Thursday, October 8, 2026 · Independent editorial

Canada blinked on euthanasia for the mentally ill and the Church should not blink at all

We opened Breitbart this Thursday morning and found jobless claims falling to near their lowest levels in 57 years and a report that Alito is not retiring even if Democrats win the Senate and Trump revealing the GOP’s closing midterm message and leftists linking abortion to affordability ahead of the midterms and we opened Breitbart politics and the Breitbart faith page which had nothing newer than October 5 and MXM News where the homepage would not hand us anything past the words October 8 and the Live Action news listing where all we got was a security checkpoint telling us it was verifying our browser so we will not pretend to know what was on it and there on both the Breitbart home page and the politics page sat the headline a Christian cannot scroll past — Canada Halts Plan to Expand MAID Euthanasia for Mental Illness.

Christian K. Caruzo’s Breitbart report dated 8 Oct 2026 says Canada will not expand its Medical Assistance in Dying program to people whose sole condition is mental illness and that Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced it Wednesday telling reporters on Parliament Hill that “Canada has made a decision not to move forward with the expansion that is scheduled in the Criminal Code of medical assistance in dying in circumstances where mental illness is the sole basis” and adding that “While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time.” Breitbart reports the expansion had been set to take effect on March 17, 2027 and that Fraser said the delay will be kept “on an indeterminate basis” through new legislation. The same Breitbart piece reports that Fraser also announced Canada intends to let adults diagnosed with an illness such as early-stage Alzheimer’s make an advance request so “their wishes could be respected after they lose the ability to decide for themselves” and it cites The Globe and Mail for the advocacy group Dying With Dignity Canada calling Wednesday a “profoundly disappointing day for medical assistance in dying legislation.”

CBC News in a piece by Peter Zimonjic posted Oct 07, 2026 adds that Fraser pointed to “very real concerns about people who live in communities with inadequate access to mental health services” and that the coming bill will “open the door” to advance consent and that the House of Commons defeated Conservative MP Tamara Jansen’s bill C-218 by 187 to 141 on Wednesday afternoon after Jansen asked Liberal MPs to back it “because people's lives are at risk, very vulnerable Canadians.”

Start with thanks because gratitude is the first Christian reflex. Somewhere in Canada tonight a young man is in the worst winter of his mind and because of Wednesday his government says it will not be standing at the foot of his bed next March offering a needle as treatment and that is a life that may yet see spring and we ought to thank God for every doctor and legislator and grieving relative who pushed back long enough for Ottawa to flinch.

But be honest because Christians are supposed to be. The minister did not say that killing the despairing is wrong. He said there is not a perfect consensus and that this is the correct approach at this particular time and in the same announcement he promised a bill that would open a new door for people facing illnesses like early-stage Alzheimer’s so the logic of the whole program is still standing which is that a human life can be weighed and found not worth continuing and that the state can sign the paperwork once the right boxes are checked. Breitbart’s own report reminds readers of a doctor placed under supervision after assessing a man for euthanasia outside a Tim Hortons and of an 83 year-old woman whose relatives say she was subjected to a “hideously botched” procedure and a culture that calls death care does not stay put at the line it drew but drifts downhill and takes the weakest with it first.

Scripture does not let us be neutral here. The God who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs did not stop owning the work when the mind grew dark and the Jesus who said come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden did not add a footnote excluding the depressed or the confused or the old who forget their children’s names. A bruised reed shall he not break and that standard is higher than any parliamentary consensus. The Church answers suffering with presence and long nights and the hope of the resurrection and not with a scheduled date and if the mentally ill in Canada are spared it should be because they bear the image of God and not only because mental health services are thin.

And do not imagine this is only a Canadian story. Assisted suicide is already legal in parts of this country and the same quiet vocabulary of dignity and autonomy is spoken in American statehouses and our neighbor to the north is showing us in public what happens when a nation decides mercy means helping people die.

Christian first means the despairing are not a policy category but souls Jesus came to carry and that we answer to Him before any ministry of justice anywhere. American second means we love this country enough to refuse to let it copy Canada. Republican third means the GOP is not the point and no party gets to treat the sick and the old and the mentally ill as a campaign line. When a Christian walks into the booth on Tuesday, November 3, the question to carry in is who on this ballot will protect the life the culture has decided is too costly or too broken and who will open the door, and then vote for the bruised reed and not for the hand that would break it.

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