REAL Women’s Annual 2020 AGM was quite an experience!
Because of the COVID-19 lockdown, we were permitted only 10 individuals to attend the meeting in person and the remaining members attended digitally by way of the Zoom platform.
To say it was a learning experience for us is to put it mildly. Our thanks to an Ottawa member, a computer programmer, who set up and monitored the Zoom platform for us. This unusual situation did have its glitches and confusion, of course, but we managed to cover our agenda as required under the Not-For-Profit Corporations Act. We hope, though, that we won’t have to do it again at our 2021 AGM. Thanks to all who attended the meeting personally and digitally.
Two resolutions passed at the AGM as follows:
- Protecting Palliative Care in Canada
WHEREAS political pressure is being placed on palliative care hospices in Canada by the B.C. NDP government, and by physicians who perform assisted suicide in Ontario, to require such hospices to provide beds in their facilities to accommodate assisted suicide patients; and
WHEREAS palliative care supports the dignity of human life and the care and comfort of patients, including providing medication to relieve pain to allow the patient to have a natural death; and
WHEREAS assisted suicide encourages the sick and the terminally ill to consent to be killed by lethal injection in order to stop their suffering, either psychological or medical, regardless of the fact that their illness can be treated with medication and counselling; and
WHEREAS the Canadian Hospital Palliative Care Association and the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians state that Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) and palliative care differ in many areas, including in their philosophy, intention and approach; and
WHEREAS the concept of physician-assisted suicide, now renamed Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), and palliative care services are not compatible; and
WHEREAS the pressure placed on hospices to accommodate assisted suicide patients, if successful, will create a precedent that would lead to the extinguishing of palliative care in Canada; and
WHEREAS MAID legislation has been positioned as a “healthcare right” under the Canada Health Act, so that it is publically funded, and accessible to all Canadians; and
WHEREAS palliative care has not been positioned as a healthcare right under the Canada Health Act, publically funded and accessible to all; and
WHEREAS fewer than 30% of Canadians have access to palliative care and are thus denied access to such care, despite the fact that 98% of those dying in Canada do so naturally, not by assisted suicide;
BE IT RESOLVED that palliative care services in Canada operate independently from assisted suicide services.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that palliative care be included in the Canada Health Act so that dying patients will have access to publically-funded and accessible palliative care services as their right at the end of their lives.
Please buy a membership in the beleaguered Delta Hospice Society which the B.C. NDP government is trying to take over. Also, the pro-euthanasia organization Dying with Dignity is buying up memberships in the Delta hospice to force it to change its policy to allow beds for assisted suicide. This must be resisted.
Please forward the resolution or a summary of it to your MP, and our party leaders, including PM Justin Trudeau, Erin O’Toole, Jagmeet Singh, and to the Minister of Health, Patty Hajdu. https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en
- The Mainstream Media Provide Partisan Information
WHEREAS the mainstream media (MSM) in Canada, including the major newspapers, the CBC and the other national TV networks, and cable TV, are providing information that lacks balance and objectivity; and
WHEREAS many MSM, including the CBC and major newspaper chains, are subsidized by the federal Liberal government and thus are beholden to them which inherently biases MSM journalism; and
WHEREAS the political narratives presented by the MSM fail to present facts or ignore important facts that are inconsistent with their narratives; and
WHEREAS the MSM’s narratives are destructive to the democratic system and religious beliefs, since they deliberately undermine traditional moral values and principles that have been practiced and upheld for generations, tested by experience, and which have been shown to benefit society; and
WHEREAS the MSM are attempting to change society with partisan narratives by portraying unacceptable behaviour as normal, and presenting questionable values as the only authentic Canadian public opinion; and
WHEREAS such narratives by the MSM have caused Canadians to lose confidence in the MSM, and also in some of our national institutions, that are promoting the partisan narratives of the MSM;
BE IT RESOLVED that the partisan narratives provided by the MSM be rejected by REAL Women of Canada as inauthentic and manipulative; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the MSM, which have destroyed their own reputation and the profession of journalism by biased, partisan behaviour, be encouraged by REAL Women of Canada to regain their integrity by providing information that is objective, balanced and which reflects the diverse views and opinions of Canadians.
Please write to the media (either print or electronic) when it provides biased, prejudiced information. Do not hesitate to do so even if the media does not print or respond to your comment. It is important that they receive your comments so they know how the public is responding. (They are aware of your response, even if they don’t publish it).
Guest Speaker – Blaise Alleyne
The guest speaker at the AGM was Blaise Alleyne (from Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform) who gave a fascinating and illuminating talk on how to present arguments against assisted suicide to counter the dangerous Bill C-7, which widens even further access to the already treacherous assisted suicide law in Canada. See article included in this issue on his talk.