Canadian Man Speaking Out After His Grandparents Were Euthanized

A Canadian man is speaking out against the country’s expanding euthanasia regime after both of his grandmothers were killed through the MAID program that has killed over 90,000 people.

Benjamin Turland, whose grandmothers died via Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) in separate incidents years apart, shared his anguish in a recent interview with anti-euthanasia activist Amanda Achtman, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform. His story underscores growing concerns that Canada’s euthanasia laws, once limited to terminal illness, now encompass frailty, chronic conditions and even socioeconomic pressures, leading to what critics call eugenics in modern form.

Turland’s paternal grandmother, who had dementia, was euthanized in a hospital room after staff raised the possibility with his aunt, who held power of attorney

“They came to her and said, ‘Hey, have you thought about MAID?’” Turland recounted. Despite his aunt’s initial resistance — “No, absolutely not” — she relented after repeated suggestions, later expressing regret: “I wish I hadn’t.”

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The family gathered for a final visit, but Turland and his mother chose not to stay for the procedure itself. “We didn’t want to be there for that,” he said.

The loss shattered Turland emotionally.

“It just wrecked me,” he told Achtman. “I remember just crying and crying and crying. I couldn’t stop.”

Years later, tragedy struck again when Turland’s maternal grandmother, suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sought MAID at a clinic.

“She was basically coached into it,” Turland said, noting how the process unfolded without the family doctor’s knowledge. His aunt again bore the burden of signing the consent forms.

“They just kept pushing her,” he said, highlighting what he sees as a systemic nudge toward death over care.

Turland, now a vocal opponent of MAID’s expansion, warns that the program preys on vulnerability.

“It’s not compassionate to kill people,” he said in the interview.

“Why didn’t I say something?”

Listen to Benjamin Turland share his experience of losing both his grandmothers to euthanasia in Canada. pic.twitter.com/zeVI4XEeLY

— Amanda Achtman (@AmandaAchtman) November 1, 2025

Canada legalized assisted suicide in 2016, initially for competent adults with grievous and irremediable conditions. Safeguards have eroded rapidly.

By 2023, MAID accounted for 4.7% of all deaths nationwide, with 15,343 cases. The number climbed to an estimated 16,500 in 2024, representing 5% of deaths. In the first half of 2025, Ontario alone reported 2,551 MAID deaths, a 4% increase from the prior year. British Columbia saw 3,000 such deaths in 2024, an 8% rise, with Vancouver Island accounting for 904 — over 30% of the province’s total. Alarmingly, 35% of British Columbia approvals last year were for “other conditions,” nearly two-thirds labeled simply as “frailty,” a vague term for aging bodies and comorbidities rather than terminal illness.