Disabled Canadian Man Shares What it’s Like to be Pressured into Euthanasia
(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of The Van Maren Show, Jonathon sits down with Roger Foley, a disabled Canadian man who has been offered Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) on multiple occasions and continues to speak out against the injustice of Canada’s euthanasia regime.
Foley explains that when he was young, there were no tests for his illness, spinocerebellar ataxia type 14, a disease affecting the brain. While a sickly, clumsy, and fatigued child, he always pushed himself, wondering if he was not eating properly or if he was lazy. However, Foley’s symptoms got “bad” in his late teens and early twenties, causing him to see specialists. Foley received his diagnosis in 2005.
While working for the Royal Bank in Toronto, he had to use a cane and then a walker to move. Eventually, his health became such that he could no longer work, having to rely on long-term disability. Foley also had to begin “home care,” which he says from the beginning was “very inappropriate, very fractured, [and] inconsistent,” and he suffered abuse. “It got to the point where I became very suicidal and it was a nightmare and there was no way out.”
Foley eventually found himself in a mental hospital because he became suicidal. While the hospital attempted to arrange home care for him, Foley says he would have been discharged only for the same thing or worse to befall him. Foley found out about individualized funding for home care or self-directive funding while in hospital. However, because of the province he lives in, it was not available. He has been in hospital for over eight years, entering in February 2016.
Foley says he has been pressured multiple times to use MAiD. “It’s very traumatizing when that’s offered, especially so bluntly and also in combination with being blocked with the supports that you need to live as well,” he tells Jonathon. “I just decided that I’m gonna continue fighting for my life and that my life still has value, even though I’ve been told to my face it doesn’t.”
READ: Disabled Canadian man says he has been offered euthanasia ‘multiple times’ while in the hospital
Foley was first offered MAiD in November 2016, and it became a “recurring pattern” until January 2018. He tells Jonathon it would be mentioned for the most part after he would tell hospital staff he was suicidal. He also recounts one instance in which a nurse did a safety check on him and asked him if he had any thoughts of self-harm or suicide.
“There’s a constant reminder of it, I would say it’s a harassment, and they don’t see it as coercion, they see it as informing, but it’s a real blurry area right now in Canada,” says Foley. “Words can’t describe how pillaged I feel and how scared I feel. The suicide prevention in this country for disabled and vulnerable people has been completely obliterated due to the assisted dying regime.”
“When persons with disabilities come out with their experiences of what they’re going through with this regime, in combination with the lack of rights and the lack of services and support to live, and when families also come out about their loved ones who have been wrongly assisted to die because of this regime, it’s a brush job at all levels.”
Meanwhile, Foley notes, the availability of MAiD seems to be increasingly expanding. He notes the suggestion by euthanasia advocates that mature minors and those with mental health issues be given access to MAiD.
While he is unsure of how much “awareness was raised” when his story first broke in 2018, Foley says that what he saw is that it showed that a good deal of people were paying attention. However, he adds that it did not “raise any eyebrows in the top levels to put more protections in place or even evaluate what’s going on.” He also notes that he was not the first person to go public with a story like his own.
When Jonathon asks Foley about his continued fight against MAiD, Foley says he was always a “positive person” who would always try to be as good at something as he could be and never give up. He also says he worries for other disabled people across Canada and the lack of services and recognized rights for the disabled.
“I’m only human so, eventually, if they keep doing what they’re doing, I’ll end up a casualty as well,” he says. “It’s so difficult to be blocked from what you need to live, to be blocked from reaching your full potential, or to be blocked from even freedom of association… to surround yourself with people who will work with you and not work at you, for people who will treat you as a human being and not an object.”
READ: Catholic hospital facing lawsuit for refusing to euthanize 34-year-old Canadian woman
Foley retains the hope that one day he can return home and have the care he needs to be able to live his life with others and contribute to the country.
