Whistleblowers: Canadian Doctors Pushed MAID On Unwilling Patients

Whistleblowers Heather Hancock and Roger Foley tell The Federalist that Canadian doctors pressured them to accept euthanasia amid long-term disabilities.

Canada legalized “medical assistance in dying” (MAID) in 2016, legally permitting doctors to help kill patients. Officials updated the law in 2021, enabling the medical killing of patients without a terminal diagnosis. Dying With Dignity Canada has even pushed to expand the legislation to include “mature minors.” Nazi Germany’s euthanasia program also included children.

“I’m so frightened for my people who are vulnerable,” says Angelina Ireland, executive director of the Canadian Delta Hospice Society, a patient advocacy nonprofit organization.

According to a recent report, “euthanasia regulators have tracked 428 cases of possible criminal violations” in Ontario between 2018 and 2023, and none were reported to police. One doctor in Vancouver repeatedly accused of violating MAID rules has helped kill hundreds of patients, as The Federalist reported. According to CTV News, one family recently named the doctor and her clinic in a lawsuit for alleged “unlawful administration of MAID,” claiming this resulted in a psychiatric patient’s “wrongful death.”

The MAID process may appear morbidly peaceful. In “clinician-administered” MAID, “a physician or nurse practitioner directly administers a substance that causes death.”

As laid out in the MAID protocol for the Northwestern territories, this often involves the injection of multiple chemicals, including midazolam, a sedative; propofol, which induces a coma; and rocuronium or cisatracurium, which paralyze muscles. Ireland called it the “stuff of nightmares,” noting this cocktail creates the appearance of calm while a patient experiences respiratory arrest.

The alternative method, often called “self-administered medical assistance in dying,” involves “a physician or nurse practitioner provid[ing] or prescrib[ing] a drug that the eligible person takes themselves, in order to bring about their own death.”

Ireland provided a signed affidavit to The Federalist from Pat Gray, an elderly patient Ireland said is now deceased. A doctor allegedly encouraged Gray to accept MAID, but she refused, according to the document.

“One day, she decided to offer me MAiD. I quickly said no and then showed her my bookmark that said, ‘With God all things are possible,’” the patient wrote. “[I]f God wants to use my life longer for even one more miracle, it will be worth it.”

Ireland called Canada’s euthanasia program the “Canadian cull,” and blamed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who announced his resignation Monday — for allowing “government agents to kill citizens.” But, she went on to say, “the damage is done” in Canada.

‘Trying To Kill Me’

Hancock has had cerebral palsy her entire life. She told The Federalist she has suffered debilitating muscle contractions since 2017. She said hospital staff have pushed her to accept MAID multiple times. 

“This is eugenics,” Hancock said. “I’ve literally had to say to my friends and family, ‘If they kill me and tell you they got my permission, they’re lying.’”

She said painful muscle contractions from her back to her toes sent her to a hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia in 2018. Hancock said there was a “change” from a visit in 2017 in how hospital staff treated her. At the later visit, “some of them were very condescending,” and an inpatient doctor asked if she’d considered MAID given her level of pain.

“I said, ‘God gave me life, and he’s the only one who knows the number of my days,’” Hancock said. 

While in a “backlogged” British Columbia neurological ward in 2019, she said, a doctor offered MAID again.

“Those of us that actually needed neurological care were in the hallway, so I spent a whole week in the hallway with everybody walking by my bed,” she said. “Hospitalists and other doctors would come around doing rounds with the medical students.”

After she declined MAID again, according to Hancock, things went “downhill.” She had moved to Saskatchewan, a more rural province, when she went to a hospital in the city of Medicine Hat. She said a nurse there asked if Hancock had considered MAID, and told Hancock she was “selfish” when Hancock said, “You don’t get to make that call.”

Hancock said she was seen as “using up healthcare dollars that able-bodied people could be using instead.” 

“These are the people that are supposed to be caring for me, not trying to kill me,” she said. 

Pushing Patients To Death’s Door

Roger Foley has cerebellar ataxia, alongside other chronic maladies that make movement difficult. He told The Federalist that staff at a Canadian hospital withheld food and water from him, and pushed MAID four times. 

