Music of the light: Duo bring sacred and secular repertoire to parishes around the Archdiocese

An inspring story that I wrote for the B.C. Catholic:

The providential way that soprano Tami Comuzzi and pianist Shelley Field-Halliday first met seems fitting considering the musical partnership and ministry that resulted. Comuzzi recalls sitting at Mass at Our Lady of Fatima in Coquitlam when she first noticed Field-Halliday. “God told me she will be my best friend,” she said.

For her part, Field-Halliday remembers hearing Comuzzi sing, and being struck by a voice so beautiful it seemed “almost supernatural.”

Two decades later, the graced nature of their meeting has grown into a well-known partnership that brings liturgical music to parishes around the Archdiocese of Vancouver. In one late-summer week alone, they were scheduled for four funerals and one wedding.

In the same period, they performed two benefit concerts, one in the gardens of St. Francis of Assisi parish in Vancouver, the other in the parking lot of their home parish in Coquitlam. “We are trying to create a European feeling—an André-Rieu-type experience—beautiful and outside,” Field-Halliday said. The “Tami and Friends” concerts, the first of which took place in 2019, raised funds for parish purposes and for a Knights of Columbus drive to purchase an ultrasound machine for Pregnancy Concerns, a Coquitlam crisis-pregnancy non-profit.

The concerts feature sacred and secular music, from Offenbach’s Barcarolle—a duet Comuzzi performs with Gina Oh, a teacher at St. Pius X school in North Vancouver—to a medley of ABBA hits. They also showcase supporting singers from a choir Comuzzi leads at her parish.

Comuzzi, a lyric soprano, has sung since childhood. As an adult with a Master’s degree in music, she found herself at a crossroads: pursue a professional career of great promise or focus on faith, marriage, and family. She chose the latter and, with husband David, was blessed with five children. “The Lord made it very clear to me that he wanted me to sing for him,” she said. “I put him first and he has blessed me.” Looking back, she says singing on the world’s stages would have been “an empty bucket.”

Field-Halliday, who with husband Sean also has five children, has played piano since she was young. She once won a music competition not because she was the best technically, but because of the passion with which she played. “I was told I have a gift that can move people to tears,” she said, “which I know is a gift of the Holy Spirit which can bring people to God.”

Each praises the other’s gift. Field-Halliday calls Comuzzi “a world-class talent,” while Comuzzi describes her friend’s accompaniment as so sensitive it is “like two people breathing with the same rhythm.”

Their friendship quickly became collaboration, and in time, ministry. They provided music for live-streamed Masses during the pandemic and recorded a series of hymns and classical songs, which Comuzzi said were meant to give viewers “peace and comfort” during that difficult time. (The recordings are still available on YouTube).

Their funeral-music ministry grew organically, allowing the pair to expand their service and also support their families. At times the demand can feel overwhelming, Comuzzi admitted. “We’ll say, Lord, it’s too much.” But then, she added, some sign of reassurance will come—“And this is how we know we are doing what we are supposed to be doing.”

“At times like this we realize the veil between the natural and supernatural is very thin,” Field-Halliday said.

Father Larry Lynn, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Coquitlam, said he is both impressed and touched by the holiness the two bring to funeral Masses. “After Mass, they always go to a painting or statue of the Holy Mother and sing Immaculate Mary. It’s quite moving,” Father Lynn said.

Field-Halliday said they save every funeral program and pray each morning for all the men and women whose funerals they have helped celebrate.

“I think, through our music, we are fishers of men,” Comuzzi said. “We bring people to God, whether through funerals, weddings, Masses, or concerts.”

Field-Halliday agreed: “We are His instrument, and we have so much joy. It’s a ministry of happiness. And God is our agent.”

Vulnerable patients need stronger MAiD protection: B.C. health critic

My latest story on the continuing MAiD crisis, as published in the BC Catholic:

Vulnerable British Columbians need stronger euthanasia safeguards, says Opposition health critic Dr. Anna Kindy following a B.C. Catholic report on systemic failures in provincial government oversight of medical assistance in dying (MAiD).

