Vaughn Palmer: Stumbling over words, Liberals sidestep around medical funds for dying
Credit to Author: Stephen Snelgrove| Date: Sat, 29 Feb 2020 02:29:15 +0000
VICTORIA — The B.C. Liberals were forced into damage control this week after Ian Paton, their MLA for Delta South, accused the New Democrats of “literally stealing the assets” of the Delta Hospice Society.
Paton made the comment after Health Minister Adrian Dix ran out of patience over the hospice’s refusal to provide medical assistance in dying, as required by provincial policy and Canadian law.
Dix put the society on notice Tuesday that the province was cutting off the $1.5 million annual operating grant for the 10-bed hospice effective a year from now.
He said the beds would remain in service in Delta, suggesting that the Fraser Health Region, which owns the land on which the hospice is located, could take over operations.
An angry Paton responded by accusing the NDP government of “swooping in to take over” a hospice that was built via an $8.5 million fundraising campaign in his community.
“Now what I see is government literally stealing assets from the people of Delta that worked so hard for so many years,” he told reporters.
The theft charge prompted Rob Shaw of The Vancouver Sun to ask Paton where he stood on medical assistance in dying or MAiD. Did he support the hospice’s refusal to provide the service?
“That’s not where I’m going today,” replied Paton. “It’s a very heated debate in our community whether people are for or against MAiD. And that’s something I’m not willing to go to.”
Heated is right. The controversy over the society’s reluctance to provide access to medical assistance in dying dates back two years. But the flashpoint arrived late last year after pro-life activists took control of the society board and cut off access once and for all.
Although Dix made the call on funding, the requirement to provide access dates back to the previous government, a point underscored by Liberal health critic Norm Letnick.
Letnick was standing alongside Tuesday when Paton flamed out and he tried to rescue the situation.
“Today’s announcement is following part of the policy that was enacted by the previous government and led by Terry Lake when he was health minister,” said Letnick.
“This is a very emotional issue for people in Delta and one way that the government could help in lowering the temperature on the issue is to make it clear to the people of Delta that their donations to this facility will be respected.”
Paton did not take the hint. He instead stuck by the accusation that the government was stealing and refused to say where he stood on MAiD.
But when his duck-and-cover act was reported in The Vancouver Sun and elsewhere, the backlash soon followed.
“People in Delta deserve access to all health care services, including medical assistance in dying,” declared Delta’s other MLA, New Democrat Ravi Kahlon.
“By refusing to stand up for a choice that people are entitled to under the law, Mr. Paton is refusing to stand up for people in our community.”
After those and other comments, including some grumbling from within his own B.C. Liberal party, Paton performed a complete backdown on social media.
“Upon reflection, I realize my comments were not worded well,” wrote Paton.
“To be clear, I acknowledge and respect Fraser Health’s decision to ensure that federal law is upheld and all citizens are given access to medical assistance in dying. I agree that publicly funded facilities should be prepared to offer this right to their patients.”
With MLA Paton back on side with the law and a policy authored by the previous B.C. Liberal government, it fell to the Liberals to account for the gaffe.
Privately, they said he’d unwittingly drifted into the orbit of Rich Coleman, the former cabinet minister and Langley East MLA, who has strong ties to the pro-life movement.
Coleman has spoken a couple of times at March for Life rallies at the legislature, where both abortion and medical assistance in dying have been criticized.
Another attendee at one of those rallies was Tamara Jansen, now the Conservative MP for Cloverdale-Langley, the federal riding adjacent to Coleman’s provincial turf.
Jansen was called out during the federal campaign for what she admitted was a “poor choice of words” of her own — saying that medical assistance in dying would turn hospices into “death camps.”
Earlier this year, Jansen waded into the controversy over the Delta Hospice Society. She fired off a letter to Health Minister Dix accusing the health authority of “using vulnerable people as bargaining chips” in the showdown.
Seven other Conservative MPs signed the letter, though oddly none were from B.C. Rather, they represented ridings in Alberta and Saskatchewan. All were endorsed by the Campaign Life Coalition, which opposes both abortion and medical assistance in dying.
After this week’s announcement from Dix, the president of the board at the Delta Hospice Society, Angelina Ireland, vowed to fight on, in an interview with Campaign Life’s LifeSiteNews.
“If the government wants to open MAiD facilities that’s their option, but they must not be allowed to download it onto the backs of private palliative care facilities,” she told the news service in a story headlined: “Provincial government to withhold $1.5M from Canadian hospice for refusing to kill sick patients.”
If Paton is wise, now that he’s established some distance between himself and the hospice society, he’ll work to maintain it.
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