Sheila Gunn-Reid critiques the NDP’s Bill C-372, which would criminalize fossil fuel advocacy, comparing it to banning her documentary MAID, The Dark Side of Canadian Compassion—a project exposing Canada’s "death culture" through stories like Lori’s, a mother who avoided MAID after recovering from postpartum depression. Gunn-Reid argues MAID often stems from despair rather than physical suffering, citing studies where lack of purpose drives demand, while pro-oil voices like William Diaz defend the sector’s $112B in royalties and Indigenous economic benefits, framing carbon taxes as inflationary and counterproductive. The episode clashes advocacy for energy and compassion, revealing how policy debates risk oversimplifying complex human struggles. [Automatically generated summary]
Canada's socialist NDP wants to criminalize oil and gas advocacy.
I guess I'll have to start a prison band with my guest tonight.
I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.
Many of you already know this story.
It broke about two weeks ago, but to let you know, I have been traveling on our documentary project on Canada's culture of death.
It's about our medical assistance in dying program.
Really, it's medical killing.
The documentary is called MAID, The Dark Side of Canadian Compassion.
You can learn more about what we're doing and support the project at madedocumentary.com.
So that is a long explanation about why you may have been wondering why I haven't talked about this topic, considering it would affect me quite directly.
So I'm going to show you this clip from the NDP Brain Trust, Charlie Angus, two decade MP of the NDP, on his new big idea.
Take a listen.
Big Oil has always relied on the big tobacco playbook of delay and disinformation.
And so to tackle this immense threat to human health, we need to use many of the strategies that finally took down big tobacco.
In 1997, the Canadian Parliament banned advertising from big tobacco because of the clear threat to human health.
This is why I'm so proud to stand here today with representatives of Canada's medical community to state that the time has come to ban all oil and gas advertising.
The big tobacco moment has finally arrived for big oil.
Bill C-372 will, quote, provide a legislative response to a national public health and environmental problem of substantial and pressing concerns.
The bill will make it illegal for big oil and gas lobby and the gas lobby or their front groups or paid influencers to falsely promote the burning of fossil fuels as a benefit to the public.
The legislation will make it illegal to falsely claim that the use of one fossil fuel product is somehow better than another fossil fuel product in improving the environment.
To claim that there are clean fossil fuels is like saying there are safe cigarettes.
We know that is simply not true.
Morgan Stanley points out that the damage from climate crisis for the North American economy in just three years has been a staggering $415 billion.
And this legislation will target advertising that falsely claims that oil and gas are having a positive impact on the global economy.
And we recently learned that toxic contamination from Canada's oil and gas industry is 6,000 times higher than officially reported.
This legislation will make it illegal for Canada's oil and gas giants to falsely identify themselves with the health and positive lifestyles of Canadians or with reconciliation of Indigenous people on whose lands the toxic contamination is highest.
The big tobacco moment has arrived for companies like Suncor, Imperial, and the oil and gas giants of Canada.
So that's Charlie Angus, NDP MP of 20 years, considered actually, if there is such a thing, one of the grownups of the NDP party, a more moderate NDPer.
You make up your own mind about that.
And he's introducing Bill 372, C 372, otherwise known as an act respecting fossil fuel advertising.
And it would treat. fossil fuel advertising or just the normalization of fossil fuel use as a criminal offense.
He wants to treat oil and gas, life-affirming oil and gas, as an inherent poison to humans, which is crazy.
Why NDP Gets Everything Wrong00:02:01
It's the reason I survived minus 53 this past winter here in Alberta.
I mean, it's ludicrous, but leave it to the NDP to get everything wrong.
And then I started thinking, that act would criminalize the gun show because so much of the focus of this show is counter to the apocalyptic end times cult of global warming, climate change, pay your tithe to the church of Greta Tunberg so the weather will get more gooder.
So then I thought, how many of my friends besides me would end up in prison if Charlie Angus had his way?
So me, I'm in the slammer.
Then we'll put Robbie Picard in with me.
He's from Oil and Gas World magazine and Oil Sans Strong, Indigenous advocate for oil and gas in Fort McMurray.
