On this our U.S. Veterans Day, I bring this horrible story about how Canadian war veterans are being encouraged to be killed by their own health care system when suffering from war injuries.
It was two days before Christmas when David Baltzer, a physically healthy man in his 30s, was offered medically assisted death by a Veterans Affairs Canada caseworker.
A former soldier who had served two tours in Afghanistan, Baltzer had been receiving psychological treatment for PTSD and suicidal thoughts.
He relied on veterans' benefits to survive after struggling to reintegrate into civilian life, so he was shocked when he received a letter informing him that his benefits had been cut.
Upset and looking for answers, he called Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC).
But rather than receiving the help he was seeking, Baltzer claims the caseworker instructed him to end the call and provided him with a different number to contact.
During that subsequent conversation, he says the caseworker reviewed his file and suggested he consider another option.
'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?"'
Baltzer is among several Canadian veterans who have told the Daily Mail they were offered euthanasia in connection with their mental health struggles and disabilities.
Some said they felt 'disposable' and 'abandoned' by the country they served for years, as one claimed a nurse had 'bragged' to him about how many people they had euthanised.
Another said it is easier to access legal marijuana than medical equipment, as they argue Canada is washing its hands of its servicemen.
The Daily Mail also spoke to Catherine Christensen, a lawyer representing several veterans who were offered medical assistance in dying (MAID) and is working on a proposed class-action lawsuit against the Canadian government.
'You've got physically healthy young men asking for help, and the help offered is death,' she said.
For Baltzer, the call came at a particularly vulnerable point. He was already struggling to adjust to civilian life, had been experiencing difficulties in his relationship and had been assigned several different therapists through Veterans Affairs.
Speaking to the Daily Mail from his home in Manitoba, he said: 'To me, [the suggestion of MAID] was a confirmation of, 'Oh, my life is worthless'.'
He says the 2019 conversation became a turning point, sending him into a downward spiral.
'The last six years have been a gong show. I went off the rails pretty hard. I ruined a lot of stuff in my life. I just burned it all to the ground.'
The suggestion that his life was no longer worth living profoundly affected his sense of self-worth.
'[After the call] I started questioning my value. I had a really bad attitude and was engaging in anti-social behaviour. Not even thinking about consequences, but thinking about things in the moment and just doing them.'
His actions became increasingly destructive and he began abusing alcohol and other substances.
Eventually, as part of an appeal to have his veterans' benefits reinstated, Baltzer raised the issue of the MAID suggestion with a pension advocate, but says nothing came of it.
'I said, "You didn't help me at all, and in fact, you offered me medically-assisted suicide." And it just went blank. No one said anything. It just got swept under the rug.'
The experience left him feeling betrayed by an institution he had once been proud to be a part of.
'I was a stand-up, moral, law-abiding citizen and prided myself on that for a very long time. And then I realised all I'm doing is fighting the system constantly after I honourably served them.'
Reflecting on his time in Afghanistan, Baltzer described the horrors of combat and the difficulty of returning to ordinary life after years spent in a violent environment where death was an ever-present possibility.
'You'd see the vehicle in front of you get blown up, see how much of the road it took out, and then you're picking up body parts off the ground. Or mush, or whatever was left.'
'Being in for as long as I was, you kind of forget who you were before. You forget the things that you enjoyed.
Although Baltzer remains proud of his military achievements, he says the way he was treated by Canada has left him with a bad taste in his mouth.
'After everything that's been done, if I could go back in time, I wouldn't have served Canada,' he said.
And Baltzer is not the only veteran who regrets dedicating his life to Canada's Armed Forces.
Tony Jenkins, 52, from Nova Scotia, served in the military on and off for almost two-and-a-half decades as a weapons technician, and was offered MAID twice.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said serving his country was 'the worst decision of my life'.
In 2015, Jenkins suffered a devastating brain injury after being struck on the head by an antenna attached to an armoured vehicle.
In the years that followed, he developed chronic migraines, slurred speech and severe nerve damage, which left him with debilitating pain in his arms and shoulders.
He says the military repeatedly dismissed his condition, with one superior telling him he was 'full of s***' when he raised concerns about his brain injury.
