2011‑2022, and is preserved here for archival purposes.
Peter Stockland reports on how the pandemic’s overshadowing of legislation radically expanding medical assistance in dying might reconfigure Canada’s future.
For two evenings this week, my Cardus colleagues and a panel of expert guests have engaged an in-depth discussion on YouTube on Canada’s post-COVID future.
They cov...
Peter Stockland brings a journalist’s mindset and hometown origins to his analysis of media coverage around the finding of Indigenous children’s bodies in Kamloops, B.C.
Melissa Mollen-Dupuis and I don’t know each other but we appear to share similar thoughts on the journalism around Kamloops, B.C. and the discovery of an unmarked grave containing remains of Indigenous children.
In an interview with Montreal’s Le...
Palliative care physician Dr. Anthony Kerigan highlights the A-B-C and D steps to safeguard the full dignity of the frail elderly and those at the end of their life.
The last year has seen two events of major concern to older persons, especially those with significant frailty who are unable to live independently. The first was the isolation forced on them by the COVID-19 pandemic and the often substandard conditions und...
Rapid expansion of Medical Aid in Dying and forced closure of a Vancouver-area hospice have raised alarm among palliative care providers. But Peter Stockland finds vital positive signs, too.
At the beginning of April, the Supreme Court of Canada finally closed the outside door on the Delta Hospice Society’s ownership of a private 10-bed palliative care centre in suburban Vancouver.
At one level, the SCOC’s refusal to grant the Society le...
Don Hutchinson argues the Trudeau government should consider the Constitution’s Section 33 opt out rather than rush to pass expanded medically assisted dying legislation under a court-imposed deadline.
At the Trudeau Government’s request, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights has deemed a bill to be of such priority that it be fast-tracked through the evaluation process: Bill C-7, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medica...
Medically assisted death advocates inside and outside Parliament are gung-ho to expand it. But Cardus’ Ray Pennings says national poll numbers show Canadians want MPs to curb their enthusiasm.
Just because politicians and activists are gung-ho about expanding medical assistance in dying (MAiD), doesn’t mean all Canadians are so enthusiastic.
If anything, Canadians would tell the politicians it’s time to slow down and broaden the discussion...
Alan Hustak reports on the death and contrarian life of Montreal’s Father John Walsh, who began serving the Church as an altar boy while also a member of a street gang.
By his own admission, Rev. John Walsh, O.C. was a subversive Roman Catholic priest who at times seemed to be ministering everywhere, to all religious communities, in Montreal.
Father Walsh, 78, died of a heart attack on November 9 as he prepared to ...
Laval University bioethicist Cory Labrecque argues the debate over medically assisted death ignores the reality we all face risk just by being human, Peter Stockland reports.
Cory Labrecque began deeply re-thinking society’s growing acceptance of what we now euphemistically call Medical Aid in Dying when his plan to become a doctor collided with caring for his ailing grandmother.
Labrecque, now an associate professor of ...
Palliative care expert Dr. Leonie Herx is one of 750 doctors publicly urging the Trudeau government to deep-six its new “death on demand” legislation, Peter Stockland reports.
Picture yourself as doctor trying to prevent a patient in a fugue state from inflicting horrendous self-harm.
Now imagine your medical speciality is palliative care and you are turning to all the skills that 17 years of professional training have dev...
Through the painful season of his wife’s death, Timothy deVries saw past caricatures of faceless health systems to recognize the rich culture of care surrounding patients, families and medical professionals.
One day in May, 2017, a doctor at St. Joseph’s hospital in Hamilton had the awful task of delivering an incurable cancer diagnosis to a pregnant, 40 year-old, mother. It was an appointment she had been dreading, since very few people are subject to a biopsy...
Experts in law, medicine and disability advocacy are joining the chorus calling for the withdrawal of the Liberal government’s bill to expand medically administered death, Peter Stockland writes.
Doctors, lawyers and disability rights advocates are mobilizing against the federal Liberal government’s expansion of Medical Aid in Dying, warning it will open the door to “State-sponsored termination” of vulnerable Canadians.
“Suddenly, a lethal in...
In light of MAiD changes, disabled Canadians say they’re being offered free choice to die, but no choice in where and how they live. Others wonder how the bill squares with the Supreme Court’s legal definition of consent, Peter Stockland reports.
In a YouTube video posted today, Taylor Hyatt sets out from personal experience why she’s “terrified” by proposed ...
On International Human Rights Day, survivors of histories and geographies torn apart by crimes against humanity used a Parliament Hill panel discussion to etch a path of repentance, repair, reconciliation and renewal. Convivium’s Peter Stockland reports.