Towards the end of the episode, Foley discusses the lawsuit he filed over his treatment. He explains the lawsuit is not only because of the damages he has undergone in the hospital, but also because of what goes on in the hospital system to other disabled people who cannot access the support they need, or do not have full citizenship or recognition of rights. It will also, he says, give treatment of disabled people a fair hearing in the courts.
Up to this point, Foley contends, the disabled have only had access to “a fast-food style of court that rolls out the red carpet for euthanasia and assisted suicide, but continues to close the doors on any cases for disability rights or damages done to the disabled because of our dysfunctional system.” He says his case needs to be heard, not only for himself, but also for others.
High School Fires Track Coach for Proposing Alternative to ‘Trans’ Males Competing Against Females
(LifeSiteNews) — An Oregon high school track coach was fired after he wrote to state officials requesting that they consider an “open division” for transgender athletes while preventing biological males from competing against females.
“I’m gonna fight now because I got wronged … I’m fighting for girls. I’m fighting for female sports. And I’m fighting that it be fair for everybody,” John Parks, the former track coach for Lake Oswego High School, told KATU on Tuesday.
Parks said he wrote two letters to Peter Weber, executive director of the Oregon Student Activities Association (OSAA), and to state Sen. Rob Wagner before and after the state championships.
“The damage to all the natural-born female competitors is real and devastating,” he wrote in a letter to the OSAA, according to The Oregonian. Referring to the fact that a biological male was unfairly being permitted to compete against females, he went on to complain, “Allowing this travesty to be carried out is making a complete mockery of the meet this weekend and in the future until the rules are altered to protect natural-born females.”
In a letter to Wagner, he proposed that the state alter its policies in order to prevent unfair competition while allowing trans athletes to participate in some way.
“My proposal to encourage transgender participation is to offer an open division that is so named so it doesn’t identify or discriminate but offers an opportunity to participate,” wrote Parks, according to KATU.
“But when it comes to championship events, these things involve scholarships, they involve things that they have an unfair advantage at,” Parks told KATU, alluding to the fact that a biological male could potentially be unfairly awarded a scholarship in favor of a female because he won an athletic competition.
He shared with KATU that the transgender male on his high school track team was booed after winning a state championship event against girls and views an open division also as a way to prevent backlash against transgender athletes.
“I support them like all other athletes and only seek a solution that is a win for all as we don’t need any athletes subjected to what happened last month,” he said in an email to The Oregonian.
Mary Kay Larson, director of communications for the Lake Oswego School District, confirmed that Parks was no longer working for the district, but she would not share why he was fired.
The 2016 policy of the Oregon Student Activities Association allows students to participate in the activity category corresponding with their “consistently asserted gender identity,” according to the association’s handbook.
Mandatory inclusion of gender-confused individuals in opposite-sex sports is promoted as a matter of “inclusivity,” but critics note that indulging “transgender” athletes undermines the original rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place, thereby depriving female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities.
There have been numerous high-profile examples in recent years of men winningwomen’s competitions, and research affirms that physiology gives males distinct athletic advantages that cannot be fully negated by hormone suppression.
In a 2019 paper published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, New Zealand researchers found that “healthy young men (do) not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks,” and “indirect effects of testosterone” on factors such as bone structure, lung volume, and heart size “will not be altered by hormone therapy;” therefore, “the advantage to transwomen (biological men) afforded by the (International Olympic Committee) guidelines is an intolerable unfairness.”
New Jersey Doubles Down on Unconstitutional Newborn Screening Policy Despite Lawsuit Over Privacy Violations
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) have reaffirmed their stance on the state’s controversial newborn screening policy following unsuccessful settlement negotiations.
The newborn screening policy, which requires every baby to be tested for 61 disorders within 48 hours of birth, intends to detect numerous rare and potentially deadly conditions in newborns.
However, the program sparked controversy when the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender revealed in 2022 that the New Jersey State Police had utilized years-old blood samples from the newborn screening program to aid in a criminal investigation. The State Police had subpoenaed the testing program to obtain a blood sample from a child whose father was a suspect in an assault case without probable cause for a warrant. The DNA analysis of the child’s blood was then used to secure a warrant for the father’s DNA, leading to his indictment for a 1996 sexual assault.
