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SHEILA GUNN REID | Death is Canada’s “fastest-growing ‘treatment’” — Alberta is putting a stop to that
00:31:05
Alberta is taking steps to rein in Canada's out of control assisted suicide laws, creating safeguards to ensure decisions are patient-driven, free from outside suggestions from doctors or health-care institutions. Listen to audio-only versions of RebelNews+ exclusive shows like the daily Ezra Levant Show, the Gunn Show, and audio versions of our DAILY livestreams along with other Rebel News long-form videos and interviews.
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- [00:00]
Ezra Levant
Are you wondering how you can support your favorite independent news outlet while also
- [00:07]
Rebel News Announcer
sharing your opinions in a unique way? Head over to revenuestore.com and check out our merch. We have got incredible t shirts, hoodies, mugs and winter gear we ship internationally. And if you use the code ALEX10,
- [00:29]
Ezra Levant
you will get 10 10% off your order.
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Rebel News Announcer
Go and take a look. Today,
- [00:49]
Sheila Gunn Reid
Death is Canada's fastest growing medical treatment, and Alberta is putting a stop to that. I'm Sheila Gunn Reed. It's March 18, 2026 and you're watching the Ezra Levant Show. Shame on you, you censorious. There's a statistic that should stop and make every Canadian think Medical assistance in dying maid, as it's called, euthanasia, is one of the leading causes of death here in Canada. Roughly one out of every 20 deaths in this country now happens through assisted suicide. Think about that for a second. In less than a decade since MAID was legalized in 2016, it has expanded so quickly that it now accounts for almost 5% of all deaths in Canada. Belgium and the Netherlands, Turkish, two countries that everyone pointed to during Canada's assisted suicide debate, took more than 20 years to reach that level. Canada, well, we did it in about five. It's probably the only metric in the world that we lead at. And that speed alone should make policymakers pause or, you know, be horrified. But now Alberta is stepping in with legislation meant to slow down a system that has been expanded, expanding at a remarkable pace. The bill just announced today is called the Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life act, and the goal is to establish a provincial framework around euthanasia with stronger safeguards than what currently exists under federal rules. The biggest change is that Alberta would limit assisted suicide to what's known as Track 1 made cases where a patient's natural death is reasonably foreseeable. In practice, the legislation defines that as a situation where death is likely within roughly 12 months. Now, that's a huge and significant shift from our current genocidal federal law. In 2021, Ottawa introduced track two, MAID, allowing assisted suicide even when a person's natural death is not foreseeable. In other words, people no longer have to be dying to get access to the state to kill them. They can be chronically ill, disabled, or living with long term suffering the system considers intolerable. Alberta's bill would prohibit track two, made entirely in this province. The legislation also explicitly bans maid, where mental illness is the sole underlying condition. That line matters because federal policy has been moving toward assisted suicide for people suffering solely from mental illness, so if people are suicidal, they can turn to the state and access suicide. The bill would be expanded under federal legislation to cover people with depression, ptsd, severe anxiety conditions that millions of Canadians struggle with and recover from every single year. Alberta's bill says that line should never be crossed. The Alberta legislation also includes several other new safeguards as well. MAID would be prohibited for minors. It would also be prohibited for people who lack decision making capacity at the time the procedure is performed. And the province would ban advance requests, meaning someone cannot sign paperwork years earlier authorizing doctors to end their life after they lose mental capacity. Alberta's legislation would also restrict physicians and nurse practitioners from referring patients outside the province for MAID assessments. So there's no getting around the legislation in Alberta. That rule is designed to prevent people from bypassing our safeguards by simply being referred elsewhere. The bill also introduces mandatory education and training requirements for MAID assessors and providers, including training on recognizing coercion, evaluating capacity and identifying alternatives such as palliative care. The law also introduces mandatory sanctions for physicians and nurse practitioners who violate the province's MAID rules. Another major change involves how MAID is discussed with patients. Under the proposed Law Bill 18, healthcare professionals would not be allowed to initiate conversations about assisted suicide unless the patient raises the topic first. The doctor or nurse practitioner cannot plant the seed in the mind of a vulnerable person. Now, the province says that safeguard is meant to ensure that made decisions are patient driven, not influenced by suggestions from doctors or health institutions. The