Delta Hospice Society – Every life a gift

Angela Ireland (President of DHS) and Dr. Will Johnson teamed up together to reaffirm the life of the Delta Hospice Society in a Youtube video titled The Story of Euthanasia. Johnson has been fighting the onslaught of euthanasia now for 30 years and Ireland led a two-year battle to save the organization from a hostile takeover by activists. During that struggle the society grew from 200 members to over 12,000.

“Every life is a precious gift, and every life is always of equal value,” is the first core value of the society. This is paired with a second value that “No person has the right to shorten or end another life.”

Ireland initially engaged with the society out of gratitude through her own journey as a cancer survivor. She became president in 2019. 

Following the model of hospice set up by Dame Cicily Saunders in 1967 in London, modern hospices focus on excellent clinical care, education, and research. The first Canadian palliative care units opened in 1974 in Winnipeg’s St. Boniface General Hospital and in Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital by Dr. Balfour Mount. In 1981, the Palliative Care Foundation in Toronto proposed a definition of palliative care. They state that “palliative care is active compassionate care of the terminally ill at a time when they’re no longer responsive to traditional treatment aimed at cure and prolongation of life and when the control of symptoms, physical and emotional, is paramount. It is multidisciplinary in its approach and encompasses the patient, the family, and the community in its scope.”

The rulings

The society rose to life as a non-profit and charity in 1991 during the turmoil of the Sue Rodriguez case. While Rodriguez (suffering with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – ALS) lost her case 5-4 at the Supreme Court, it opened the door to a public discussion which saw the revised Supreme Court rule 9-0 (in February 2015 during the Carter case) that doctors could now kill patients under strict guidelines. That ruling had serious implications and impact for the society which had “developed out of a need to support families living with the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness as well as those who are bereaved.” 

The safeguards put in place by Justices Beverley McLachlin, Louis LeBel, Rosalie Silberman Abella, Marshall Rothstein, Thomas Albert Cromwell, Michael J. Moldaver, Andromache Karakatsanis, Richard Wagner, and Clement Gascon, were soon circumvented and patients could shop around for a willing physician to end their pain.

Johnson points out that an anesthesiologist named Peter Admiraal had started circumventing the law in Holland during the 1980’s through ‘mercy killing’ and the police empathized with his efforts and refused to prosecute.  This doctor told Johnson in the 1990’s of his concern over euthanasia if it ever became legal because there was no way to control it. Johnson notes “there is no way to put the genie back in the bottle.” He says “the autonomy of the individual has been made into a religion – the only religion of those pushing for euthanasia.”

On September 29, 1994, during the Canadian Senate Special Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide (17), Dr. Karl Gunning testified the following:

“The lesson we can pass on to the world is that when you admit that killing is a solution to one problem, you will have many more problems tomorrow for which killing may also be a solution. Once you take away the dike that protects us, and if you only have one hole in the dike – and we have some experience with dikes in Holland – there will be a big flood, the dike will break, and the land will be flooded. That is exactly what is happening now in Holland… We talk about the slippery slope. Holland is no longer on the slippery slope; it has turned into Niagara Falls, which we will go down quickly.

The Canadian government has not walked into this path blindly.

Mind virus

The first purpose of DHS is “to provide compassionate care and support, consistent with the principles of Palliative Care, for persons in the last stages of living, so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible, until their natural death.” This fits perfectly with the third value of the society that “end of life care is the enrichment of life to its natural end. The social, legal, cultural, political, and health care changes in Canada since 2016 have spun a web of lies to undermine this purpose and value.

Johnson says that “we’ve been given a mind virus that stops people from thinking clearly about the problem that is being managed.” This is seen even in the name Medical Assistance in Dying which makes euthanasia “palatable and acceptable.” The implication is that patients can’t be helped to die in any other way. He thinks parents need to wake up because even kids are at risk in a ‘real and present danger.’

“The drugs administered in MAiD are the same as used in death row executions.” It appears peaceful because it’s a paralytic. The first freezes your ability to respond then the rest of the drugs work to stop your heart and to allow your lungs to fill up so that you drown.

Euthanasia deaths have risen from 1,018 in 2016 to over 13,241 in 2022, with around 50,000 lost to MAiD throughout Canada. 63 percent had cancer and 19 percent had heart conditions. 91 percent of MAiD deaths were performed by doctors. There were 1,837 licensed practitioners as of 2022. A rise of more than 30 percent happened in 2022 as the practice became more accepted in the health care system. DHS has now implemented an Advance Directive for their palliative care which instructs medical personnel “Do Not Euthanize.”

Rebecca Vachon, health program director at the public-policy group CARDUS said “It’s alarming that four percent of all deaths in Canada last year involved euthanasia, ‘especially when we’re looking at continuing to expand eligibility.’”

DHS has a fourth value that “Palliative care is the medical, social, psychological and spiritual care of a dying person” and affirms in a fifth value that “Palliative care never involves euthanasia, assisted suicide or any other intervention intended to hasten death.” 20 percent of MAiD recipients did not receive palliative care even though 88 percent had access to it.

The loss

The first ‘Celebrate a Life Campaign’ happened during the Christmas season of 1991 and the Delta Community Hospice Foundation arose to manage funds in 1995. $8.5 million was raised by DHS to set up two buildings at 4635 Clarence Taylor Cresent in Delta (completed in 2009). The first was a ten-bed hospice and care facility named the Irene Thomas Hospice. The second was a 7,500-foot supportive care centre named The Harold and Veronica Savage Centre for Supportive Care. An initial service agreement with Fraser Health Authority in 2010, including $1.5 million funding, turned into a nightmare for the society after Bill C-14 brought in MAiD and Bill C-7 expanded application. 

When DHS refused to compromise on its commitment to Palliative Care the government cancelled their service agreement. They persevered. There was 25 years left on their 35-year lease agreement and this now came into question. The society was evicted from the property and since the buildings were fixtures on the land, these were expropriated. They have had to reduce their current services from 7,500 square feet to 200 square feet.

Creative fundraising events such as Celebration of Trees, Garden Tour, and Cottage Thrift Store had been used to supplement donor income. Back in 2005, Delta Hospice was chosen as one of eleven sites in Canada piloting the Hospice Palliative Care Standards for the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation (CCHSA). It received full accreditation in 2006. 

2021 saw the loss of the property and buildings set up by DHS.  Despite Bill C-277 (Framework on Palliative Care in Canada Act) passed in 2017, and Health Canada’s endorsement MAiD has overrun the purposes and dreams of DHS for now. A historic vote of its members on April 4, 2022, stated that the “Delta Hospice Society is pleased to announce that an overwhelming majority of members – 76 percent – endorsed the new constitution and bylaws while returning all 10 life-affirming directors to the Board, protecting Delta Hospice Society’s right to reject Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) advice and activities within its private national organization.”

Current practice

DHS continues in its purposes “to utilize and coordinate community services, professionals, volunteers and family to care for the needs of the patient, consistent with the principles of Palliative Care.”

https://deltahospicesociety.org