Moreover, a subsequent public records lawsuit filed by the Office of the Public Defender and news outlet New Jersey Monitor revealed that the newborn screening laboratory had received five subpoenas from four different law enforcement agencies over approximately five years. (Related: Mass genetic surveillance: Police now seeking access to newborn blood samples to build DNA database for future criminal investigations.)
In line with this, a group of parents represented by the public interest law firm the Institute for Justice (IJ) has filed a class action lawsuit demanding a change to this practice. The class-action lawsuit contends that the state’s retention of dried blood samples used in screenings and their repurposing violate privacy protections under the Fourth Amendment. The plaintiffs demand that the courts prohibit the state from retaining newborn blood samples post-screening unless parents are informed about the potential uses and give explicit consent.
The parents have engaged in repeated discussions with state officials, but these efforts have met staunch resistance from the state.
“I was hopeful that we could reach an agreement that would respect the rights of babies born in this state, but New Jersey still refuses to ask parents for consent to keep baby blood after the initial screening is done. New Jersey also refuses to recognize any wrongdoing in keeping baby blood and continues to deny parents the right to decide what’s in the best interest of their own children. I’m committed to continuing this lawsuit, so all babies born in this state can be safe from this government overreach,” said Hannah Lovaglio, one of the parents involved in the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs have requested the court set a deadline of June 25 for the state to respond to their complaint, a timeline to which state attorneys reportedly did not object.
“New Jersey had the opportunity to fix this problem without litigation. Instead, they’ve continued to operate under the flawed belief that these baby blood samples belong to the state, not the children from whom they’re taken,” stated IJ Attorney Christie Hebert.
Other states have faced similar legal challenges over retention of baby blood samples
New Jersey is not the only state grappling with legal challenges over the retention of baby blood samples. But unlike New Jersey, other states have agreed to destroy millions of retained blood samples from newborn screening.
For instance, in 2009, the Texas Department of State Health Services (Texas DSHS) announced the destruction of more than 5.3 million blood samples taken without parental consent from babies and stored indefinitely for scientific research after settling a federal lawsuit filed by the Texas Civil Rights Project.
In Minnesota, the state’s Department of Health had done the same in 2014 following a settlement with 21 families that resulted in about 1.1 million archived dried blood spot cards and newborn screening test results from its archives being disposed of.
Similarly, the state of Michigan agreed to destroy more than three million dried blood spots taken from babies and kept in storage after a partial settlement in the then-ongoing lawsuit over consent and privacy in the digital age.
Visit PoliceState.news for more stories about questionable methods used in police investigations.
Watch this video about police grabbing people’s DNA at checkpoints.
THE GOVERNMENT HAS YOUR DNA! – Truth About Infant DNA Data-Banking
Wall Street to List America’s Protected Public Lands, Including National Parks & Wildlife Refuges on NYSE Starting November 17
Unless it is stopped – and let’s face it: what are the odds of that happening? – the United States government is planning to pass a rule on Nov. 17, 2024, to allow Wall Street to assume total control over America’s public lands, waters and other natural resources.
Before the end of the year, the plan is to list all of America’s protected lands, including parks and wildlife refuges, on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under a new classification called Natural Asset Companies (NACs). As with everything else on Wall Street, NACs will be owned, managed, traded and ultimately controlled by money changer entities like BlackRock and Vanguard – and even communist China.
Wall Street is already trying to control the air through so-called “carbon credits” and other associated financial instruments, with little success. There was an entire carbon exchange that was created in the early 2000s that ultimately failed in 2005. There is still an ETF called the Climate Exchange-Traded Fund, but that, too, faces delisting.
Then came ESG and the attempted further monetization of the environment, a scam that is also failing as it faces “a perfect storm of negative sentiment.” Investments in ESG fell by $163 billion just in the first quarter of 2023. Net-Zero is also in the mix, and also threatens to blow up the carbon scam.