Then we'll put Michelle Sterling from Friends of Science.
She can join us.
Tom Harris from the International Climate Science Coalition.
He'll be in the cell block with us.
Oh, my friend Chris Sims from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
She's very anti-carbon tax, as the name of her organization indicates she might be.
And she's pro-fossil fuels.
That's five of us in there.
You know what?
Let's get a full lineup for the prison volleyball team going.
Tonight, you'll hear from somebody, the sixth player of our prison volleyball team, somebody you know already.
He used to work for us here at Rebel News.
He moved to Alberta and then became an advocate for the benefits of oil and gas.
So somebody who would be in cell block C with me and the rest of the gang.
It's William Diaz.
Advocating for Oil and Gas Prosperity00:16:08
You might know him as our Ottawa reporter, scrappy young man.
And he is with Young Canadians for Resources.
And he joins me tonight to discuss Bill C 372 and just how ridiculous it is.
Take a listen.
Many of you are probably wondering, what happened to Wild Bill?
Well, here he is.
He moved to Alberta and then got a job, I guess, technically in the oil patch, kind of.
In the sector.
In the sector, you work in oil fuel advocacy and fossil fuel advocacy.
William, Diaz, tell us what you've been up to since you've been.
Yeah, well, thanks for inviting me on your show, Sheila.
I do public relations in the oil and gas and energy energy sector.
So I just advocate for Canadian energy because I believe as many young people, other young people do that Canadian energy is the best energy in the world, the most sustainable, the best for the environment, creates jobs, creates revenue for government, for social programs.
So I think it's important that we, first of all, learn all the benefits of the industry, that we're informed of the benefits and that we advocate for its survival and sustainability in the future.
Well, you haven't been in Alberta long, but boy, you sound like one of us.
I want to ask you just out of curiosity.
I always wonder what it's like for people who move to Alberta from other parts of the country, because I get culture shock when I travel to other parts of the country because it's different.
We really are different here in Alberta, but it's normal for me as a young person who was living in Ottawa of all places, and now you're in beautiful Calgary.
What has it been like?
Yeah.
Well, I see Alberta as a land of opportunity.
As long as you're entrepreneurial, you're willing to work hard and do good for the province and for the country, you'll be able to do it and to get whatever you want.
So I really see Alberta as a good, strong place.
And I think the province has a lot to offer in the future.
Do you notice the people are a little different?
Like, that's for me.
When I travel outside of the province, I'm like, but when I come home, I feel like it's like freedom is part of our DNA here in Alberta, even when you're just new here.
The people are different.
When we call ourselves ungovernable, we aren't joking.
Yeah.
No, the people of the province of Alberta are awesome.
I think that's, they're already the ones that make the province great.
They're hard workers.
They're people that are actually connected with what's running our country, which is the energy sector.
They have a lot of people are just grateful for what we do here in the province.
And I think that's what makes this province great.
Now, the reason I wanted to have you on the show is because, well, first of all, I ran into you the other day at a documentary screening in Calgary.
And then I realized, you know what?
Charlie Angus, Leifer NDP MP, would love to put a young man like you in jail because the NDP have proposed a new law that would, it's called Bill C372, an act respecting fossil fuel advertising.
What interesting language there.
But basically they want to treat fossil fuel advertising in the same manner as the scary teeth that they put on cigarettes.
And actually, you can't even see a cigarette package.
When you go into the store, they have to be sort of blocked off and hidden and you have to ask for it.
And then they give you the cigarette package.
And then you're like, oh, the scary mouth is on there.
They want us to treat fossil fuels that way as though they are a harm to our health instead of the reason we're able to live in such a forbidding climate.
Give us a brief rundown of what Charlie Angus would like to do to you.
Yeah, so essentially Bill C372 would make it illegal to advertise the benefits of Canadian oil and gas, which in my mind, it just blows my mind.
And that includes the fact that it brings significant revenue to indigenous communities nationwide.
It includes that Canadian oil and gas is among the cleanest in the world.
So if you mention either of those two things, you could either face up to two years in prison or have to pay $1.5 million in fine, which is insane.
