Paul Tuns:
Rebel News’s Sheila Gunn Reid reported that Veterans Affairs Canada attempted to hide its paper trail relating to case workers who suggested that veterans access Medical Assistance in Dying.
Gunn Reid, who obtained the more than 1200 pages of documents by filing access to information requests, published her findings at Rebel news on August 20. She revealed that nearly a dozen veterans experiencing acute post-traumatic stress disorder or asking for assistance to live with injuries incurred while on duty were directed to euthanasia services.
Veterans Affairs Canada and Lawrence MacAulay, Minister for Veterans Affairs, initially claimed that there was only one case worker responsible for suggesting veterans seek an assisted suicide to deal with their issues, but Gunn Reid reveals that multiple individuals in several offices were involved in the scandal.
Gunn Reid said, “We can see attempts to cover up and then to backtrack. On page 21, we can see in the media lines that Veterans Affairs officials were planning to claim there were no other incidents of Veterans Affairs staff telling veterans to kill themselves. They had to remove that from their talking points because other veterans came forward.”
The access to information requests also revealed staff claimed that veterans were inquiring whether accessing euthanasia would affect their benefits since it could count as self-harm.
In June, Veterans Affairs released its report reviewing all 402,000 files of its clients going back to June 2016 when euthanasia was legalized. Veterans Affairs exonerated itself by noting that only four incidents, all reported in the media, involved MAiD being “raised inappropriately.” Veterans Affairs Canada, the report stated, “has concluded these were four incidents completely isolated to a single employee” and that “The employee no longer works for the Department.” The report stated that prodding veterans towards euthanasia “is not a widespread, systemic issue, nor is it a reflection of the work of hundreds of case managers and Veteran service agents who interact with the utmost care, compassion and respect with Veterans every single day.”
However, a review of the written files might not capture the full breadth of counseling euthanasia to veterans.
One page of documents requested by Gunn Reid reveals that Ministry officials decided to only provide verbal updates on euthanasia counseling to veterans so it would not create a paper trail. As the access to information request revealed, Veterans Affairs bureaucrats were worried about the story becoming public.
On one page, officials wrote about how they were concerned with press inquiries from Rebel Media about counseling veterans for euthanasia. There are numerous emails about how to handle media, with an official at one point stating, “Hello all, it’s interesting to follow the thrice-daily media report emails to see how far the main story is traveling. Yesterday, it was reported by a couple of US news outlets, and today, it is in the UK Daily Mail,” the documents say.” Said one bureaucrat, “It is interesting to see how much coverage it’s getting,” the bureaucrats continue. “I had wondered if there would be anyone else to come out of the woodwork to say it had happened to them too but so far nothing (thankfully).”
On page 1220 of the documents, a government official states that the Department should not provide Minister MacAulay with information about the number of veterans being advised to be killed by Medical Assistance in Dying.
Gunn Reid said, “we can see just how out of touch these Veterans Affairs communications people are with normal people living in the outside world beyond the machinery of the Liberal government, everyday people who think veterans need care and not state-sanctioned homicide.”