With all these “green” scams falling apart, the next Wall Street scheme involves monetizing publicly owned natural resources, allowing corrupt entities like Bill Gates to hold the ecosystem rights to land, water, air and even natural processes.
“Each NAC will hold ‘management authority’ over the land,” writes Elizabeth Nickson for Welcome to Absurdistan. “When we are issued carbon allowances, owners of said lands will be able to claim tax deductions and will be able to sell carbon allowances to businesses, families and townships.”
“In the simplest of terms, that’s where the money will be made. WE peons will be renting air from the richest people on earth.”
(Related: Did you know that every single “new job” created last year went straight to an illegal alien?)
Soon there won’t be anything left for the public to enjoy
If the money masters get their way, the following will soon be owned and controlled by the globalists:
– National parks
– National wildlife refuges
– Wilderness areas
– Areas of critical environmental concern
– Conservation areas on private and federal lands
– Endangered species critical habitat
– Conservation reserve programs
Even The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the largest conservation organization in the United States, is up for grabs as this 501(c)3 holds $6 billion worth of land on its books – land that was taken using your money, i.e., taxpayer-funded government grants and donations, and transferred to TNC to do with as it wishes.
“If this rule passes, America’s conserved lands and parks will move onto the balance sheets of the richest people in the world,” Nickson explains. “Management of those lands will be decided by them and their operations, to say the least, will be opaque.”
There is, or rather was, a comment period allowing the public to provide input about the proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). American Stewards of Liberty, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, the Kansas Natural Resource Coalition, the Financial Fairness Alliance and the Blue Ribbon Coalition have all commented, as have Republican senators Pete Ricketts, James Risch and Mike Crapo.
“NACs are asset grabs,” Nickson explains.
“Natural Asset Companies are an attempt to grab hard assets to make up for an inevitable collapse. But taking more land out of production makes it certain that collapse moves ever closer. Land needs to be used, cared for and maintained by the people who live on and use the land. Otherwise, it runs to desert and invasive species.”
Wall Street is a corrupt casino for the rich and evil. Learn more at Evil.news.
Report: 1.1 Million Migrants Applied for EU Asylum in 2023
The European Union’s Asylum Agency’s (EUAA) annual report for 2023, published a few days ago, highlights some of the key data about the state of Europe’s asylum system, including a further increase in overall applications and a consistently low level of deportation of failed asylum seekers—as well as the failure of the so-called Dublin system.
The 321-page report, published on June 14th, concludes that the EU countries continued to host “a record number of people in need of protection” in 2023, with 1.1 million granted temporary protection during the year and an additional 1.1 million new applications registered in the same time, marking a steep 25% increase from 2022.
In contrast, deportation rates of failed asylum seekers continued to remain low. According to the EU’s border control agency Frontex, over 420,000 deportation orders were issued in 2023, but only 90,000 (or 21%) were actually carried out, which “indicates room for improvement,” the report politely notes.
The report also shows just how dysfunctional the Dublin system is—a system supposed to ensure that asylum seekers remain in the first country where they submitted their applications. If the migrants travel further into the EU, local authorities can request ‘Dublin transfers,’ and the initial countries are supposed to take claimants back.
According to the data, 176,000 such requests received positive decisions (a 72% acceptance rate), yet only about 15,000 or 8.5% of those transfers were actually followed through. This underlines what conservative MEPs have long been saying, that the broken Dublin system is incompatible with the free movement of the Schengen area.
Despite the record number of successful asylum applications, there were still 883,000 asylum seekers awaiting a decision in the EU at the end of the year—the highest since 2015, when leftover pending cases stood at 916,000 in December.
The overall recognition rate in 2023—the rate of successful applications compared to the total number of decisions—stood at 43%. The remainder of the applications were mostly rejected, but in a few cases, they were granted other, national forms of protection.
During the same period, Frontex registered 385,000 illegal entries, corresponding to an 18% increase from the year before.