legislation also protects the rights of doctors and healthcare facilities that object to assisted suicide. Physicians and nurse practitioners with have a clear and legal right to refuse to assess or provide maid. Certain health care facilities, including faith based hospitals and care homes, would also be allowed to refuse MAID on their premises. The bill would also allow those facilities to establish 150 meter exclusion zones around their sites where MAID assessments or procedures could not take place. Together, these measures are intended to restore the idea of that assisted suicide should remain a rare and tightly controlled end of life practice, not a broadly expanding, easily accessible medical service. And the reason Alberta says these safeguards are necessary becomes clearer when you look at how quickly MAID has grown across Canada. More than 13,000 Canadians now die through euthanasia every year. That places assisted suicide among the leading causes of death in the country. It now exceeds the number of Canadians who die annually from diabetes. It surpasses the deaths from influenza and pneumonia combined. Remember when we shut down the world for that sort of stuff? It's higher than the deaths from kidney disease. And in some recent years. It has even rivaled deaths from accidents and injuries. A medical procedure that did not exist in Canada a decade ago now results in more deaths each year than several major diseases that doctors have spent generations trying to treat and prevent. And the expansion of MAID has happened alongside growing pressures inside Canada's health care system. Isn't that convenient? Doctor shortages, long specialist wait lists, Mental health services that can take months, even years to access. Disability supports that often leave people struggling financially. Solving those problems requires significant reform and innovation. Made by contrast is administratively simple. No wait lists, no infrastructure shortage, no complicated overhaul of the system required. Critics like me argue that assisted suicide has quietly become the easiest pressure valve in a strained healthcare system. When suffering grows and the system can't keep up, MAID becomes the service that is always available. That dynamic raises difficult questions about incentives inside the system. Because once assisted death becomes easier to access than many forms of treatment, while the pressure to expand it grows and the boundaries that once seemed clear begin to shift. That's the line Alberta says it's trying to draw. The province's legislation attempts to re establish limits around around assisted suicide and slowed the expansion that has taken place over the last several years. The broader national debate over MAID is often framed as a question of personal autonomy. But it also raises a larger question about the role of a healthcare system. When people are suffering, should the priority be expanding access to assisted suicide or finding better ways to help people live through illness, disability, hardship and loneliness? Given how quickly MAID has risen to become one of the leading causes of death in Canada, it's a question this country may have to confront sooner rather than later. Stay with us. The Alberta government's press conference on their new legislation is up after the break.
- [09:55]
Ezra Levant
Well, good morning and thank you all for coming today. I'm pleased to be here with Minister of Justice Mickey Amory and Dr. Ramona Coelho, who is family physician and a member of Ontario's main death review committee to announce legislative measures our government will introduce to protect vulnerable Albertans. Providing health care and looking after the well being of Albertans is one of our most important responsibilities as a provincial government, and we take that responsibility seriously. Medical assistance in dying is a serious and sensitive subject. This is a deeply personal decision, a decision that affects patients, their families and their loved ones. The consequences of the decision are permanent and irrevocable. And because of this, we have an obligation to consider MAID with the utmost care and caution. Alberta believes that patient safety is and must always be our first concern. And our government has been highly skeptical of federal moves to widen eligibility to those whose only medical condition is mental illness. This possibility was first announced in 2023 and we've been studying the issue carefully to ensure that we're acting in the best interest of Albertans. During this time, we had a two year consultation period where we sought feedback from across the province and spoke to a wide range of experts in the field of mental health and other areas of health care. After extensive consideration of Ottawa's potential maid eligibility expansion, our government still has profound misgivings about it. If federal eligibility is extended to include mental illness like we expect it to be in 2027, there is a serious risk that vulnerable individuals living with a mental illness may choose this of actions when other treatment options are available to them. In other words, for individuals whose death is not reasonably foreseeable, there are often other care and treatment options available. Mental health and wellness are things many people manage throughout their entire lives, and periods of severe