Around two years after the accident, he visited a military doctor in distress after losing feeling in his arms. But rather than addressing his physical symptoms, he says she immediately asked whether 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".'
Jenkins explained that he was already seeing a psychologist, but says the doctor repeated the question and offer. He came to understand that she was implying she could help him access medically assisted dying.
Jenkins left the military in January 2022. At the time, he was taking prescription medication to control his migraines, but after leaving the Armed Forces, he discovered that his repeat prescription had been sent to a pharmacy in another town.
Unable to access his medication, he was left suffering a debilitating migraine that lasted nine days.
'I was sitting on a toilet with a bucket between my legs for nine days. When I wasn't doing that, I was lying on the floor in the basement because I just needed something cold and dark,' he said, 'I lost 14 pounds in nine days from being sick.'
He tried unsuccessfully to obtain a replacement supply of medication from a nearby walk-in clinic and another hospital. Eventually, he called 811, Nova Scotia's health advice line, to speak to a nurse.
Desperate and in excruciating pain, Jenkins asked about MAID. He says he was promptly transferred to another line, where a second nurse immediately discussed arranging an appointment, without first exploring other options for treating his condition.
'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,' he said, 'It was as easy as ordering a pizza.'
Jenkins claimed he was told the procedure could be arranged within days, and said the nurse bragged about having carried out more than 400 such procedures.
'She was very nonchalant, as if she was discussing a dentist appointment,' he said.
After speaking to his wife, Jenkins decided that MAID was not the route he wanted to take.
And as the immediate distress subsided, he says he began to realise just how shocking it was that assisted dying had been presented to him as an option.
'When I realized it was so easy, literally two phone calls, and you could be killed the next day, I thought to myself, this isn't right,' he said.
What made the experience even more disturbing was when he went to the local pharmacy the following day with his empty box of medication to see if they could help. The pharmacist immediately agreed to refill his prescription.
'It was as simple as that. 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.'
Both Baltzer and Jenkins have said they want to leave Canada for good now.
'We're not worth anything to these people,' Jenkins said. 'I often say that I wasted my life serving my country, because they always say you're one big family. You're one big family until something happens to you.'
Catherine Christensen is a lawyer based in Alberta who has represented many veteran clients over the years.
Although the veterans cited in this piece have agreed to have their names made public, she tells me there are many more out there who have been offered MAID but are afraid to speak out.
'They fear that if they dare complain, their Veterans Affairs benefits will be cut off. Or, at the very least, cut off long enough for it to hurt, and then all of a sudden they'll be reinstated.'
Christensen is currently representing several men who are suing the Canadian government for offering them MAID.
One of these men is Corben McGown. The veteran is 26 now, but was offered euthanasia at just 22 years of age.
Speaking to the Daily Mail from Newbrunswick, he recounted: 'I 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 [VAC] for help. I needed some support. I really didn't know what I was doing.'
McGown was at the time struggling with PTSD, depression, anxiety and had attempted to take his life several times.
VAC had given him therapy, but the young man said he found the process dehumanising and difficult.
'Some therapists made me feel as though I was just a paycheck to them. Others couldn't even remember our previous sessions. It didn't feel like I mattered to them.'
He had been in therapy for a year and a half before he was abruptly offered MAID.
During a phone call with a caseworker, in which McGown was speaking about his mental health struggles, one of the first options he says he was given was euthanasia.
'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.
'When she brought it up, it was essentially presented as: "You qualify for it".'
McGown, who was accompanied by his wife during the phone call, said he turned to her in shock after hearing the offer.
'I was stunned. It was a lot to take in. I was looking for help – not to die,' he said.
A few years later, McGown suffered another devastating loss when his father, also a military veteran, died by suicide.
In the aftermath, he began reflecting on his own experiences with Veterans Affairs, including the inadequate mental health support he had received and the shock of being offered MAID.
It was around this time that he met Catherine Christensen of Valour Law, who agreed to represent him. His case has since made its way through the courts.
In an amended statement of claim, seen by the Daily Mail and filed with the Federal Court, McGown alleges that, rather than offering him appropriate mental health treatment and support, a Veterans Affairs representative presented MAID as the preferred option for his psychological difficulties.
He claims the incident caused severe emotional distress, mental anguish and what he describes as moral injury, further worsening his mental health and leaving him unable to work.
