Canada Halts Euthanasia For the Mentally Ill, Citing Lack of Doctors Willing to Participate
Canada has frozen a plan to expand its assisted suicide program to include people suffering from mental illnesses, Health Minister Mark Holland and Justice Minister Arif Virani has announced.
Among the reasons for the postponement, they cited a lack of medical professionals, especially psychiatrists, willing to evaluate patients before the lethal injection.
Canada legalized euthanasia after the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that requiring people to cope with intolerable suffering was tantamount to violating their basic rights. In 2021, the Superior Court of Quebec demanded that the government expand the criteria to those suffering from “grievous and irremediable” conditions, such as depression and other mental health issues.
The law’s separate provisions for people with mental illnesses were originally postponed for two years.
Speaking to reporters on Monday following a session of a special parliamentary committee looking into the issue, Holland explained: “it’s clear from the conversations we’ve had that the system is not ready, and we need more time.”
On Thursday, Canada’s Health Ministry released a statement, clarifying that the expansion originally slated for March 17 of this year had been postponed until 2027. It is hoped that by then, regional healthcare providers will be better prepared to administer euthanasia to the mentally ill, with clear guidelines developed in the meantime, the document added.
Canada is already among the countries with most liberal laws regarding euthanasia and assisted suicide, with the procedure available to terminally and chronically ill people.
However, plans to extend the practice to the mentally ill have proven controversial, with members of the opposition Conservative Party accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government of promoting a “culture of death.”
Some critics on the left have also argued that the authorities should instead focus on improving psychiatric care, which is said to be chronically underfunded.
A number of psychiatrists, for their part, have voiced concern that patients could bail out of treatment schemes that do not provide immediate relief, and opt for the easy way out instead.
According to a report released by the Canadian Health Ministry last October, there was a 31.2% increase in the number of cases involving what is termed in the country as medical assistance in dying (MAID) in 2022 compared to 2021.
In 2022, a total of 13,241 people chose to end their lives this way, with 463 of those being “individuals whose natural deaths were not reasonably foreseeable.”
Obama Adviser Axelrod: Migrant Busing ‘Very Effective’ at Getting Biden & Dems to Shift on Border Policies
Former Obama adviser David Axelrod claimed on CNN that the busing of migrants into sanctuary cities has “been very effective” at forcing Joe Biden and Democrats to shift positions on the issue of illegal immigration.
“[T]he change is that more and more Democrats are taking — voters — are taking a hard line. It looks as though the White House, the President is seeing that and kind of following their lead,” began Inside Politics host Dana Bash on Saturday.
Axelrod, now CNN Senior Political Commentator, commended Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-Texas) strategy to bus migrants into “sanctuary cities” because it forced Democrats to address the issue they would have otherwise ignored.
Axelrod responded, “Yes. Two points on this: Whatever you think about what Gov. Abbott (R) has done, it was diabolically clever, because by shipping these migrants to cities that call themselves…sanctuary cities, he has created issue[s].”
“I come from Chicago,” he continued. “Chicago has been torn apart by this issue. New York has been torn apart by this issue. And suddenly, Democrats are engaged in this issue in a different way than they had been. So, that has been very effective.”
Axelrod went on with the talking point that it’s former President Donald Trump and Republicans who are holding up meaningful negotiations on border security.
“I think that the President has responded by engaging in these very difficult negotiations, agreeing to some of the most dramatic measures to deal with the border that we’ve seen in a very long time,” he said. “And now, what we see is Donald Trump telling his people, don’t agree to that. I don’t want Biden’s name on the bottom of that bill. That will help him.”
“And so, that gives the White House an offensive position, which is, we’re here to try and solve a problem. He wants to exploit it. He wants to weaponize the problem. We don’t have ten months to wait to deal with this problem. I think it’s an effective counterpoint,” he added.
What Axelrod failed to mention is that the Biden administration’s policy over the last three years has been to systematically open the border which allowed 10 million illegal migrants into the U.S.
Washington State Diverted $340M in Federal COVID Funds to Migrants via $1,000 Checks
The state of Washington doled out $1,000 checks to illegal migrants using funds earmarked for COVID response that totaled $340 million.
A report by the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) found that part of the $4.4 billion Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF), which was created by the American Rescue Plan Act and intended to help state and local governments with their COVID response and recovery, was sent to illegal immigrants instead.
“The $340 million project is categorized as a ‘cash transfer’ expenditure under the SLFRF, approved for the State of Washington. This means the Biden Administration directly subsidized ‘undocumented’ immigration under the guise of COVID-19 pandemic relief,” the EPIC report said.
From Fox News:
The report from the group, which calls for a smaller federal government, highlighted how $340 million in funding went to a program that sent $1,000 checks to illegal immigrants in the state. The funds, approved by the Washington state legislature in April 2021, provided “another round of funding for undocumented Washingtonians,” according to an impact report on the program said.
The Washington COVID-19 Immigrant Relief Fund was first set up in 2020 to grant checks to those ineligible for government assistance programs due to their immigration status. Treasury documents confirm that the state has since provided an extra $340 million in federal relief funds for the one-time cash grants, with 10% of the funding went to community-based organizations to administer the program.
The last of the fund’s payments went out in 2023.