illness can feel dark, hopeless and overwhelming. But with the right support, many people regain stability and go on to live full and meaningful lives. MAID should not become a permanent response to a moment of crisis or despair. That can change with care, and we know Albertans are concerned about this. Since 2021, total MAID deaths in Alberta have risen from 594 in 2021 to 1,242 in 2025, an increase of 109%. And even though rates are lower in Alberta than the national average, maid is now one of the leading causes of death in Canada. In just the 10 years it's been legal in Canada, the rate of maid in our country has come to exceed that of other jurisdictions where it's been legal across the country, total maid Deaths have risen from 10,066 in 2021 to 16,499 in 2024, an increase of 64%. Given the permanence of the decision, these trends should give anyone pause. Under federal policy, eligibility is widening while the guardrails and oversight are weakening. The way Alberta sees it, these escalating factors put the safety and well being of vulnerable individuals at far too great a risk. So our government is act before the federal government weakens the guardrails any further. We believe maid must be a compassionate option reserved only for those who will not recover from terminal illness. That's why, as part of our spring legislative session, we'll be introducing the Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act. If passed, it will make sure that here in Alberta, medical assistance in dying has robust and appropriate safeguards in place it will limit MAID eligibility to circumstances where natural death is reasonably foreseeable and recovery is not. It will prohibit MAID in Alberta for those under age 18 and for those whose sole condition is a mental illness. It will set out clear regulations for how Alberta approves provides maid. And it will provide much needed clarity for patients, families and healthcare providers alike. Ultimately, this is about protecting vulnerable Albertans and establishing strong safeguards for a healthcare practice of great consequence and finality. And that's exactly, exactly what this legislation will deliver. Thank you. And I'd now like to pass it over to minister Mickey Amory to share details on this important work.
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Minister Mickey Amory
Well, thank you very much, Premier. Good morning and thank you for joining us. As the premier said, we are ensuring that there are strong protections in place for medical assistance in dying. Now, this is one of the most serious decisions that someone can make, and it demands careful safeguards and humility. Bill 18, the safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life act will address obvious gaps in the current federal system, and it will set strong, consistent standards to better protect vulnerable Albertans. At its core, Bill 18 places important eligibility limits on MAID in Alberta. MAID will be prohibited for those whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable. It's also known as Track 2. Maid. Maid should never be a substitute for other health care options or services. Advance requests for MAID raise serious ethical and practical concerns. That is why under Bill 18, advanced requests will not be permitted along with MAID, for individuals without capacity to make their own healthcare decisions. Physicians and nurse practitioners will also be prohibited from making referrals for individuals to receive MAID outside of Alberta. Given the seriousness and the finality of maid, Alberta's legislation will require assessors and providers to meet training and educational requirements. And that's why I'll also be introducing mandatory sanctions when a regulatory college finds that a physician has violated Alberta's MAID legislation to reduce any coercion and to ensure MAID decisions are initiated and driven by patients. Physicians will be restricted from giving MAID information to their patients when they are providing other health services to them unless the patient brings it up. The public display of MAID information, such as posters, will also be restricted within healthcare facilities. Finally, Bill 18 will make it clear that physicians have the right to refuse to conduct MAID assessments or to provide maid, and that healthcare facilities will have the right to refuse to allow MAID services on their premises. Along with this, an exclusion zone of 150 meters around a healthcare facility will provide a sense of safety for people facing serious health challenges, along with vulnerable palliative care patients who don't wish to be exposed to maid. Now we know that MAID is a sensitive and complex issue for many Albertans, but we also believe that the compassionate approach is one that allows people to live with dignity, not defaulting to doctor assisted death I'd like to now introduce Dr. Ramona Coelho to say a few words. Dr. Coelho is a family physician, a member of Ontario's MAID Death Review Committee, and was recognized by the Ontario College of Family Physicians for Patient Care. She is a Senior Fellow at the macdonald Laurier Institute and a recipient of the King Charles III Medal. She has also co edited the book Unraveling Made in Canada that was recognized as a Hill Times 100 Best Book of 2025. I'd like to invite Dr. Coelho to say a few words.
