us all. But what can we do? Former prime minister Jean Chretien proposed shutting down that and perhaps other small, isolated settlements and shipping the residents elsewhere. But that ignores the feelings of the people who call these communities home. Instead, there are steps we can take to bring long-term viability…
I count myself lucky to have been born when death was still pretty much a mystery, more the prerogative of poets and other artists, philosophers and religious teachers than of scientists and doctors. I grew up surrounded by death. I served as an altar boy at dozens of funerals, attended the wake of my maternal…
