Providence answers MAiD onslaught with authentic medical care

 
As I reported earlier this month, the B.C. government and its operatives at Vancouver Coastal Health have relentlessly forced euthanasia facilities into or near several Catholic spaces in the Metro Vancouver area.

 Given the Catholic facilities’ pro-life beliefs, this can only be seen as a grave incursion. It’s certainly one that has profoundly upset many of the faithful.

 But what are the consequences within those facilities? How deeply has this fatal infection reached? And how rigorously has Providence Health Care, the Catholic medical-care agency, been able to maintain its pro-life principles?

 The answers I recently received to these questions give me some hope, and I’ll will share them below. First, though, a quick review.

 My original story found that a Vancouver-Coastal-operated Medical Assistance in Dying facility on the campus of the Providence-operated St. Paul’s Hospital has been operating since January 6 of this year. It’s called the “Shoreline Space” and is attached, with no intervening corridor, to a wall of the hospital. See photo below.

 To my eyes, it’s a carbuncle—a death chamber facilitating homicide and, in doing so, performing a function that is exactly the opposite of the medical care to which St. Paul’s is dedicated.

 My story also disclosed how I had discovered, through a freedom-of-information application, that Vancouver Coastal is planning to impose a 2,800-square-foot MAiD facility on the new St. Paul’s, which is scheduled to open in 2027. No agency—not the B.C. government, Vancouver Coastal, Providence, or the Archdiocese of Vancouver (which oversees Providence)—has ever announced this.

 And finally, my story reported that Vancouver Coastal has established MAiD rooms in the same buildings as two Providence-operated hospices. Providence does not own those buildings.

 The story has now received international coverage. Alex Schadenberg, of the London, Ont.-based Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, featured it on his blog. The Canadian Catholic News website carried my story. Campaign Life Coalition carried the news on its Facebook page. Two pro-life websites, lifenews.com and liveaction.org, reported on it. And, finally, anti-MAiD firebrand Kelsi Sheren wrote about on her Substack space.

 My reporting on MAiD was sparked five years ago by acquaintances who told me that, while in hospital, they had been pestered by hospital staff about accepting MAiD, even though they weren’t dying.

 I was shocked and launched an investigation into what the MAiD-delivery policy was at one large, public health agency, Fraser Health. My freedom-of-information request found that its policy was that MAiD is supposed to be a patient-led process.

 But, clearly, if hospital staff were pestering patients about MAiD, such a policy isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

 Moreover, I discovered that at Fraser Health hospices, staff are instructed to inform every incoming patient that, among the services they were entitled to, was a cocktail of deadly drugs. The policy led to the resignation of at least one doctor.

 I also learned that at least one Australian health agency maintains a policy prohibiting staff to initiate any discussion about euthanasia. This, I believe, should be the policy everywhere.

 Hospital patients are in a vulnerable state. They’re sick, often elderly, and sometimes harbouring feelings that they are being a burden on their families.

 Suggesting MAiD to such patients can be misinterpreted as recommending it. And when the question is asked over and over again, day after day, patients will undoubtedly feel pressured.

 With all this in mind – the imposition of MAiD at Providence and the must-mention MAiD policy of Fraser Health – I asked Providence how exactly it handled requests for MAiD and whether it had a policy about initiating discussions about MAiD.

 I am happy to report now that a Providence spokesperson, Shaf Hussain, very promptly sent me a detailed policy statement on how staff should respond to a request for MAiD.

 But, I responded, does Providence allow its staff to actually initiate a discussion about MAiD?

 “To clarify, no, we don’t proactively mention MAiD as an option to consider,” Hussain wrote. “We never initiate an offer of MAiD. If a patient enquires about it, we contact the VCH MAiD team. From PHC’s perspective, we ensure the patient is provided information about all [non-MAiD] end-of-life options, so the patient can make an informed decision.”

 Hussain then quoted from a policy document that further explained the policy:

 “A person can ask a member of their care team about MAiD if it is something they want to explore.” The document states. “Assessments for MAiD eligibility will be conducted by two doctors and/or nurse practitioners. A health authority MAiD care coordination service, like the [Vancouver Coastal] Assisted Dying Program, leads arrangements for assessment.

 “To assist with making an informed decision, both the care team at PHC and the MAiD assessors will discuss the person’s medical condition with them. They will also discuss services and treatments that are available to relieve suffering.