- [17:38]
Rebel News Announcer
Thank you, thank you very much Minister Amory, and thank you Premier Smith for having me today. I will skip my my intro because Minister Amory introduced me so well. I have contributed to academic and public discourse on MAID for many years, examining the intersection of MAID and patient safety. For about 20 years I've practiced medicine, caring for people with complex issues such as disabilities, mental health issues, chronic pain, and especially social vulnerabilities. I take care of a lot of people who've had incarceration histories or refugees, people who find themselves at the margins of society. Through this work before the time of maid, I came to understand that physical illness is often greatly impacted by psychosocial suffering by the psychological distress and social circumstances we find ourselves in. This is a concept in medicine that we call total pain. Properly addressing and mitigating total pain or suffering requires careful assessment, time and support. A patient's suffering can be addressed and their lives can greatly improve if we take that time. Since MAID has been legalized, I have witnessed patients being approved for MAID very quickly, without a deep dive of their suffering, or without offering evidence based medicine that could offer them solutions to live well. I've also been told by my patients that they've been offered MAID several times, repeatedly by different people, and some have felt pressured to book MAID assessments. While this does not reflect the majority of my colleagues MAID practice, these cases highlight patient safety concerns. I have shared these experiences before Federal, Parliament and international hearings. I was very happy to hear that the Scottish Bill on Assisted Suicide was voted down yesterday. I testified there as well. As was mentioned, I serve on Ontario's May Death Review Committee where we review cases that the coroner, the Chief Coroner of Ontario, has selected to offer advice and then he puts together reports with these public cases to advise on patient safety and he sends them to Health Canada and different regulatory bodies. My analyses of these cases have have garnered international attention on Canada's safeguard failures in maid. But from the beginning, the disability community, Indigenous community, many legal and medical experts have warned our federal government about the risks of legalizing MAID without considering balancing the safety of vulnerable patients. Now many are focusing on oversight and meaningful accountability. Last year, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities called on Canada to strengthen safeguards within its MAID framework for better protection of persons with disabilities, including repealing Track 2 MAID and improving oversight just this month. A few days ago, a group of researchers from the University of Alberta published a paper looking at families perspectives on maid. In that study, they revealed that many families feel traumatized by the experience, describing rushed assessments, virtual evaluations, and sometimes only being informed of MAID after the death of their loved one. Alberta's proposed legislation responds to most of these concerns and reinforces a fundamental principle. When the outcome is death, the system must meet the highest standard of care scrutiny and accountability. Legislation governing MAID must be clear, enforceable and worthy of public trust. So this bill is an important step in the right direction and I am very hopeful that other provinces will follow the example of Alberta. Thank you.
- [21:52]
Minister Mickey Amory
Thank you. We'll now enter the media. Q. And a reminder that this press conference is under embargo until the legislation is tabled later today. And that applies to remarks and any QA related to the legislation. We'll take one question, one follow up and reminder to state your name and outlet for asking your question. We'll start off with Julia, then we'll go to Jack.
- [22:10]
Ezra Levant
Hi, Julia Wong, CCNational. This is a question for the Premier. You know you're touting this as safeguards to protect Albertans. Others might see this and call them obstacles or barriers. So why is the province putting so many and I'll call them things in the way for those who legitimately want to access me? Well, I can tell you that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does say that government can put limits that are reasonable as long as they're prescribed by law and demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. So that is one of the obligations we have as a government is to make sure that we're putting in limits that are reasonable and can be justified. And I remember when these cases first began, the court had ruled that death should be reasonably foreseeable. And I know that the critics at the time were worried that it would continue going down a pathway where ultimately other conditions would be included. And I know that that was Critic criticized at the time saying, oh, there's no such thing as a slippery slope. Well, we're on it. And if we allow for children and we allow for those with mental illness to be given the advice to take this, this approach, then I think that we're, we're failing in our duty to give people hope. So we have taken a very different approach in Alberta where we believe recovery is possible not only for addiction, but also mental illness. And that is why we think that the federal government is going in the wrong direction with its intention to put this in place in 2027. And as the doctor mentioned, having reasonable guardrails should allow for those who do have a terminal illness to continue down the pathway as this legislation was always intended, but not make sure that it gets and make sure that it doesn't get broadened to a way that was not originally intended when the changes were made in law. And my follow up, you know, this legislation includes things such as practitioners can't bring made up unless a patient does themselves. There's the ban on the public discovery display of maid information in healthcare settings.