And you also can't highlight the fact that it creates jobs and significant revenue for the government.
Revenue, by the way, that goes towards hospitals, schools, parks, arenas, universities, et cetera.
I was just in Grand Prairie this past weekend where the Alberta Winter Games were hosted.
The Alberta Winter Games were sponsored by multiple oil and gas companies.
The opening ceremony was held at the Bonets Energy Center.
So just oil and gas really funds communities across the country.
And this bill would make it illegal to say that.
The bill also targets the phrases such as, as long as the world needs oil and gas, shouldn't it be Canadian?
What's wrong with that phrase?
And if you were to have stickers like these ones or hoodies with the images that say, I love Canadian oil and gas, you could also face up to two years in prison because of how vaguely worded the bill is.
So it's just a crazy bill as a whole.
It's wild.
Like you can get in trouble for advocating for Canadian oil and gas.
Yeah.
While we import conflict oil constantly to the east of the country.
Like you can't say, wouldn't it be great if the people in the east were on Alberta oil as opposed to Algerian, Nigerian, Iraq?
You can't, under this law, this vaguely worded law, you couldn't say that or you could face up to two years in jail or multi-million dollars in fines.
It's so bizarre.
And it's demonization of the truth, right?
Like it's demonization of reality.
And I'm so glad you pointed out, which I don't think people in the rest of the country realize, but it is completely normal on the prairies for your local hockey rank, your local sports team, or your local rec center to be sponsored by an oil and gas company.
Like all of Bonneville, Alberta, Cold Lake, Alberta, it's completely sponsored by an oil and gas company.
Almost all the infrastructure is built in partnership with oil and gas money.
In a lot of places, it's what keeps these small towns alive.
And leave it to somebody from the East, no offense, like Charlie Angus, to not know that.
So you can even thank Synovis for subsidizing your hockey rank under this law.
Yeah, or any of the other oil and gas companies.
And it's important to point out between 2022 and 2023, our oil and gas sector generating, generated $112 billion in government money through royalties and taxes.
That's money that went to hospitals.
That's money that went to funding schools, parks, roads, and everything that make our communities thrive.
So it's just, it's just, it's hilarious that Charlie Angus wants to make advertisement of our great energy sector illegal in Canada.
Charlie Angus has painted himself as an advocate of Indigenous people in the past.
But he would criminalize under his own bill Indigenous people who speak about fossil fuel energy as a way out of generational poverty.
Yeah.
Do you think he's given that some thought or he just doesn't even care?
I mean, there's a lot of important Indigenous voices that spoke out against Bill C372.
Chris Sankey is one of them.
Stephen Buffalo as well, Karen Ogin as well.
They all spoke out against the bill because oil and gas, the oil and gas sector brings important revenue to Indigenous communities across the nation, especially remote Indigenous communities.
I believe the IRN stated that the average salary of an Indigenous person employed in the oil and gas sector is about $150,000 per year.
The average salary of an Indigenous person employed in any other sector is $50,000 per year.
That's $100,000, $100,000 more in average per person employed in the oil and gas sector for Indigenous communities.
So it brings significant revenue.
It brings prosperity.
Indigenous ownership in energy sector brings revenue to those communities and makes them thrive.
Yeah.
And the oil and gas sector, if I had to pick a sector that I would describe as Indigenous, I would pick the oil and gas sector because many of these projects are where Indigenous people live.
Fort McMurray, for example, Places in Saskatchewan.
These are places close to Indigenous communities where Indigenous young people can get a job in their own community.
They don't have to leave their community and their culture to make a good living.
And I was looking at some numbers the other day, and Indigenous people are employed in the oil and gas sector at a rate that outpaces their rate of the Canadian population in that so they are overrepresented in the oil and gas sector just for the reasons I stated.
And again, Charlie Angus is like, nope, put them in handcuffs, take them to jail.
Well, it helps them break away from government dependency.
It helps them become more independent and actually look for their own community's prosperity.
So that's the reason why there are so many strong Indigenous voices that spoke out against the bill and that say, no, we're not going to stand by that.
We're not going to say nothing about it.