 “Services and treatments may include adjusting a current treatment plan, engaging palliative care services, community support services or other options. A person does not have to accept any of these services, but it is legally required for a person requesting MAiD to be offered care options to address the person’s suffering.”

 All this is good to know—good that Providence is adhering to authentic, pro-life medical care in the midst of a very difficult situation.

Let's pray that Providence is able to sustain and grow its admirable pro-life policies and practices. After all, it's a life and death matter. 

MAiD unit, forced onto St. Paul’s campus, now operational.

And second is planned at new hospital

A B.C.-government-ordered euthanasia facility on the downtown Vancouver campus of the Catholic-operated St. Paul’s Hospital is now fully operational.

My half-year-long investigation into the impact of the NDP government’s MAiD-imposition edict has also uncovered the fact that planning is underway for another euthanasia facility, also to be operated by the provincial government’s Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, to be forced onto the site of the new St. Paul’s on False Creek Flats, currently being built three kilometres east of the existing hospital.

MAiD facility at St. Paul's: Operating since January 6.

As well, I have learned that Vancouver Coastal is now operating MAiD rooms in the same buildings that house two Catholic-run hospices in Vancouver, and that the hospices were powerless to block them.

All those Catholic facilities are operated by Providence Health Care, which is controlled by the Archdiocese of Vancouver. Providence has long maintained pro-life policies which prohibit abortions and euthanasia from being performed on its premises.

The imposition of MAiD units alongside pro-life Catholic facilities has left Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, with deep concerns.

“This is incredibly sad news,” Schadenberg said in an interview. “It’s sad that the unit is now operational. And I’m also incredibly saddened by the fact that the new St. Paul’s will also have a euthanasia clinic attached to it.”

The provincial government forced the euthanasia facility onto the current St. Paul’s site in November 2023 in response to relentless death-on-demand activism and mainstream media pressure.

The utilitarian-looking structure, which Vancouver Coastal built at an undisclosed cost, is sited in an interior courtyard of St. Paul’s, which was founded 131 years ago by the Sisters of Providence.

The laneway-home-sized structure opened on January 6 of this year, a Vancouver Coastal spokesperson said in an email dated April 17. “The new space provides patients with options for specialized end-of-life care in a way that supports and respects them, their loved ones, and health-care providers,” he said.

Called the “Shoreline Space,” the MAiD facility is attached directly to courtyard-facing exterior wall of the western section of the hospital’s Providence Building. Public access to the facility from the courtyard is blocked by a locked gate and a two-metre-high, black chain-link fence.

Pedestrians using the nearby Thurlow Street entrance to the hospital are given no hint of what the green-metal-clad facility is used for, although the fence, multiple security cameras, and floodlight fixtures suggest something needing high security.

Inside the hospital, patients and families walking through a ground-floor corridor would have no idea of what is behind a locked door with a sign reading: “Shoreline Space. Vancouver Coastal Health.” 

MAiD 'Space': Entrance directly from St. Paul's corridor.

The current St. Paul’s will close in a few years, but MAiD will apparently continue on the campus of the new hospital.

Vancouver Coastal emails, which I obtained through a freedom-of-information application, show that the health authority has now launched a planning process to insert a euthanasia facility at the new St. Paul’s, which is currently undergoing finishing work in advance of its planned opening in 2027.

No agency—the B.C. government, the Ministry of Health, Vancouver Coastal Health, Providence Health, or the Archdiocese of Vancouver—has announced that the new St. Paul’s is being forced to accommodate a MAiD facility.

Yet, the text of a Nov. 15, 2024, email from Laurel Plewes, operations director of Vancouver Coastal Health’s “Assisted Dying Program,” to Jennifer Chan of Providence Health Care (PHC) shows that such planning is taking place.

Under the subject heading, “Preliminary VCH requirement for MAiD space at the new SPH [St. Paul’s Hospital],” Plewes wrote: “Here is a list of preliminary requirements, subject to refinement and additions.”

That list, in bullet form, reads as follows:

• Internal 2800 sq feet

• We suspect PHC requirement will still remain, and VCH agrees, that the pathway must allow for patients to remain in their PHC bed

• 5 min or less travel time from pharmacy located in SPH

• Ramp or ground-level entry—ramp is not included in square footage above

• Require connections for sewage, water, electricity, and IT connections similar to what is listed in previous partial agreement

• At least two parking spots for staff, easy access for transfer van

• Physical address to support emergency services knowing where to go

Heavily redacted email in response to my FOI request.