Kindy (pictured) said the government needs to make major changes in how MAiD is administered. “Health care needs to be transparent and accountable in every aspect,” she said in an interview.

Kindy, a physician in Campbell River and the B.C. Conservative MLA for North Island, spoke with The B.C. Catholic following its recent report on systemic failures in the province’s MAiD program.

A B.C. Catholic freedom of information application revealed the B.C. Ministry of Health’s MAiD Oversight Unit has not issued a public report since assuming responsibility for MAiD oversight in 2018.

The newspaper also found the Oversight Unit is overseen by the same bureaucrat responsible for MAiD’s administration in B.C., and that the unit rarely reports to professional bodies any of the hundreds of administrative and paperwork errors it discovers each year.

Asked which of the findings troubled Kindy most, she answered, “all of the above.”

She said MAiD concerns are one part of a larger medical crisis in which British Columbians can’t access health care, leading many sick and elderly to chose euthanasia. “And I don’t think that’s what B.C. people want … to actually not take care of our vulnerable people.”

The lack of oversight puts vulnerable people at risk, said Kindy, who has heard directly from patients who said they were pestered to accept MAiD. “Rubberstamping oversight is not oversight,” Kindy said. “We need transparency, accountability, oversight, and also discipline.”

The B.C. Catholic contacted Health Minister Josie Osborne for a response to Kindy’s remarks and to the original revelations but has not heard back from her. Meantime, the three professional colleges that received 22 Oversight Unit referrals for investigation have now responded to B.C. Catholic queries about what became of the files.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. said privacy laws prevent it from answering and that any information it can share is already on its website. No MAiD-related disciplinary action is apparent on the site.

The B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives said it has conducted 10 MAiD-related investigations since 2018. “None of these investigations resulted in hearings or disciplinary actions,” said communications coordinator Courtney Osborne.

Lesley Chang, a public information officer with the College of Pharmacists of B.C., said the college investigated three cases, two of which were “disposed of” under of a section of the Health Professions Act that allows a college to take “no further action if the inquiry committee is of the view that the matter is trivial, frivolous, vexatious or made in bad faith or that the conduct or competence to which the matter relates is satisfactory.”

The third case resulted in the pharmacist receiving a letter “advising them to always maintain appropriate documentation ... and abide by and comply with the legislative requirements and practice standards in all future practice.”

Toronto academic Trudo Lemmens, who serves on Ontario’s independent MAiD review body, agrees MAiD oversight lacks transparency and accountability in B.C. “At least in Ontario we have some willingness to open a report on challenging cases ... and that doesn’t exist in B.C.,” said Lemmens, a professor and Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy at the University of Toronto. “And that’s why I’m particularly troubled about the lack of transparency.”

He said “serious controversies” in B.C. about MAiD eligibility make the matter urgent. He pointed to news reports last December about a wrongful death claim filed by the family of a man who was euthanized in a Vancouver clinic while on a day pass from a hospital psychiatric ward.

Lemmens, who was born in Belgium, said he began warning the Canadian public in 2016 about the escalating dangers of legalized euthanasia. At the time, he pointed to his homeland and the Netherlands to warn about what was coming.

“Now I don’t talk about [them] anymore because Canada has bypassed everything possible,” he said. “One of the ways ... is the way it is so aggressively pushed as a therapy even when people don’t ask for it.”

Doctors 'getting rich' by euthanizing patients

As euthanasia deaths soar in B.C., so does British Columbian taxpayers’ medical assistance in dying bill. B.C. Catholic contributing writer Terry O’Neill analyzes the hidden figures behind the cost of MAiD and finds they’re much higher than the $283.85 The B.C. Catholic found last year. O’Neill also recently reported on a B.C. government document that said overly-strict enforcement of MAiD infractions might discourage MAiD when it’s in high demand.

ANALYSIS

It takes deep digging to find out what Canada’s permissive euthanasia regime is costing B.C. taxpayers, but the figures are there, buried in the 514-page Medical Services Commission Payment Schedule.