A panel discussion in a basement conference room on Parliament Hill yesterday grappled with the herculean human task of responding to humanity at its most inhumane.
Marking International Human Rights Day, the speakers addressed historic specifics of ...
On Tuesday, Convivium.ca published Peter Menzies’ plea for journalists to stop hurting journalism with reckless opinion-mongering. Today, Dr. Natasha Fernandes and Dr. Timothy Lau cite even more grievous media malfeasance: romanticized reporting of euthanasia spreading the contagion of suicide.
Most people are unaware of the contagious nature of suicide. It can spread as easily as a cold. This contagion is called the “Werther Effect,” named for Goethe’s novel, The Sorrows of Young Man Werther. The book was banned in Europe becau...
Two years ago, on June 1, 2016, federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was escorted to her seat in front of Canada’s Senate to explain her government's rationale for Bill C-14, a legislative concoction with a name from a high school chemistry class and the full power to transform Canadian society forever.
Two years ago, on June 1, 2016, federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was escorted to her seat in front of Canada’s Senate to explain her government's rationale for Bill C-14, a legislative concoction with a name from a high school chemistry class a...
There’s a growing need for more and better end-of-life care in Canada – especially as our population ages. But how does the national picture affect our local communities? Cardus Senior Researcher Doug Sikkema and Ottawa policy analyst Marisa Casagrande have analyzed two of Ontario’s larger communities to get a better idea of what challenges the health system will face, and what all parts of society need to bring to the table to meet them..
In the 2015 report Death Is Natural: Reframing the End-of-Life Conservation in Canada, Cardus noted that Canada’s “current healthcare system is under increasing stress as one of the most populous generations on record—the baby-boomers—ages and dies...
Canadian nurse Emily Way recently returned from Iraq where she worked in a Samaritan’s Purse field hospital near the besieged city of Mosul. She discussed with Convivium’s Hannah Marazzi the impact on faith of treating the wounded and fallen in one of the world’s most brutal war zones.
Convivium: First of all, what got you connected to Samaritan’s Purse and this opportunity in particular?
Emily Way: I have known about Samaritan’s Purse (SP) for as long as I can remember. My elementary and junior h...
Cardus Senior Researcher Peter Jon Mitchell reflects on modern western society's discomfort with death and grief and the role that memory, faith, and religious communities can serve in the experience of public mourning.
There’s an old story sometimes shared during eulogies about an elderly women planning her funeral.
“Burry me with a fork,” she tells her minister.
“Yes, but may I ask why?” he inquires.
She explains that as a child, when the dishes were...
Palliative care is less about medical science than about giving time to say what needs saying before life ends.
“Death is inevitable. A bad death is not,” blares the headline of the April 29th edition of The Economist. The feature repeats the arguments why more palliative care, a “neglected branch of medicine,” is needed and why “honest a...
Editor in Chief of Convivum Father Raymond J. de Souza reports on the National March for Life that will take place in Ottawa today touching on the meaning of suffering and the importance of upholding the sanctity of life.
Tens of thousands will march in Ottawa today in celebration of human life, proclaiming that all life has value and ought to be protected in law. But the advent of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia means that life is less protected in law than previo...
Chris Rowe's profound image serves as a visual backdrop to poet Liana Esau's reflections on prayer, death, listening, and love.
I
This morning my eyes are deeplocked
on a whiteout sky. Prayer leaks like water
from my cupped hands—I hope
not to be afraid.
This morning God is obvious
the snow is falling soft
ov...
Editor in Chief Father Raymond J de Souza delivers a moving reflection on the mosque murder that occurred earlier this week in Quebec City and examines the corresponding themes of solidarity and identity this tragedy asks us to consider.
The burials began yesterday, and it was likely the first time most Canadians had ever seen Islamic funeral rites. It was an impressive witness of prayer from the Muslim congregation gathered at Montreal’s Maurice Richard hockey arena.
Canada’s politi...
Peter Stockland examines the art of obituary authorship's demise and our ever growing mis-relation with death.
It’s probably never diplomatic to speak of funerals as good news. Still, a silver lining in last weekend’s return of Debby Reynolds to the dust from which she came is that it should put an end to the necrotic cataloguing of celebrities who kicked it in 2016...
We will all be vulnerable at some time in our lives and this legislation does not and cannot protect us. Even Justice Lynn Smith, the original Carter trial judge, foresaw the inevitability of wrongful deaths when the healthcare system provides state-sanctioned euthanasia. She suggested strong safeguards that should be “scrupulously enforced.” This bill does little toward establishing concrete guidelines, and life-ending decisions will be made for some patients against their explicit wishes as a result.