We're going to speak out about it because it brings prosperity to our communities.
No, this is an NDP bill.
So I'm not sure it will pass the House.
But, you know, you never know with how crazy the Liberals have been.
I mean, we just heard the environment minister say no more roads.
So I don't know.
You never really know because the liberals are just as radical as the NDP on these issues, at least in their legislation, but not in their behavior.
Yeah.
It worries me.
Well, we'll see what happens.
I doubt it's going to pass, but I think just as Canadians, we should be proud of our oil and gas sector.
We should be proud of our energy sector.
The oil and gas sector alone contributes to 7% of our GDP for the country.
It creates jobs for half a million Canadians, and that's not including the families that are supported by those half a million Canadians and creates opportunities for Indigenous communities and young Canadians as well for the futures and funds schools.
I'm just thinking that Alberta is currently in a leadership race in the NDP.
And since we know the provincial NDP is just a tiny little part of the NDP brain trust, if people are watching right now and you have an NDP leadership town hall in your area, make sure you ask those candidates whether or not they agree with Charlie Angus on criminalizing oil and gas advocacy and putting my friend William in jail.
Now, William, I want to ask you a couple of other things that if we talk nicely about, we'll probably get thrown in jail if Charlie Angus has his way.
But the inflation rate is down in Saskatchewan, outpacing the drop in the inflation rate across the country.
And that the reason for that is because Saskatchewan quit collecting the carbon tax on their electricity, which goes to show, you know, just how these anti-fossil fuel policies of the liberal government are really hurting the bottom line of everyday Canadians in ways that I think people don't really grasp just how deep it is.
That one thing that the Saskatchewan government did, not collecting carbon tax on the electricity produced by the provincial electricity producer.
Not collecting that has driven the inflation rate down in Saskatchewan.
Wouldn't you know it's up in Alberta?
Why?
Because we had a shortage of fossil fuel generated electricity and it drove up our electricity rates.
Yeah.
So I think Saskatchewan is able to stop collecting the carbon tax because it's cron corporations.
Exactly.
Whereas in Alberta, we leave it to private companies to produce the oil and gas that we consume.
So that's the reason Alberta won't be able to stop collecting carbon taxes just like Saskatchewan is.
But I think the carbon tax is definitely something that needs to go as soon as possible.
Now, you work in oil and gas advocacy.
So I want to ask you, you know, when you see these anti-oil policies like the carbon tax, I mean, it's an anti-fossil fuel policy.
That sends a bit of an investment chill when you see just this escalating carbon tax where the consumer is being hammered, but the investment in oil and gas projects, it can get parked somewhere else.
I mean, Saskatchewan.
100%.
Saskatchewan shares an oil field with North Dakota.
And North Dakota doesn't have a carbon tax.
And it has a stable, energy-friendly government.
In Canada, we don't have that.
And these bad policies of Justin Trudeau chase away well-paying, as you point out, Canadian jobs.
Well, I think most of the people that are advocating against Canada's oil and gas sector are just misinformed and poorly educated on the topic.
When I was living in Quebec, I saw something that we speak about a lot in the East.
They don't have the same awareness of how important Canada's oil and gas sector is.
So that's where my job comes in.
And I try to show people that, well, you know, it's not as bad as you think it is.
It's not just about money.
It's not just about CEOs getting richer or making shareholder values for people who invested in the industry.
It's about making our country thrive.
It's not just about oil and gas.
It's about all the people that depend on the sector, all our social programs that depend on the sector, and really the prosperity of Canada.
So I'd say those that are against the oil and gas sector is not just about being anti-Canadian energy.
It's about being anti-Canada.
Do you know, I want to ask you about that because you are doing this advocacy.
You are not just speaking to the converted.
Like it's easy to go to Grand Prairie and talk to people in a town that relies on the oil and gas sector about how great oil and gas is, but you're not just doing that.
So you are going places where there have been historical objections, I think misinformed objections to Canada's oil and gas sector.
So if you were to give tips as I think a newfound expert in this to people who are watching this who want to help get the message out, spread the word, what are some of the myths that we should be debunking that you are hearing in your travels?
