Veterans Affairs says it has no proof former paralympian was offered assisted death | 24CA News
Veterans Affairs can discover nothing in its recordsdata to recommend {that a} former member of the navy — a paralympic athlete — was supplied medical help in dying by a division worker, the division’s deputy minister informed a House of Commons committee on Monday.
Paul Ledwell informed the veterans affairs committee that the division has examined over 400,000 particular person recordsdata as a part of its inner investigation of allegations that veterans have been supplied — or have been pressured to just accept — assisted deaths.
On Thursday, Christine Gauthier — a paraplegic former member of the Canadian navy and a former paralympian — shocked MPs on the committee by testifying that the Department of Veterans Affairs supplied her, in writing, the chance for a medically assisted demise and even supplied to supply the gear.
Ledwell stated the division carried out a selected evaluate of Gauthier’s case file in response to her testimony.
“There’s no indication in the files in any correspondence, in any notation, based on engagement with a veteran of reference to MAID,” Ledwell informed the veterans affairs committee.
“If the veteran has material, any indication of that, we again — as we’ve invited for other veterans — would welcome seeing that, reviewing that and making that part of our investigation.”
Gauthier, who competed for Canada on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics and the Invictus Games that very same 12 months, spoke earlier than the identical committee final Thursday. Testifying principally in French, she stated the veterans division supplied her help in dying. She additionally claimed to have it in writing.
The committee requested for a duplicate of her info. In subsequent media interviews, Gauthier stated that whereas the provide of medically assisted demise was made verbally in a 2019 dialog with a Veterans Affairs worker, she made a observe of it in her private recordsdata, which she agreed to share with the committee.
Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay informed the committee final month that an inner investigation discovered that one division worker is believed to have inappropriately counselled as many as 4 veterans on the opportunity of ending their lives with a physician’s help. The matter has been turned over to the RCMP for additional investigation.
MacAulay caught to that line earlier than the committee on Monday, saying the division remains to be solely conscious of 4 circumstances. He urged different former members of the navy who may need been equally pressured — together with Gauthier — to contact the division immediately to allow them to be included within the ongoing investigation.
“I indicated quite clearly that there was four cases involving one case manager. Totally unacceptable, totally unacceptable,” MacAulay stated. “Veterans Affairs does not provide MAID services at all.”
Conservative MP and committee deputy chair Blake Richards stated he is conscious anecdotally of eight separate complaints from veterans. Some of these veterans, he stated, are reluctant to belief the division due to the way in which they have been handled previously.
Gauthier, a paraplegic who stated she’s been battling the division for 5 years to acquire a wheelchair ramp or carry, final week testified that she wrote to each Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and MacAulay to precise her issues.
On Monday, the minister flatly denied ever having heard from her.