Most emails I received in response to my FOI request were almost completed redacted, but one, entitled “Future Planning: MAiD spaces,” was sent by Vancouver Coastal’s Nina Dhaliwal, a “senior project manager,” to four of her colleagues on Nov. 27, 2024.

It describes the need to connect all the parties to ensure that “future planning for MAiD spaces” is being done efficiently. Dhaliwal also asks whether “the MAiD team” had an “SOA” (presumably meaning Service-Oriented Architecture) and a “Functional Program.”

Although the email does not specifically mention the new St. Paul’s, Vancouver Coastal released it to me in response to a request for the texts of communications regarding the possible construction of a MAiD unit at the new hospital.

Neither Vancouver Coastal nor Providence Health has commented in response to questions about MAiD facilities at the new and old St. Paul’s.

Providence Health’s service contract with the provincial government guarantees that it can prevent abortions and euthanasia from taking place within Providence facilities. Instead, patients seeking such procedures are discharged from Providence and transferred to a Vancouver Coastal facility.

Pro-euthanasia groups criticized the arrangement as soon as MAiD was legalized in 2016, and then ramped up pressure when, as revealed in a May 2022 B.C. Catholic story, the B.C. branch of Dying with Dignity Canada launched a multi-platform public-relations campaign aimed at forcing the B.C. government to amend the service agreement in order to compel Providence to allow MAiD.

Dying With Dignity called the “forced” transfer of patients to MAiD-allowing facilities “cruel and unusual.”

The pressure peaked the following year when news media seized on the case of a Vancouver woman, Sam O’Neill, whose family complained that she was forced to transfer from St. Paul’s to access MAiD. In response, the B.C. government announced what observers called a “workaround” or “end-run” solution in November 2023.

The arrangement called for the province to take land at the St. Paul’s campus to create a “clinical space” for MAiD to be performed. The space would be staffed by Vancouver Coastal’s health-care professionals and was to be connected by a corridor to St. Paul’s Hospital.

“Patients from St. Paul’s Hospital accessing MAiD will be discharged by Providence Health and transferred to the care of Vancouver Coastal Health in this new clinical space,” the release said. The MAiD chamber was originally scheduled to open in August 2024.

Archbishop J. Michael Miller was quoted at the time as saying the directive “respects and preserves Providence’s policy of not allowing MAiD inside a Catholic health-care facility,” and the new patient-discharge and -transfer protocols would be consistent with existing arrangements for transferring patients at other Providence facilities.

But that did not end the matter. In June 2024, Ms. O’Neill’s mother, Dying with Dignity Canada, and a doctor launched a lawsuit against Providence, Vancouver Coastal, and the provincial government, alleging that they had denied Ms. O’Neill her a constitutional right to access MAiD. 

They seek to have MAiD conducted within all provincially funded facilities, such as those of Providence Health Care, which relies on provincial funding for its operating costs. Providence owns the hospitals.

 In its formal response to the claim, Providence not only described the St. Paul’s arrangement, but also disclosed that, at the May’s Place and St. John hospices that it operates, “patients who choose to receive MAiD are provided with MAiD by a VCH healthcare provider in a space operated by VCH which is located down the hall from the Providence operated hospice rooms in the same building that houses the hospice.”

But that does not mean MAiD is actually being performed within a Catholic facility, said Shaf Hussain, a communications officer with Providence.

Hussain said in a May 30 email to me that both St. John Hospice and May's Place Hospice are in buildings and on lands that are not owned by Providence.

“Regarding St. John Hospice: I believe the building is owned by the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller, the land is owned by [the University of B.C], and the whole building is leased by VCH,” Hussain said.

“Since September 2013, Providence has been operating a 14-bed hospice in the building and continues to do so. In 2021, VCH took some space in the building for its Vancouver Community palliative programming. A room in that space is used for MAiD.”

As for May's Place, “Providence doesn't own the building; we lease the space on one of the floors from its owner and operate a six-bed hospice in that space,” he said. “VCH also leases space in that building from the owner; this space, which they use for MAiD, is separate and away from our hospice operations.”

On the issue of MAiD being performed adjacent to Catholic facilities, Schadenberg said the situation

Schadenberg at Grafenick: 'Very upsetting.'

reminds him of the Nazis’ conversion of a Lutheran-run care home at Grafenick, Germany, into a euthanasia facility for physically and mentally disabled Germans.

“Sadly, it appears history is repeating itself,” Schadenberg said. “I know it’s not an exact parallel, but I find it very upsetting.”

