Nov 11, 2026, 8:00 AM ET

Canadian veterans prepare to sue government for offering them MAiD

Canadian veterans are suing the government, saying they were offered medical aid in dying (MAiD) instead of appropriate treatment. Several of them recently came forward with their stories amid an impending class-action suit.

Key Takeaways:

Several veterans are part of a proposed civil action suit against the Canadian government.
The veterans allege that Veterans Affairs Canada offered them MAiD rather than true support.
Veterans say they were offered MAiD rather than migraine medication, therapy, and a wheelchair lift.

The Details:

Speaking with The Daily Mail, attorney Catherine Christensen explained, "You've got physically healthy young men asking for help, and the help offered is death."

Christensen is representing several veterans in a proposed class-action lawsuit against the Canadian government. The veterans say they were offered MAiD despite not having a terminal health condition. Some have come forward publicly, while others still remain anonymous. But they share feelings of being "disposable" and "abandoned" by the nation they served.

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'Are you sure you're not suicidal?'

Tony Jenkins, 52, from Nova Scotia severed in the military on and off for more than two decades and he said he was offered MAiD twice.

In 2015, he sustained a serious brain injury when he was struck by an antenna on an armored vehicle. That caused chronic migraines, slurred speech, and severe nerve damage that left him in debilitating arm and shoulder pain. Yet, the military ignored him, even allegedly calling him "full of s***'.

Two years after the accident, Jenkins lost feeling in his arm and went to a military doctor for help. But, instead of medical care, he was asked if he was suicidal.

"I was shocked. I'm like, no, I've never been suicidal. She kept saying, you know, 'Are you sure? Are you sure you're not suicidal?' She's like, 'Well, if you are, I can help you.'" He believed she was talking about MAiD.

After leaving the military in 2022, Jenkins' prescription for migraines was sent to a new pharmacy and he was unable to access it. He was left with a migraine that lasted nine days, and when he called the Nova Scotia health advice line, he asked about MAiD. The nurse immediately began arranging an appointment for death. He explained, "She said, 'When you're ready, you call this number again, and we just book the slot, and that's it.' It was two phone calls, and then you could book a death appointment. It was as easy as ordering a pizza."

Jenkins spoke to his wife, ruled out MAiD as an option, and was disturbed by the ease in which it was accessible to him.

"If they just would have told me, 'Take your empty box of medication and go to the pharmacy and get a refill.' That's all they had to say. But nobody offered that to me. Nobody," he said.

He now says that serving his country was "the worst decision of my life."

'Oh, my life is worthless'

David Baltzer is a veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan and was undergoing treatment for PTSD and suicidal thoughts when he was offered MAiD. According to the Daily Mail, he was physically healthy and in his 30s when his benefits were suddenly cut. He called the Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) for answers.

"He looked at my file and said, 'I can see the therapy you've done. It doesn't seem like much has helped. I'd like you to keep an open mind and think about this. Have you ever given any thought to medical assistance in dying?'" recalled Baltzer.

He told the Daily Mail, "To me, [the suggestion of MAiD] was a confirmation of, 'Oh, my life is worthless.'"

After that, he said, "I went off the rails pretty hard. I ruined a lot of stuff in my life. I just burned it all to the ground. I started questioning my value. I had a really bad attitude and was engaging in anti-social behavior. Not even thinking about consequences, but thinking about things in the moment and just doing them."

He now says, that if he "could go back in time, I wouldn't have served Canada."

'I was looking for help — not to die'

Another veteran, Corben McGown is 26, and at age 22 was "going through a pretty bad period mentally. I just wasn't doing well at the time, and I reached out to Veterans Affairs Canada for help. I needed some support. I really didn't know what I was doing."

Instead of support, one of the first options the counselor gave him was MAiD. "It was brought up almost as though I qualified for it. They knew about my situation at the time because I had been quite open about my suicidal thoughts," he said. "When she brought it up, it was essentially presented as: 'You qualify for it.'"

He added, "I was stunned. It was a lot to take in. I was looking for help — not to die."

The government denies discussing MAiD with McGown and there are no records of such a call happening. However, Christensen alleged that the VAC and the Canadian Armed Forces have a habit of losing records.

"When we ask for records, there are gaps. It's a very common thing," she explained. "With Corben's call, they said it never happened. So we produced his phone records as evidence, because he had called them."

'You know you have the right to die?'

In addition to these men, Christine Gauthier, a former Paralympian and veteran from Quebec, requested a wheelchair lift, but was offered MAiD instead. She said that over five years, VAC would tell her they were working on getting the lift, and she continued to "crawl up and down eight steps, holding and dragging my wheelchair behind me, just to get into my house."

She was at a breaking point one day and told the caseworker, ""I really can't keep going on like this. This is ridiculous. I keep injuring myself. I just can't take it anymore. And [the caseworker] blurted out: 'Well, if you really feel you can't keep going on like this and you can't take it anymore, you know you have the right to die.'... I was shocked. I said, 'I can't believe you're telling me I have the right to die, but you're not going to give me the equipment I need to live.'"

She struggled to keep her medical insurance for years and was told she should consider herself lucky to have had coverage for as long as she did.

"Lucky? I should consider myself lucky to be crippled and unable to get coverage anywhere else?" she said, adding:

"They either want you gone and dead, or quiet like a plant. They don't want you to disturb anyone, be conscious or be able to respond and fight back. Sometimes I wonder whether the system has been designed this way because so many people eventually give up."

What's Happening Now:

Ultimately, in 2023, VAC said they found four incidents in which the same caseworker pushed MAiD and that it had let that caseworker go. VAC told staff they are not to advise or suggest MAiD.

But Christensen won't stop fighting to protect the veterans.

"The issue with MAID being offered to veterans is that veterans are an extremely vulnerable group. They're trained for the mission, and then themselves. When they're struggling, they think about their family and their mission to take care of their family. You plant that idea in a veteran's head, and all of a sudden they're thinking that sacrificing themselves is for the betterment of their family," she explained.

VAC told the Daily Mail that it does not provide MAiD and that its employees have "no role or mandate to recommend or raise it." It believes the incidents were "not a systemic issue, but an isolated case."

Christensen, however, said she is working with a veteran who was offered MAiD just this past spring.

The Bottom Line:

Critics of MAiD have claimed that Canada’s government is pressuring doctors to promote MAiD to their patients to save the government money. They argue that the government sees physician-assisted suicide as cheaper for the nation’s publicly funded medical system than providing patients with treatments.

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