What? Bill don’t talk rubbish. Canada doesn’t have a death penalty. What arrant rot. Well specifically no, but then again yes. Not one that is handed down by the courts certainly, but the MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) law enables it. And we hear this law is being extended to anyone who wants to die, not merely the people it was supposedly to support, like the terminally ill. A total of over 7000 in 2021 (Stats here) up from 2000 plus in 2016. Hey, beats paying for palliative care doesn’t it? Think of the savings to the Health Service.
Now compare that with the history of Canada’s judicial death penalty. About 750 executions in total between 1860 and 1962. (List here) Count ’em for yourself if you wish.
Now it’s “Feeling depressed? Hey, you can kill yourself.” or “Too far in debt? Hey, we can help you take that last ride into the sunset.” or “Can’t do the time – Here’s your pill.” Being offered and even promoted to those with disabilities amongst other problems. Wasn’t this tried in the 20th Century? 1930’s and 40’s Germany for example?
The youngest at the time of writing was a 23 year old woman who was depressed. But if she was mentally ill, how could she have made such a legally binding terminal decision?
However, if you are unbalanced and in despair or don’t want to do the time, Canada’s medics have a single pill for that ill. Not just for if the pain can no longer be managed. And rumours keep on drifting out of the last great adventure being actively promoted by certain doctors. Certainly gives a new terror to going into hospital doesn’t it? Go in with a broken leg, come out in an Urn? Well, not literally, but….
So technically yes. If you are hopeless, homeless or desperate, Canada does indeed have a death penalty. Not for one of the great crimes of treason or murder but for the great crime of being ‘a burden’.
Trudeau’s Canada. Yeah.