- [24:08]
Sheila Gunn Reid
Do you not trust that Albertans and
- [24:10]
Ezra Levant
practitioners can make the right decision for themselves? Well, you know, I'm watching as the international community is looking at what's happening in Alberta. And I would just, you know, encourage you to look at some of the stories that have been written in the Spectator and the Guardian where they're pretty appalled that those who are living in poverty, those whose only circumstances seem to be managing mental challenges of dealing with a chronic condition, are being advised that maids an option. And when we see that kind of international criticism saying this is really outside the norm, we have to take that seriously. I think as the doctor said, that is not, certainly not all practitioners who are doing that. But when we read stories about a young man repeatedly refused maid for his mental health condition in Ontario, able to fly across the country to B.C. and find an amenable doctor for it. We're concerned about that. When we hear of Veterans affairs officials counseling and encouraging people with PTSD to consider maid, these are things we want to stop. We don't want anyone to be counseled to end their life prematurely if they do not have a terminal illness. And if we have to make that clear in law, we'll make it clear in law. And I think it's because of those stories that we keep reading about that we think it is time for government to act.
- [25:36]
Sheila Gunn Reid
Last segment of the show, as is the case with my show, the gun show belongs to you, our viewers at home. Because without you, there's no Rebel News. So we better care what you have to say about the work that we do around here. Now we've got a comment from Anthony Saladi in response to my friend David Menzies monologue last night while he covered for Ezra regarding Don Cherry. Anthony says we need more people like Don Cherry in Canada now more than ever. That's the thing about Don Cherry. You always knew what you were getting with him. He didn't filter his comments. And he believed in Canadian values. He believed in respecting our military and the people who built this country, who came before us. And he didn't have a problem with asking people to adopt our Canadian values to integrate into our society. He didn't say that people had to leave or even all think the same, but to honor the people who made the ultimate sacrifice for us. And I think there's a lesson in there. Because while Don lost the support of the chattering classes, his former friends and colleagues over at the cbc, he actually gained respect from the normal people who were, I think, grateful to hear somebody on the CBC who sounded a lot like them. Don Ray Here check writes Mr. Cherry did not wobble in his beliefs. He wore them on his shirt sleeves so that all could see. I admire that in a person. He stood strong and had a backbone. In fact, he never apologized to the outrage mobile, not even once. He lost his job and lost his friends, friends, if you can call them that, when they turn on you in a time of need after you've helped them, as is the case with Ron McClain, he. He never ever backtracked. He was not going to apologize for something when he didn't believe that thing that he said was wrong. And there's mad respect for somebody like that. Now we've got a letter regarding Ezra's sneak peek Teaser. When Ezra went to Toronto's Al Quds Day rally last weekend, Bruce Atchison, loyal rebel supporter, loyal viewer of my show, and frequent letter writer to my show. Bruce, from Radway, Alberta, writes woodwork squeaks and outcome the freaks. This country sure needs somebody with the courage to confront radicalized Muslim. Doug Ford sure isn't the one. Yeah, Doug Ford left his challenge of the Al Quds Day march to the very last minute knowing that it would fail, but giving himself the veneer of having done something. Bruce continues, he's a slimy politician who doesn't care one bit about his constituents. A day will come when he will be on the wrong end of a gun or knife held by a slimmest warrior if he's not careful. Now I don't hope that for anybody, but for a lot of people, unfortunately, that that sort of thing is the only thing that will wake them up to the danger. And even then, sometimes it doesn't wake them up to the danger. For example, I don't know if you saw that clip about two weeks ago where a leftist protester who's screaming into a megaphone everyone is welcome here. Well, ISIS inspired terrorists from behind him, from his side of a dueling protest lobbed looked like a explosive device into a crowd of people. And even then he still parroted the everyone is welcome here hate has no home here nonsense. So some people are just never going to wake up to this. I hope Doug Ford does wake up and really takes a hard line stance before something happens to him or someone he loves. I would just absolutely hate to see that. Politics aside, and as you know, I have many of those political disagreements with lights of Doug Ford. I. I just would hate to see anything happen to him or his family. In fact, when I saw how CBC treated his brother and his brother's children in the wake of his brother's death, I was viscerally angry about it. I just, I don't want anything to happen to him, but I don't want anything to happen to anybody in this country at the hands of a radicalized Islamist warrior. And the problem is we just don't have a federal government who is willing to deal with those things. Well everybody, that's the show for tonight. Thank you so much for tuning in. I believe Ezra's back in the big chair tomorrow. Thanks to everybody who works behind the scenes at Rebel News to put the show together from afar so that you have something to watch. And since I'm hosting, I'm not going to say Ezra sign off. I'll say my own. Don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.