And how do we debunk them?
Give us some tools.
Well, the best examples were when I went to the University of British Columbia last summer.
I went there for a weekend and spoke to many students on campus about our energy sector.
So I think approaching it from a place of, you know, let's talk about it instead of demonizing the other side.
Because once again, a lot of the people who oppose our energy sector are the people who don't know a lot about it and who are poorly educated on the topic because it's not something that's being talked about a lot in universities or in eastern Canada.
So I think just coming up with facts, appealing to the emotions and showing, look, this is concretely how a thriving energy sector is going to make our country better.
And I think just showing that to people helps helps them understand a lot better.
Showing The Facts Matters00:14:42
So what are they getting wrong about this?
Well, I think a lot of people just think that the CEOs of the companies are greedy.
I think a lot of people don't understand the ESG initiatives that our oil and gas companies across the country are actually taking part of.
All of the investments that are made by companies such as Birchcliffe or Tourmaline into funding hospitals, into funding schools, a lot of that just isn't shared around and isn't common knowledge for most people who aren't involved in the sector like ourselves.
So just showing that to people, showing the numbers, showing the facts helps them understand a lot better.
Do you think they understand the role of reclamation?
Yeah, in the oil and gas sector, because you know, they think for a lot of people who object to the oil and gas sector, they just see the strip mining, the open pit mining of Fort McMurray, but they don't know this teeny tiny footprint of conventional oil and gas shrinking all the time.
The teeny tiny footprint of fracking, because it's a lot of times it's directional, they don't even have to be where the gas is.
The teeny tiny footprint of SAG D, which is the majority of how you extract oil sands, it's not mining, it's SAG D, it's steam.
Do you think they for me?
When I'm talking to people who think oil and gas is dirty, all they have in their mind is a big open pit in Fort McCamron.
They don't understand that that mine is going to be filled in, reclaimed.
We're going to graze buffalo on it, we're going to build a park on top.
I think they think it's all like that and then just left that way.
Yeah, so it's funny that you mentioned it because when I went to the University of British Columbia, I actually did a little video of me showing students four images of clean, beautiful sites and asking them which of these is an image of a reclaimed oil site.
And most of the students had no idea which one was right because they all seemed so clean.
And a lot of them were super surprised when they actually learned which one was the correct one because it just was so clean.
So I think once again, that just comes from poor education on the topic of oil and gas and not knowing what's actually going on after the site has been exploited.
Amongst the following images, which of the following do you think used to be an oil drilling site in the past?
An oil drilling site?
What's this one?
Merlot B.
I probably say this one.
This one?
This one?
I'm going to say B. Can you sad one then?
I think so.
It's actually this one.
Okay, it's the greenest of them all.
Yeah.
This one?
This one, yeah.
Oh, okay, cool.
I guess surprising how green it is and how everything seems to be growing well.
Doesn't surprise you to see that.
It does actually.
I should have known that you were playing me.
I wouldn't even say exploited.
I would say just utilize.
Yeah, utilize.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Utilized.
And I think though, and I know that you're going to be diplomatic in this more than you used to be, but I think it also goes to the way the mainstream media talks about oil and gas.
They are the reason that those university students only see the open mining and never the reclamation or the other methods of extraction.
They're the reason.
Like that's where they're getting their information is from social media, from activists, and the mainstream media who never show the life cycle of an oil and gas project.
They only show the beginning as a construction.
Like when you think about oil and gas as a construction project, it's never pretty when you're building your garage, but then your garage is done and the supplies are off the yard.
You're like, oh, this is beautiful.
It's the same thing with oil and gas.
But I think the mainstream media doesn't do a great job of telling that story.
So I guess you have job security because of that, and so do I.
Well, exactly.
I think that's a great analogy.
And when you mention activists, it's often activists that claim to speak on behalf of Indigenous communities or environmentalists that claim to speak on behalf of the Indigenous communities.
And Indigenous leaders are fed up with it.
And they've made multiple articles about that.
But just to go back to your main point, yeah, I think that's the reason our organization exists.
