Welcome to April - I hope spring is finding your corner of Canada!
As disabled people, we face lots of complicated topics, aimed at us through poorly devised policies and practices. This year we are focusing on the Determinants of Disability Poverty, which you can find on our website. Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) is one of the issues that sits within these Determinants.
We know that this is a very personal topic, and we respect your right to your personal decisions on this.
At Disability Without Poverty we will continue to advocate against Track 2 MAID, where death is not foreseeable, as we believe that it targets disabled people who have been let down through the system, by failing to support their health needs adequately, by not supporting their need for adequate income, and by not providing for their safety, through housing and other social needs.
We are pleased to see the steps taken in Alberta, through Bill 18, to block Track 2 and to increase the safeguarding measures over MAID generally. At the same time, the federal government is starting its discussions on whether Track 2 MAID should be allowed for those whose only condition is mental illness. If you want to submit your thoughts on that process you can email the AMAD committee at AMAD@parl.gc.ca.
MAID is personal for me, as my husband chose to use it in December 2025. Victor did not want to die, but he felt he had come to the end of the road with a medical system that had failed him in many ways, and consistently showed that it did not believe him and was not interested in supporting him to stay alive. I chose to put my personal feelings aside to support Victor in what he wanted to do; one of the hardest things I could ever be asked to do.
What I saw, my firsthand view of MAID, was worse than I had thought it could be. From submitting his application, to the assessment, and even to his final moments, I witnessed a process that is still far too vague, demeaning, and unsafe for it to be the law of the land in Canada, for it to be the last refuge of disabled people who have been failed by the system rather than supported to survive and thrive.
As disabled people, we know that we are not defined by our disabilities. As well as being a husband, a brother, and a father, Victor was a poet and a writer. He spent his last months writing one last book called “Mein Todesbuch” – My Death Book. I leave you with his last poem, from his last book.
Shadow Tag
i am not strong.
i am breathing.
i am alive with love
in this valley
of apples, cherries, pears,
peaches, and apricots.
my sister, my brother and me
play shadow tag. The grinning
reaper lifts their skirts,
racing to play, catches
my brother, dead to last.
Dr. Michelle Hewitt
Board Chair
Disability Without Poverty