Foley said Canada’s government-run healthcare system only offered him one in-home care provider, Cheshire Independent Living Services. He said his caretakers constantly changed, affecting his care. While wheeling Foley down hallways, he said caretakers would “be so in a rush, they would bash me into walls.”

“It was so horrible and there was no way out of it, that I started to become very suicidal,” Foley said. “I started collecting bags and finding out how to make a suicide bag system with helium gas, and I was going to commit suicide.”

Cheshire Executive Director Angela McMillan told The Federalist in an email she could not comment “in compliance with privacy legislation under the Personal Health Information Protection Act.”

“Cheshire is unable to confirm the names of any past or current clients, nor can we comment on specific services provided by our organization,” McMillan said.

Foley said he has been at the Victoria Hospital at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) in the province of Ontario for nearly nine years. He said he would rather have an in-home care provider, but claimed government health officials denied this, saying he should return to Cheshire. He opted to remain in the hospital.

He said in November 2016 at the hospital, “the food would be very few and far between, or the trays would get mixed up.” When he told the coordinator of the mental health ward about this, he says, she suggested MAID.

“The coordinator comes in my room, she’s all mad because I’ve been advocating just for some food. I tell her, ‘When you do things like this to me — when you cut off my access to food, when you berate me and do these other things to me — it makes me really, really suicidal,’” Foley said. Foley says she responded by saying, “The hospital has a program to help you with that.”

“I looked back at her, and I asked her, ‘Do you realize what you’re suggesting to me?’” Foley said. “She just stared at me with a cold stare and a half smile, tilted her head, and said, ‘Well, you’re not getting any food right now.’ And she walked out.”

Foley sent The Federalist a copy of an LHSC staff report from the same day he said this interaction took place. In it, the staff member accused Foley of being “verbally aggressive” and “argumentative.” Although it does not mention MAID, the report claims Foley was “upset” that the staff member was “unable to provide additional food after [Foley] deemed his entreé inedible.” It also claims Foley “stated he is unable to eat at the regularly scheduled times and that [the staff member] was not assisting him as he needed.”

“Patient suggested that his care was inadequate and that he deserved to have special consideration due to his ‘disabilities,’” the report reads.

The Federalist reached out to LHSC about this interaction, as well as many of Foley’s other allegations. The LHSC media team sent a Dec. 19 email reply to The Federalist’s initial inquiry. It did not answer any specific questions even though it indicated the hospital’s “media inbox is designated for reporters and media outlets seeking information.”

Foley provided an August 2018 doctor’s opinion in which a physician, after reviewing some of Foley’s medical records from April 2018, concluded he believed that LHSC’s “care fell substantially below standard for failing to meet Foley’s nutritional and hydration needs during the period in question.”

“[T]hat he was allowed to progress to a situation where he was poorly nourished, in presumed starvation ketosis and dehydrated … put Mr. Foley into [a] potentially serious situation where he was exposed to harm or risk to his health and welfare.” 

Assisted Suicide Is Legal, But Encouraging It Is Not

In Canada, it is illegal to encourage anyone to commit suicide, although the law protects doctors who “provide a person with medical assistance in dying in accordance with” certain procedures. According to Alexander Raikin, a visiting fellow in bioethics at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, doctors could face charges if they fail to follow these processes.

Foley said the November 2016 MAID suggestion made him suicidal, so he expressed interest in learning more about MAID. Canada requires independent health “assessors” to evaluate patient “eligibility” for MAID. Foley sent The Federalist a copy of a 2017 LHSC consultation request, made on behalf of patient Roger Foley, asking a doctor to “provide your opinion if he fulfills criteria of ‘grievous and irremediable medical [conditions]’ for purposes of MAID.”

But Foley said he overcame his suicidal thoughts and requested to cancel the appointment. He said he later found the MAID assessment hadn’t been canceled, despite his request. Foley said this was one of the four times he felt pressured to accept euthanasia.

Then in September 2017, Foley said, both the hospital’s ethicist and its director of mental health came to his hospital room. They pushed euthanasia “again, with a financial threat now,” he said. Foley gave The Federalist a partial recording of the interaction.

