The “assisted dying” regime in Canada has become so extreme that it has garnered widespread condemnation — especially due to claims from numerous military veterans who say they were offered death instead of treatment. Now, another veteran has come forward saying he was offered “therapeutic euthanasia” when he was seeking treatment for PTSD.
According to the Toronto Sun, David Baltzer was struggling upon his return home from Afghanistan. He had been deployed twice with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), and he wasn’t prepared for what he experienced. “We went out on long-range patrols trying to find the Taliban, and that’s exactly what we did,” he said, adding, “The best way I can describe it, it was like Black Hawk Down — all of the sudden the s–t hit the fan and I was like ‘wow, we’re fighting, who would have thought? Canada hasn’t fought like this since the Korean War.”
He struggled with PTSD afterward and sought therapy and counseling from Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC), but it didn’t seem to be helping, and he began to turn to alcohol. When he went back to seek further help, instead of being offered treatment for alcohol abuse and PTSD, he was offered death.
“I was in my lowest down point, it was just before Christmas,” Baltzer said. “He says to me, ‘I would like to make a suggestion for you. Keep an open mind, think about it, you’ve tried all this and nothing seems to be working, but have you thought about medical-assisted suicide?’”
The thought infuriated Baltzer. “It just seems to me that they just want us to be like ‘f–k this, I give up, this sucks, I’d rather just take my own life,’” he said. “That’s how I honestly felt.”
READ: Canadian man is denied surgery, instantly receives application for ‘assisted dying’
Mark Meincke, another Canadian veteran, has covered the scandal of veterans being offered “medical assistance in dying” (MAID) instead of treatment. “Veterans, especially combat veterans, usually don’t reach out for help until like a year longer than they should’ve,” Meincke said, specifically noting that in his case, it took him 20 years to get help.
“We’re desperate by the time we put our hands up for help,” he said. “Offering MAID is like throwing a cinderblock instead of a life preserver.”
VAC has claimed that only one rogue worker had been offering ‘assisted dying’ to veterans, but Meincke said that isn’t possible. “It had to have been policy, because it’s just too many people in too many provinces,” Meincke said, adding that he believes there have been close to 20 veterans told to die. “Every province has service agents from that province.”
In 2022, veteran and Paralympian Christine Gauthier testified that she was offered death after she asked for assistance with a wheelchair ramp for her home. Canada also has one of the highest ‘assisted dying’ rates in the world, with politicians even calling for infant euthanasia in recent years.