Pages 118-120 of the 2025 document detail how much doctors are paid, every step of the way toward killing their patients. Curiously, there’s no mention of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in the index of the 10-page listing, and the rate tables are not itemized. Instead, the MAiD fee schedule has been slipped into the index’s “family medicine” section under a subsection called “miscellaneous visits.”

What the numbers show is that British Columbia’s health system pays doctors much more to euthanize a patient than the $327.48 listed in its public fee schedule. The cost of the “MAiD event preparation and procedure”—10 to 15 minutes for the intravenous lethal injection—is $327.48. That amount has increased 64 per cent from the $200 paid in 2017, when the government established its first permanent fee structure for medical assistance in dying.

But the total cost of euthanizing a single patient can be as much as eight times greater—about $2,600 per patient, including assessment for and prescribing MAiD, a mandatory second assessment, euthanasia drugs, explanation of the MAiD waiver form, and day-of “preparation and procedure.”

All told, it means the B.C. government could spend up to $8.6 million enabling the estimated 3,300 MAiD deaths the province is on track to record this year. The cost could also rise a further $600 per patient for rarer and more complex “MAiD Track 2” cases, in which the patient’s death is not reasonably foreseeable. “These figures aren’t trivial,” said Dr. Will Johnston, a Vancouver family physician who heads the Euthanasia Resistance Coalition in B.C..

“Some doctors are being really well paid to do this. They are very well paid to just ask people if they want to die, and then to kill them.” The province’s taxpayer-funded Medical Services Plan pays doctors for 100 per cent of all MAiD-related “medical” services, and B.C.’s taxpayer-funded Pharmacare plan pays all the costs of the three drugs most commonly used to take a patient’s life. Cost breakdown B.C. doctors’ fees are found in the Ministry of Health’s “Medical Services Commision [sic] Payment Schedule,” dated April 30, 2025.

For a Track 1 patient whose death is reasonably foreseeable, a doctor who makes the original MAiD assessment and prescription can bill up to $453.15 for nine 15-minute “units” worth $50.35 each. For a Track 2 patient they can get up to $906.30 for 18 units.

A mandatory second assessment by another doctor can cost up to $352.45 (seven units) for Track 1 and $503.50 (10 units) for Track 2. A doctor can receive up to $174 for explaining and reviewing the optional “Waiver of Final Consent” signed in advance by some patients who fear they won’t be able to give the legally required final consent immediately before their MAiD death. Finally, the “MAiD event preparation and procedure”—10 to 15 minutes for the intravenous lethal injection—is worth $327.48 for both tracks.

All told, that’s about $1,300 paid to doctors for a single MAiD death. This figure is similar to the $1,225 paid to doctors for each MAiD death in Quebec in 2022—a figure that was unearthed by pro-life blogger Patricia Maloney in 2023. (Maloney reported that documents she obtained showed that Quebec doctors billed $5.88 million for MAiD-related services in 2022, a year in which Statistics Canada cited MAiD as the cause of death for 4,801 persons in that province.) Three drugs commonly used in euthanasia: midazolam, a sedative that causes sleep; propofol, which causes a deep coma; and rocuronium, which paralyzes the patient, causing death by suffocation.

The B.C. government does not publish the prices it pays for the drugs. (Adobe) The government does not publish the price of the three drugs commonly used in euthanasia: midazolam, a sedative that causes sleep; propofol, which causes a deep coma; and rocuronium, which paralyzes the patient, causing death by suffocation.

However, the federal government’s Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated in a 2020 report that the cost of drugs for a single MAiD case would be $1,324—$662 for the drugs used and $662 for a “backup kit” of drugs. The B.C. Catholic based its $2,600 MAiD total-cost estimate on figures for

two assessments for Track 1 (the most common MAiD track), a waiver consultation, the preparation and procedure, and the drugs. The estimate is remarkably close to the parliamentary report’s conclusion that a “completed case” of MAiD would cost $2,337.32. The B.C. government’s most recent annual report on MAiD shows that 2,767 persons died of MAiD in 2023, a 10 per cent increase from the previous year. Projecting a similar increase this year, the province would record 3,300 euthanasia deaths in 2025. The B.C. MAiD report does not distinguish between Track 1 and Track 2 cases. However, the federal government’s 2023 report said about 76 per cent o

f patients nationwide received MAiD under Track 1 and 24 per cent under Track 2. At 40.2 per cent, the most common place for B.C. patients to be euthanized in 2023 was in their own home. Doctors performed 82.4 per cent of MAiD procedures. The rest were administered by nurse practitioners, who are paid under a different system than doctors, one which may see them perform all their duties for a set salary.