Vancouver’s Dr. Will Johnston, who heads the Euthanasia Resistance Coalition of B.C., said he believes that the B.C. government’s decision to force MAiD into previously life-affirming, medically positive spaces is a form of totalitarianism.

“This is another example of zealots who won’t allow the population any freedom from euthanasia,” Johnston said. “They obviously control the provincial government ... I think it’s totalitarianism, and it shows none of their claimed virtues of inclusion and diversity.”

My journey with Jimmy

Originally published in the BC Catholic 

 With his eyes closed and head slumped forward, Jimmy seemed to be asleep as he sat in his wheelchair in the common room of his New Westminster long-term care home.

 The three dozen or so other seniors in the room appeared to be in exactly the same state—a melancholy tableau amid the Christmas decorations and the bustling, cheery staff. 

As I bent down and greeted my old friend, he immediately perked up and, his eyes remaining closed, smiled and whispered hello. I noticed that a part of his breakfast remained on his face—porridge, I thought. 

I found a tissue and wiped his face, recalling that I had done much the same for my children and grandchildren when they were infants.

 I had started visiting Jimmy about six months earlier while he was in hospital being treated for a chronic heart condition. His prospects for recovery didn’t look good.

 At age 87, Jimmy was fading fast, and the once-star soccer player, globe-trotting coach, dynamic salesman, and founding member of our parish’s Knights of Columbus chapter was now but a shadow of his former robust self.

 His mind had started fading as well, and with that decline he experienced sadness and troubling thoughts about his limited future. In response to a request from his wife (who, herself, was in and out of hospital at the time), I had made it my mission to help dispel his growing gloom by visiting him. 

And so, on this December morning, I leaned in and started singing one of his favourite songs for him. His smile broadened and he moved his lips in an attempt to sing along. 

Today, increasing numbers of seniors find themselves in situations like Jimmy’s, but without family or friends to accompany them through their final days.

 A report by Canada’s National Institute of Ageing, released in December 2023, found that 41 per cent of Canadians aged 50 years and older are at risk of social isolation and up to 58 per cent have experienced loneliness. 

News coverage of the report focused on how loneliness can adversely affect both mental and physical health. But there’s an even graver, deadlier impact: increased likelihood of desiring to access Canada’s permissive euthanasia regime. 

Indeed, Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, says most people who request Medical Assistance in Dying do so not because they are in excruciating pain but for emotional and psychological reasons that are being fuelled by a “culture of loneliness.”

This is why he believes that, after having lost the legal and political battles to prevent the legalization of MAiD, Catholics and other anti-euthanasia advocates should turn to “caring and compassion” to prevent the growing tide of requests for MAiD. 

“We need to focus on visiting and being with others and being a caring part of this culture,” Schadenberg said in a presentation to Catholics in Langley two years ago. “There is nothing easy about this situation, but the answer to this evil of killing is to love each other.” 

That’s certainly what our parish’s Blooms into Rooms initiative has been attempting to do for 30 years. Now part of Life Compass’s ministry, Blooms into Rooms sees dozens of volunteers from 10 parishes and schools visiting hundreds of seniors on Holy Saturday, giving them a flowering plant, a homemade greeting card, and some precious company. 

 Last Easter, we visited 1,500 seniors at care homes, long-term care facilities, group residences, and hospices. We have no way of knowing for sure how many lives we’ve touched or, perhaps, even saved from premature death. But we can certainly count the smiles, and they now number in the tens of thousands. 

My last visit with Jimmy was on Dec. 21. On leaving, I gave him a hug and wished him a Merry Christmas. He replied with a faint smile and a whispered “goodbye.” 

 Jimmy passed away in his sleep during the early hours of Jan. 1. Our parish celebrated his funeral Mass on Jan. 9.

 His widow, son, daughter-in-law, and their three grown children all thanked me for the time I spent with Jimmy. 

They told me that my visits and singing always cheered him up. I shared with them his joy when I sang Danny Boy because his grandfather used to sing it to him while they snuck off on pub crawls every Sunday—his increasingly tipsy grandfather having a pint of Guiness at each stop and young Jimmy a glass of lemonade.

 The family hadn’t heard that story and said they would treasure it. 

What’s clear to me now is that, as much as I may have given Jimmy during his final days, I received at least as much in return. 

All the more reason for us to reach out to those who need it most, including the thousands of Canadians who end their lives every year for lack of companionship. ok