“This combined total placed asylum and reception systems under extreme pressure,” the authors state, adding that “the number of asylum seekers was reminiscent of the 2015-2016 migration crisis.” However, they said the way Europe stopped referring to the phenomenon as a “crisis” may also indicate better preparedness and management than eight years ago.
Moreover, the report highlights that the majority (over 70%) of the total asylum applications were submitted in just four countries. Germany tops the chart with 334,000 (+45% from 2022), followed by France with 167,000 (+7%), Spain with 162,000 (+38%), and Italy with 136,000 (+63%).
.@EUAsylumAgency‘s new report: 1.1 million asylum applications submitted in 2023. That’s up 25% compared to 2022 and third-highest after 2015&2016. 70% of those in just 4 countries?Meanwhile,@Frontex
— Tamás Orbán (@TamasOrbanEC) June 19, 2024
data shows that only 21% of deportation orders were actually carried out. pic.twitter.com/hg9LSmFcy9
Relative to each country’s population, Cyprus takes the lead by far with 13,000 asylum applications per one million inhabitants. The small island nation embattled by the recent influx of Syrian refugees is followed by Austria (6,500 per million), Greece (6,200), and Germany (4,000).
Broken down by nationalities, Syria, Afghanistan, and Turkey accounted for over a third of the total applications. Turkey may not remain in third place for long, the report notes, as it registered the highest one-year increase with 82% more Turkish migrants claiming asylum in the EU than in 2022.
However, since it’s a relatively safe country, the recognition rate for Turkish migrants was only 38%, while the highest recognition rates were recorded for Syrian (94%), Ukrainian (92%), and Palestinian migrants (87%).
Despite following the same EU rules, there was also a great variation in the recognition rate of EU member states. Estonia was the only one with an average that’s above 90%, followed by Portugal and the Netherlands; while the countries where asylum seekers were the least likely to succeed were Spain, Romania, and Cyprus.
New Reports Reveal Five Eyes’ Surge in Biometric Data Collection
Big Brother might be always “watching you” – but guess what, five (pairs) of eyes sound better than one. Especially when you’re a group of countries out to do mass surveillance across different jurisdictions, and incidentally or not, name yourself by picking one from the “dystopian baby names” list.
But then again, those “eyes” might be so many and so ambitious in their surveillance bid, that they end up criss-crossed, not serving their citizens well at all.
And so, the Five Eyes, (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK) – an intelligence alliance, brought together by (former) colonial and language ties that bind – has been collecting no less than 100 times more biometric data – including demographics and other information concerning non-citizens – over the last 3 years, since about 2011.
That’s according to reports, which basically tell you – if you’re a Five Eye national or visit out of the UN’s remaining 188 member countries – expect to be under thorough, including biometric, surveillance.
The program is (perhaps misleadingly?) known as the “Migration 5,” (‘Known to One, Known to All” is reportedly the slogan. It sounds cringe, but also, given the promise of the Five Eyes – turns out, other than sounding embarrassing, it actually is.)
And at least as far as the news now surfacing about it, it was none other than “junior partner” New Zealand that gave momentum to reports about the situation. The overall idea is to keep a close, including a biometric, eye on the cross-border movement within the Five Eye member countries.
How that works for the US, with its own liberal immigration policy, is anybody’s guess at this point. But it does seem like legitimate travelers, with legitimate citizenship outside – and even inside – the “Five Eyes” might get caught up in this particular net the most.
“Day after day, people lined up at the United States Consulate, anxiously waiting, clutching the myriad documents they need to work or study in America,” a report from New Zealand said.
“They’ve sent in their applications, given up their personal details, their social media handles, their photos, and evidence of their reason for visiting. They press their fingerprints on to a machine to be digitally recorded.”
The overall “data hunger” between the 5 of these post WW2 – now “criss-crossed” – eyes has been described as rising to 8 million biometric checks over the past years.
“The UK now says it may reach the point where it checks everyone it can with its Migration 5 partners,” says one report.