We're here to show the other side of the story because we're here to have a balanced conversation on the topic of Canada's energy sector.
Because oftentimes in universities, as you said, we only see one-sided story.
We only see the negative side of the story portrayed by scholars and so-called activists.
So that's why we're here.
And it's great to see students have open minds and change their minds on the topic by seeing the other side of the story and by seeing that Canada's oil and gas sector should not be as demonized as it is right now.
You know, I think you're the right guy for this job because we trained you in telling the other side of the story.
You're doing that.
You're also a young person from the eastern part of this country.
So you know where the gaps in information are because you were exposed to those gaps in information, but you came into your working knowledge of the oil and gas sector with an open mind.
So I think that's wonderful.
Tell us how people can find some of the work that you're doing.
Some people can go to, honestly, if you go to ycresources.ca, we have a website there.
We have a Twitter account.
We have a YouTube channel.
We have an Instagram account.
If you look at our par, so Yaw Kangs for Resources is the youth wing of Canada Action, which is our bigger, bigger nonprofit organization.
If you go on Twitter at YC at ycresources.ca, you'll see some of our content there as well.
Awesome.
William, thanks so much for taking the time.
Thanks so much for the work that you do on behalf of the truth, but also just regular old oil patch families like mine.
We care deeply about nature.
We just think about it differently than the other side of this argument.
And really, as you point out, sometimes there isn't another side to this argument.
It's just people who don't have all the facts.
And I think you're doing a good job of outreach.
Well, exactly.
And global oil and gas demand is growing and it's set to continue to grow in the following years.
So the real question to ask is really just, as long as the world needs oil and gas, should it not be Canadian?
Should it not come from Canada?
And as soon as you ask the question, I think it's just common sense at this point.
You keep talking like that, and Charlie Angus is going to throw you in jail.
Yeah, sorry.
I'll have to hide the stickers that I have right here.
Thanks, William.
We'll talk soon.
Well, we've come to the portion of the show wherein we invite your viewer feedback.
I say this every week, and I know it's redundant, but I think it's important that I say it every week because it is really important.
It's like the number one most important thing about Rebel News.
We care about what you think about the work that we do here at Rebel News because without you, there's no us.
We don't exist without you.
You know, we'll never take a penny from Justin Trudeau.
And how could we ever hold him to account if we did?
So we have to rely on your willing support.
And I think it's the least we can do if we're asking for your support is to listen to what you have to say to us on the stories that we're doing.
It's why we never close the comment section.
And it's why I give out my email address right now.
It's Sheila at RebelNews.com.
Put gun show letters in the subject line.
If you've got something to say, say it there.
Might just get read on the show.
But also, you know, maybe you're not somebody who watches this show behind the paywall at Rebel News Plus.
Maybe that's not in your budget.
I appreciate that.
Justin Trudeau is finding newer ways to pick your pockets all the time and leave your family with less money.
So if you're watching the free version of the show, be it on YouTube over on Rumble, you're sitting through some ads.
Thank you very much.
Every little bit helps.
Leave a comment over there too.
Sometimes I go looking over there.
Quite frequently, actually, maybe about 30, 40% of my comments that I read on air come from over there.
So don't let this show sitting behind a paywall be a bar for entry.
All that is to say, I've got a letter came to the email inbox and it came very recently, but on a show that I did a couple of weeks ago when Kean Simone, our chief documentary filmmaker, and I were in, I think we were in Ottawa at the time.
We're running around the country taking some early morning flights and some very late morning flights on some very, very affordable airlines, if you get my drift, to make a documentary on medical assistance and dying, MAID, as they call it, which is the sterilized form of what it really is and it's medical killing.
Our documentary is called MAID, The Dark Side of Canadian Compassion.
You can learn more about it at made documentary.com.
You can also chip in to support our work there.
As I said, we're taking some very inconvenient but affordable flights to save money.
And because I have other work to do with this company besides making a documentary, you know, I got to bring you a show every week on Wednesdays.
So we filmed a gun show from our Airbnb in Ottawa.
And we talked about, you know, sort of Kean's experience about changing his mind on medical assistance and dying from someone who was, yeah, you know what?