State official defended the move, claiming the fund was an opportunity “to help people who may have been left out of other federal and state resources to address the economic impact of the pandemic.”
The report also highlighted several other projects where federal funds were used to support illegal aliens, including programs in Arizona for art, music and dance classes for migrants and expansion of shelters in Massachusetts.
Read the impact report:
Possible NATO Corps Deployment to Ukraine May Become ‘Suicide Mission for Those Troops’
No 10’s ostensible idea of sending NATO troops to Ukraine has nothing to do with reality, experts told Sputnik.
The UK has urged its NATO allies to consider sending the alliance’s expeditionary force to Ukraine, an informed source told Sputnik. According to the source, the alleged move came “in connection with the unfavorable developments in the Ukrainian theater of military operations for Kiev”.
The insider added that Britain also called on NATO to consider imposing a no-fly zone over the territory controlled by the Zelensky regime and to increase military aid to Ukraine.
”The UK’s reported plans about deploying NATO’s expeditionary corps to Ukraine is “a fantastical delusion on the part of the Brits and has no foundation in reality,” retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official Larry Johnson told Sputnik.
“But just because the Brits are insane does not mean Russia can ignore them. It is a serious proposal,” he added.
Johnson was partly echoed by Matthew Gordon-Banks, an international relations consultant, former member of Parliament and retired senior research fellow at the UK Defence Academy, who said he didn’t think the rumors of a NATO force in Ukraine should be taken seriously.
“The suggestions I have heard are quite unrealistic at present,” Gordon-Banks stated.
Asked to comment on the “unfavorable development of events” for Kiev on the battlefield, he emphasized that “things are collapsing in Kiev quite quickly”.
“[Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky has not been able to fire his top general, and I think he is now very much a ‘lame duck’ president,” Gordon-Banks argued, referring to the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny.
The same tone was struck by Earl Rasmussen, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel turned geopolitical and military affairs consultant, who warned that if the information about London’s plans is true, and “if this is somebody’s dream, it could quickly become a nightmare for British and NATO forces.
“But it is not a realistic solution or proposal. Russia has complete air dominance, escalatory dominance, logistical dominance, ammunition dominance. This would be catastrophic for any UK forces and definitely would show a symbol of direct NATO involvement, which could really be dangerous, as far as escalation goes,” Rasmussen emphasized, noting that “the British forces would probably be wiped out, fairly rapidly.”
The US Army veteran suggested that someone in the UK military might be having “some type of delusional experience” for even suggesting such a scenario. “It’s a suicide mission for those troops. And it definitely would pull NATO into a much more dangerous situation and direct confrontation [with Russia],” Rasmussen concluded.
American Leaders Sign WEF Treaty To Ration Meat, Electricity and Gas
Want to hear a Communist era joke from the Soviet Union? “Do you know what a Polish sandwich looks like?” the joke went. “Two slices of bread and a ration card for the meat in […]
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Tucker Carlson Spotted in Moscow
American journalist Tucker Carlson has spent several days in Russia, where he attended a ballet performance at the Bolshoi Theatre, Telegram channel Mash reported on Saturday, sharing several photos of the conservative commentator.
Carlson allegedly touched down at Vnukovo airport on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul on Thursday after several hours’ delay, according to the channel. He was later spotted taking in the ballet Spartacus at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
The conservative commentator has yet to confirm the trip and it remains unclear what business he had in Russia. However, rumors of his intention to interview President Vladimir Putin have been circulating since last year.
BREAKING: Tucker Carlson reportedly spotted in Moscow, Russia as speculation swirls that he will be interviewing Vladimir Putin.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 3, 2024
Carlson said he previously planned on interviewing Putin until he found out the U.S. government was spying on him.
“The NSA broke into my signal… pic.twitter.com/MahlBIDEFa
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not rule out the possibility of Carlson interviewing Putin when asked about it in September, though he explained that the Russian leader would wait to sit down with any American journalist until the US population was no longer so “seriously stupefied by Russia-hating propaganda.”
Carlson himself told Swiss outlet Die Weltwoche that he had been prevented from setting up an interview with Putin by the White House. While he expressed dismay that he did not receive more support from his fellow journalists regarding his intention to sit down with the Russian president and questioned why Americans are “not allowed to hear” Putin’s voice, he declined to provide any further details regarding when the interview was supposed take place or how the presidential administration of Joe Biden intervened to stop it.
The former Fox News host claimed previous attempts to secure an interview with Putin had led to aggressive surveillance by the National Security Agency, alleging he was “unmasked” by the spooks and the contents of his emails were leaked to the media in 2021 in order to “paint [him] as a disloyal American” and force him off the cable news network. The NSA denied Carlson was an intelligence target and claimed it never sought to take him off the air.
Despite dominating prime-time ratings for years, Carlson was fired from Fox News in April for reasons that have never been made public. He subsequently launched his own talk show streaming on X (formerly Twitter).
While Carlson has been repeatedly demonized by the US media establishment as a “useful idiot” for Moscow – if not a Russian agent entirely – due to his skepticism regarding Washington’s foreign policy and particularly the conflict in Ukraine, the journalist has never previously visited Russia or worked with Russian media organizations.