Ottawa, Ontario                                                               November 19, 2020

B.C. Court of Appeal Rejects Delta Hospice Society’s Appeal

The appeal by the small ten bed not-for-profit palliative care facility in Delta, B.C. to protect itself from a hostile takeover by the euthanasia organization, Dying with Dignity, has been rejected by the B.C. Court of Appeal.

In a decision handed down on November 13, 2020, the hospice was prohibited from excluding membership applications by those wishing to impose assisted suicide, called medical assistance in dying (MAID), into the hospice.

Membership in the society before this attempted takeover consisted only of approximately 160 members. By April 15, 2020, the society had over 1400 members, many new membership applications having been obtained by MAID activists. The latter literally went door-to-door in the community misinforming residents of the facts and purpose of the hospice, and signing up “new members” in order infiltrate the society and force it to provide beds for assisted suicide. During this attempted hostile takeover, social media, as well as newspaper reports, published articles and comments which attempted to poison the community against the hospice and its 30-year reputation for good works. Threatening letters have also been sent to the board members, demanding that they not resist the takeover of the hospice.

Significantly, neither the Supreme Court of Canada, nor Parliament have mandated that assisted suicide be made available in all places at all times. Instead, Dying with Dignity and its supporters are insisting that all hospices be forced to provide MAID. If they are successful, it is inevitable that all palliative care institutions in Canada will eventually be required to provide beds for assisted suicide. This will result in the extinguishing of palliative care in Canada, which will be pushed aside by this manoeuvre.

To safeguard the palliative care hospice against this hostile takeover, REAL Women of Canada urgently requests all our members to take out a membership in the hospice, since it requires many more pro-life members to protect the society. It is the only way available for the hospice to fight this takeover. The hospice hopes to acquire enough members to pass a resolution to strengthen the bylaws by prohibiting MAID from being accessible in the hospice; providing clear membership criteria; and revoking the membership of those objecting to the hospice’s insistence on palliative care services only.

The Delta Hospice Society has set up a website to quickly process memberships. Please go to: www.savedeltahospice.com

Thank you. Please regard this ALERT as a priority.