'Dead people don't collect disability benefits': Is pause on euthanizing the mentally ill in Canada just smoke and mirrors?

After announcing on Wednesday that it was pumping the brakes on making the mentally ill eligible for euthanasia in Canada, Carney's Liberal government killed Conservative legislation that would have made the pause permanent.

"If the government truly believed in preventing MAID for cases of mental illness, then they would have supported our bill," Conservative MP Tamara Jansen, the author of the defeated bill, said in a statement shared with Blaze News. "But when Canadians needed action, the Liberals chose politics."

'The cost savings associated with [euthanizing] the mentally ill could reach up to CAD $63.076 billion.'

Since Canada legalized euthanasia nationwide under ex-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016, the resultant Medical Assistance in Dying program has been grossly liberalized, becoming a leading cause of death in Canada and claiming the lives of ineligible victims.

The Liberal government, now headed by globalist Prime Minister Mark Carney, expanded the program in February 2024 to enable euthanizing people suffering solely from mental illness.

While the original plan was for the mentally ill to be eligible for extermination the following month, their eligibility date was pushed back to March 2027.

Sean Fraser, Canada's attorney general, announced on Wednesday that the government would once again hold off on offering MAID to the mentally ill.

"Serious concerns remain regarding the safe and consistent evaluation of marketing authorization applications for mental illness," stated Fraser. "Canada will therefore not proceed with the planned expansion when mental illness is the sole underlying medical condition."

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Canadian Attorney General Sean Fraser. Arlyn McAdorey/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Conservative MP Tamara Jansen had a bill ready to codify the government's rejection of MAID for the mentally ill and to affirm that "a mental disorder is not a grievous and irremediable medical condition" that alone would satisfy the eligibility criteria for MAID.

The preamble of "The Right to Recover Act" stresses that "vulnerable Canadians should receive suicide prevention counseling rather than access to medical assistance in dying" and that "Canada’s medical assistance in dying regime risks normalizing assisted dying as a solution for those suffering from a mental disorder."

The bill was, however, defeated in a 187-141 vote in parliament on Wednesday. All but two Liberal members of parliament voted in opposition.

'They can still be killed by euthanasia in Canada if they have another medical condition.'

Fraser cited the bill's use of the term "mental disorder" as opposed to "mental illness" as the primary reason for why the Liberals voted in opposition.

"Mental disorder," he suggested, could be interpreted to include some of the neurologically degenerative diseases that presently can be provided as cause for MAID.

"Disagreement over terminology was not a reason to kill this necessary bill," said Jansen. "Conservatives were prepared to work through those concerns at committee. But with less than six months remaining before the current exclusion expires, Parliament does not have time to let technical disagreements stand in the way of action."

Nicole Scheidl, the executive director of Canadian Physicians for Life, also isn't buying the government's explanation for killing the bill.

Scheidl indicated to Blaze News that it was a way for the Liberals to "shoehorn" advanced consent for MAID into the alternative, yet-to-be produced bill that Fraser suggested will be introduced later in the parliamentary session "so that there's very limited time to debate."

"They want to shut down debate, and so they're going to hold that [mentally ill] population hostage to allow them to push through euthanasia for dementia," said Scheidl.

Fraser, whose office did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment, admitted this week that the government ultimately wants to "allow adults diagnosed with a disease such as Alzheimer’s at an early stage to make an advance request for MAID."

In the meantime, Canada can still kill the mentally ill, Alex Schadenberg, the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, told Blaze News.

"Right now under the law, someone who has a mental illness — even if that mental illness is driving them to suicidal ideation — they can still be killed by euthanasia in Canada if they have another medical condition," said Schadenberg. "So if someone, let's say, had a difficult condition of diabetes, it would be the diabetes they'd be approved for."

Schadenberg cited the case of 26-year-old Kiano Vafaeian, who was euthanized on Dec. 30, 2025. His family told Global News that while diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and partial vision loss, Vafaeian's primary struggle was with mental health issues.

"He said everything the doctors needed to hear in order to approve him," said his mother, Margaret Marsilla. "Was he actually feeling that way? I strongly believe not."

"A large number of Canadians have something that would qualify them for euthanasia," Scheidl told Blaze News. "So then if they're depressed on top of that, and they can't really think straight, and they're more inclined to choose that option, then there's nothing to protect them. There's nothing to stop it. The [MAID] assessments are not really effective at seeing if people are suicidal or depressed."

The same government that has made it easy for vulnerable people like Vafaeian to check out has boasted of the savings associated with the program.

Canada's Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer noted in an October 2020 report that 6,465 deaths under what was then a more restrictive MAID program would result in a total gross reduction in health care costs of $109.2 million in 2021.

"Their estimates were very, very low and their numbers were way off because they underestimated the number of deaths we would have," said Schadenberg.

In a study published in February 2025, researchers at Western University explored the "potential economic savings from expanding medical assistance in dying in Canada, where it is currently a leading cause of death, to include vulnerable groups that cost the government more than they contribute in taxes," including Indians, the homeless, the retired elderly, drug addicts, and the mentally ill.

"The cost savings associated with the mentally ill could reach up to CAD $63.076 billion," said the researchers, "while for the retired elderly population, the savings could be CAD $54.2 billion in the voluntary scenario or as high as CAD $1.2 trillion in a nonvoluntary scenario."

"Dead people don't cost money," Schadenberg told Blaze News. "Dead people don't collect pensions. Dead people don't collect disability benefits. And you've got a government, well, provincially and federally, that are running massive deficits. So a lot of incentive."

While the Canadian government has not officially rolled out a nonvoluntary MAID program, Scheidl noted that there is already plenty of "coercion that is happening under the umbrella of this regime."

"There are a lot of individuals who feel they have no choice," said Scheidl. "They are dealing with either caregivers who are completely burnt out and can't care for them [or] they have no other health care options. Hospice is denied to them. Palliative care is not available. Pain care is completely inadequate."

"We're wholly inadequate in our care for those who are suffering or at the end of life. But we're very, very good and very, very fast at delivering euthanasia."

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