The B.C. Catholic’s estimated MAiD costs assume that a nurse practitioner is paid the same as a doctor for delivering MAiD. B.C.’s payment schedule for MAiD also contains provisions for extra payments of $146.18 for physicians who pick up MAiD drugs from off-site pharmacies, something more likely to happen if a doctor is euthanizing a patient at home. MAiD providers were unhappy with the low rate of pay they received when euthanasia was legalized in 2016. They now receive 64 per cent more per death. (Adobe) The B.C. Catholic filed a freedom-of-information request last year for any Ministry of Health documents comparing the cost of administering MAiD with any savings to the health system from MAiD-facilitated deaths. The government’s Nov. 2, 2024, response did not include any cost-benefit analysis but did contain several documents dated between 2017 and 2021 that dealt with fee schedules.

The documents showed that MAiD providers were unhappy with the low rate of pay they were receiving after euthanasia was legalized in 2016. One document, appended to a briefing note to an unnamed bureaucrat or politician, stated that “restricting billing” had led to some MAiD providers quitting “because they did not feel they were adequately compensated.” The document said there was “a very limited number of MAiD providers” in B.C. and any reduction in numbers would “put an additional strain on already overworked professionals.”

The document’s recommendations have been redacted, but the FOI package contained a copy of a Globe and Mail story from May 2018 reporting that B.C. had “effectively doubled the compensation” for MAiD doctors in response to their complaints.

Johnston said in an interview that a small number of enthusiastic doctors are responsible for the majority of MAiD procedures in B.C. He did not mention any doctors by name, but news outlets have reported that Dr. Ellen Wiebe of Vancouver has overseen more than 400 MAiD procedures, and Dr. Stephanie Green of Victoria is responsible for more than 300 euthanasia deaths. MAiD saves ‘billions’ Johnston said it is ironic that MAiD doctors receive such high pay.

“To kill people requires no particular medical expertise. Anyone straight off the street could be trained in half an hour.”

MAiD 'could save billions'

The cost of euthanasia pales in comparison to how much money it saves the Canadian medical system, a fact that may be driving the movement to further liberalize euthanasia.

Thanks to a report published by the Parliamentary Budget Officer in 2020, Canadians already know that in 2021 alone, the country’s medical system saved an estimated $149 million because of MAiD’s widespread availability.

Now, a recent study by two Western University academics shows that further liberalization of euthanasia could save the medical system “on the order of billions of dollars per year,” with “total savings of $1.273 trillion by 2047.” Professors Uzair Jamil and Joshua Pearce said in a paper published in the February 2025 edition of OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying that extending MAiD to vulnerable groups such as the mentally ill, the homeless, the elderly, and Indigenous persons would produce massive savings.

They did not recommend implementing the changes but rather cited many of the ethical considerations opposing such liberalization. “Policymakers must carefully consider these implications before moving forward with any further expansion of MAiD,” they wrote. Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said he was not particularly alarmed by the study because it seemed to be an academic exercise more than a call to action.

He also noted that at least one leading pro-euthanasia activist, Thaddeus Pope, a U.S. law professor, thought the paper might actually have been designed to portray a “worst-case scenario” to warn against further liberalization of MAiD law. Authors Jamil and Pearce cite two academic papers that present MAiD as a way of cutting health-care costs, writing that “several advocates of expanding MAiD have argued, if MAiD is expanded to many marginalized populations within Canada, the government would save money.”

Schadenberg said regardless of the motivation, MAiD is a stain on society and any argument that it benefits society by cutting medical costs is even more reprehensible. “Obviously,” he said, “I consider all this disgusting.”