However, the Canadian government has denied that MAID was ever discussed with McGown, maintaining that the phone call in question concerned his benefits and potential mental health treatment.
It also says it has no records of any call corresponding to his allegations.
Christensen, who has represented numerous veterans over the years, says the apparent disappearance of records is a chronic problem within Veterans Affairs and the Canadian Armed Forces.
'When we ask for records, there are gaps. It's a very common thing,' she said.
'With Corben's call, they said it never happened. So we produced his phone records as evidence, because he had called them.'
McGown is now in full-time therapy with a psychologist of his choosing, and says his mental health has improved.
'[The therapist] remembers every session, and he treats me like a person. It's definitely a lot better than what they (VAC) offered me.'
His message to other veterans struggling with their mental health is: 'It does get better. There are a lot of better options than MAID.'
Christine Gauthier, a former Paralympian and veteran from Quebec, was offered MAID when she requested a wheelchair lift for her flat.
Gauthier became disabled after suffering an injury during military training in 1998, but went on to serve for over a decade as an artilleryman, with deployments to Israel and Cyprus.
Over the past three decades, her condition has deteriorated to the point that she is now wheelchair-bound and relies on government benefits and medical equipment to maintain her mobility.
Speaking to me from her home in Montreal, she said it took five years of petitioning to get a wheelchair lift installed in her home.
'Throughout those five years, the Veterans Affairs agent supposedly handling my case would call every few months and tell me things were about to be sorted out.
'Each time, I hoped that this would finally be the call when something happened.
'In the meantime, I had to crawl up and down eight steps, holding and dragging my wheelchair behind me, just to get into my house.
'Then, one day, during one of those calls, I told him: "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".'
Gauthier says the caseworker went on to explain that she had the right to medical assistance in dying because it had recently become available.
'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".'
Gauthier says the incident was the final straw after decades of what she describes as inadequate care from Veterans Affairs.
She says she has repeatedly had to fight for basic necessities, including incontinence pads, while being offered unlimited medical marijuana – which she believes was intended to keep her complacent.
'They called me to tell me I had reached the limit of the diapers I needed in a month. I mean, how low can you make someone feel as a human being?'
She says she has also had to fight five separate times to retain her medical insurance.
On one occasion, a caseworker reportedly told her she should 'consider herself lucky' to have had coverage for so long.
'Lucky? I should consider myself lucky to be crippled and unable to get coverage anywhere else?' she said.
'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,' she said.
'Sometimes I wonder whether the system has been designed this way because so many people eventually give up.'
Gauthier says that when she mentioned the phone call offering her MAID to staff at her local hospital, they urged her to report it formally.
She subsequently wrote to then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who she says sent a generic response explaining that he could not intervene because the matter fell outside his remit.
Veterans Affairs Canada later reviewed her case but said it could find no evidence to corroborate her account, finding no reference to MAID in her file.
In 2023, following an internal investigation into allegations that Veterans Affairs Canada employees had inappropriately raised MAID with veterans, the department confirmed four incidents involving a single caseworker.
VAC concluded that the incidents were isolated and found no evidence of a broader systemic problem.
The employee was discharged from the department, and VAC issued instructions to frontline staff making clear that they must not provide advice or suggestions about MAID.
But Christensen says the problem persists, and she is currently representing one veteran who has allegedly been offered MAID as recently as the spring of this year.
'The issue with MAID being offered to veterans is that veterans are an extremely vulnerable group,' she says.
Are governments doing enough to support veterans?
Yes, very much
Yes, but more could be done
No, not at all
'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.'
In a statement to the Daily Mail, VAC said MAiD is not a service it provides and that employees have 'no role or mandate to recommend or raise it'. It added that staff are explicitly instructed not to raise or recommend MAID 'under any circumstances'.
The department said concerns first came to light in August 2022, prompting an investigation which reviewed more than 402,000 client files dating back to 2016.
It said this uncovered four cases of inappropriate MAiD discussions, all involving the same employee, who is no longer with the department.
VAC maintained that the findings showed the incidents were 'not a systemic issue, but an isolated case'. It said it had since introduced mandatory staff training and additional safeguards, adding that there had been no further reports of inappropriate discussions.
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