He said he was afraid to go back to Cheshire and did not want to die, so he stayed in the hospital. Foley provided another recording to The Federalist from September 2017, in which someone he identifies as an LHSC nurse claimed “major f-ck ups… happen in this unit” and indicated management was “deleting” reports.

“Major f-ck-ups … f-ck-ups that happen in this unit — major. That is why I had to go on stress leave, because I was talking to management about it, and they were shutting me down,” says the recording. “And they were not only shutting me down, they were deleting my reports.”

London Health Sciences Centre has undergone major shakeups in recent years. Multiple executives have resigned or been fired as the institution faces investigation for financial fraud, reports say. It has faced scandals from a psychiatrist who pleaded no contest to allegations of repeated sexual contact with a patient, to the hospital admitting to accidentally leaving a dementia patient in seclusion for six days.

In January 2018, Foley says, a nurse came to his room for a safety check. Foley said the nurse asked if he had thoughts of self-harm, and he said yes — but that if he could direct funding for his own care, he would be fine. 

“Well, if you don’t get self-directed funding, you could do an assisted — you know what I mean? You can just apply for an assisted, if you wanted to end your life,” the nurse said, according to Foley.

Foley leaked a recording of the conversation as well as the first September 2017 conversation to Canadian press in 2018. “I just happened to be recording, because I was really scared,” he said. He also sent that recording to The Federalist.

The Federalist followed up with LHSC via email on Jan. 2, asking about Foley’s claim that his initial MAID appointment was not canceled, and about the alleged January 2018 safety check interaction. In a phone call Friday, the hospital communications contact said she was unable to comment but would remind the media team of The Federalist’s inquiry. Shortly after, Marek Kubow, the hospital’s manager of engagement and media relations, said in an email officials would “not be able to meet” The Federalist’s deadline.

Foley also sent The Federalist a copy of a 2019 letter to the Canadian government, in which two U.N. special rights rapporteurs expressed “serious concern” over the health system’s treatment of Foley, namely “reported threats to his right to life and denial of appropriate healthcare and support to live a dignified and independent life in the community.” Canada’s government responded in March 2020 — just before its totalitarian Covid shutdowns — that the country has a “robust human rights framework that is working effectively to address the issues raised in the Joint Urgent Appeal.”

“The allegations that are the subject of the Joint Urgent Appeal are currently before the Ontario Superior Court, which has jurisdiction to adjudicate the compliance of the law,” the response concluded, in part.

In April and May 2020, Foley says he was cut off from vital services again. He provided The Federalist with a copy of a patient ombudsman complaint from his brother from May 2020, alleging staff had moved him into a room with limited space for his medical lift.

“The hospital administration is refusing to acknowledge there is a problem in their treatment of Roger, or to work with him, his lawyer … or his Doctors to rectify the situation,” the complaint reads. “[T]hey routinely state the actions they take are to help Roger become more independent, but this flies in the face of the fact that the man has a severe neurodegenerative disease which impacts his mobility … .”

Foley sued the LHSC, along with other defendants, in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in August 2018. Foley alleged “failure to relieve the plaintiff’s intolerable suffering, and demeaning and degrading his right to life, liberty and security of the person by pushing assisted dying instead of assistance in living.”

The court dismissed this case earlier this year, after Foley failed to pay defendants more than $85,000 in court-ordered fees and settle outstanding costs from previous rulings, according to the outlet Canadian Lawyer.

Foley appealed the decision in October on “grounds addressing errors in law, miscarriages of justice, procedural irregularities, bias, and misapplication of evidence,” according to an appeal document obtained by The Federalist. He said he represented himself in the Ontario Appeals Court on Dec. 11 and was granted an extension until February to perfect his appeal.

The London Health Sciences Centre admitted it wrongfully charged “Mr. Foley” more than $1.55 million for inpatient care, which it dismissed in October 2023 — leaving him with a bill of more than $461,200, according to an invoice Foley gave to The Federalist. Canada claims to have universal healthcare, but the government does not actually cover all costs.

“They’re willing to fork out millions of dollars to crush me and to kill me off, just because they want to make a statement and protect their monopolized system,” Foley said. “It’s all about evil and power.”

Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.