The federal government is using taxpayer dollars for a new academic platform to promote the country’s euthanasia regime, said Canadian military veteran and investigative researcher Kelsi Sheren.

In a recent post to her Substack account, Sheren shared that the new Canadian Journal of MAiD, launched by the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers (CAMAP), is getting financial support from Health Canada.

Sheren wrote in her Substack “that when Health Canada funds a journal dedicated to MAiD (medical assistance in dying), it isn’t neutral research." She declared that the Canadian Journal of MAiD is “built to influence doctors, shape policy and shift cultural attitudes about death itself.”

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The journal is marketed by CAMAP as “a scholarly home for this rapidly evolving field,” and is expected to feature a host of academic research articles.

Sheren, who is a podcast host, author, speaker and performance coach, told The Catholic Register CAMAP also “boasted and sent an email out saying they were starting their own medical journal and it was going to be MAiD-specific and they said that Health Canada was funding it.”

Sheren has a particular interest in tracking who funds organizations like Dying with Dignity and CAMAP. Canadian Blood Services funding and promotion of the annual CAMAP conference caught her attention. She questioned why the country’s coordinating agency for organ and tissue donation would be “donating to a pro-death cult.”

“There is just too much here,” said Sheren. “You tie it all together: the government is funding, the schools and College of Physicians (and Surgeons) are teaching CAMAP protocols and then you will see through who is sponsoring the events who is going to profit from (MAiD).”

Karine LeBlanc from Health Canada's media relations team did not directly respond to the critiques Sheren made in her article. She did confirm that in 2024 Health Canada did provide funding to CAMAP to establish Canada’s first peer-reviewed bilingual journal focused on MAiD. From her agency's perspective, the publication's "aim is to facilitate information sharing of independent, objective and credible research to address data gaps, strengthen the evidence base and share policy solutions for continuous quality improvement in the provision of safe and appropriate MAiD services in Canada. This work also seeks to support provinces and territories in the safe and appropriate delivery of this health service."

Nicole Scheidl, the executive director of Canadian Physicians for Life, reviewed Sheren’s article and said CAMAP “exists to normalize physician-assisted suicide across Canada under the guise of medical expertise.” She added that “creating an academic journal to further the air of authority furthers the mirage of professionalism” and “no amount of ‘ivory tower authority’ can gloss over the negligence and abandonment inherent in Canada's MAiD regime.”

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Sheren has characterized the influence efforts as “eugenics in sheep’s clothing” as “veterans are being offered MAiD instead of treatment. People with disabilities are being told death is an ‘option’ when supports are unavailable. The poor and mentally ill are being steered toward assisted death because their suffering is ‘too expensive’ to address. That’s not dignity. It’s cost-saving through death.”

While serving in Afghanistan as an artillery gunner with Canadian, American and British forces in 2009, Sheren witnessed the death of friends and experienced intense combat. When she returned home, she was diagnosed with PTSD. After trying several traditional treatments that failed, she found healing with psychedelic therapy. She has publicly told her story on prominent platforms like the Jordan Peterson Podcast.

Sheren “knew when going overseas you were fighting against an ideology that doesn’t value life, but to then come home and see these medical doctors talking about how beautiful it is to watch someone die… how euphoric they feel after they kill people…”

While articulating a disconcerting portrait of the current landscape, Sheren and her connections in the anti-euthanasia community are aware how the assisted suicide regime will grow if individuals solely living with a mental illness are granted access to the killing procedure as of March 17, 2027. She is also mindful that the notion of mature minors receiving MAiD has been discussed at a CAMAP conference.  

Scheidl expressed appreciation for Sheren emerging as “one of the most vocal opponents of Canada’s euthanasia program.”

“She has served our country as a soldier and now she is serving the public interest by exposing the cultural corruption of normalizing state-sponsored suicide,” wrote Scheidl.

“Kelsi's latest article shows the creeping way in which, as she puts it, ‘life stops being the default.’ It is no surprise that all of the incentives for prematurely ending the lives of citizens are perverse. I am grateful for Kelsi's voice on this important issue.”

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The Register made multiple attempts to contact CAMAP and Canadian Blood Services, but neither has responded. 

Read the article at https://substack.com/@kelsisheren/p-173102307.