Your body, your choice, you do what you want to this is a great evil.
And we never should have opened the door to any of this.
That's sort of where he's come around on the topic.
You can watch the show.
It's a couple weeks back.
There's a free version and a paywalled version.
So you can see what I'm talking about.
But I thought it was an interesting conversion story, a Saul to Paul moment for Kian.
And he came to that conclusion after speaking to the families and the people who are experienced, have unique experiences with medical assistance and dying.
Anyway, that letter, the letter I got came to me from somebody named Lori.
And she says, Dear Sheila, I love the fact that you're doing a documentary on MAID.
We need to know the truth.
Friends, it is worse than you could ever imagine.
Before I continue on with this letter, I should tell you, my email inbox on this topic is split 50-50.
It is people with stories, horror stories, like the worst possible horror stories of medical assistance and dying.
And 50% of people saying, Sheila, Kian, you guys are exaggerating.
It's totally not that bad.
It's just for people who are in intense physical suffering, whose deaths are imminent.
Not even close.
Not even close.
And because my email inbox is, it's split 50-50.
That's exactly why we need to do this documentary because we can use the horror stories of the reality to inform the other people who think it's not that bad, who think I'm exaggerating, who think it couldn't possibly be that bad.
It's that bad and worse, as we're finding out.
Anyway, back to the letter.
We need to know the truth.
Thank you for your sit-down with Kian and his honesty in the matter.
How knowing about the truth, hearing people's stories, and understanding about what is really going on has dramatically changed his mind on MAID.
The death culture in Canada has stripped us of compassion, and I'm afraid of where this will continue to go.
The can of worms, Pandora's box, if you will, has been opened.
At what point, where do we draw the line?
I'm a mother of a handicapped girl, now 38 years old.
I can't help but wonder: at what point do we see fit to help those who are not as capable as some out of their misery?
It's already happening.
Or do we even allow them to live in the first place?
I know it is said of Denmark that there are no disabled persons to be seen anymore.
One has to wonder.
You know, I saw a tweet.
This is on the other side of the life experience.
And it was from Iceland.
And they were sort of bragging that there are no people born with Down syndrome there anymore.
It's not that like they found a cure for Down syndrome.
They're just not letting those babies live beyond the womb.
And they saw it as a good thing.
Anyway, Lori tells us her own story.
My own story.
I became severely depressed after my fourth child, now 23 years ago.
But I remember vividly not wanting to live, not wanting to live with the mental anguish and torture I was in.
I remember trying to decide how to end my life, but not wanting to leave my husband with the children.
One of the things that I struggled with was: do I take the baby with me or not?
It seems very dark now that I say it, and indeed it is, but that is the reality of the depressed mind.
Turns out, I did seek help, was not offered MAID.
Thank God.
I know I would have taken it at the time.
What I needed was an ear to hear, some hormone therapy, and a few antidepressants for a short time to enable me to process and get better.
And you know what?
That's really the problem with a lot of this: it's happening so fast.
There's no time to process.
Despair And Hope00:02:18
There's no time for treatment.
There's no time for the chemicals in your brain to get right.
MAID happens faster than that.
Lori goes on: I look back on the last 23 years, and although nothing is ever easy for every minute of every day, I'm ever so thankful that I chose life.
My experience has helped others as I listen to women who are suffering with postpartum depression.
Not one experience is ever lost if you choose to grow from them and use them to help others.
Fellow warrior, Lori in Powell River.
I hope we're able to bring this documentary when it's finished to Powell River or somewhere close to you, although it will be available online when it is done.
But I've never met anybody, and I'm sure Lori, you are the same, somebody who has ever attempted suicide or seriously contemplated suicide and who has come out the other side.
I've never met a single person who wishes that they had been successful in their attempts or in their ideation.
Sometimes it's just time.
Even beyond treatment, sometimes it's just time.
Time to get through that intense moment of despair.
And I will tell you, the statistics show that it is not physical suffering.
It is not imminent death that people are choosing medical assistance and dying for.
It is because of a lack of purpose.
This is what the studies show: a lack of usefulness.
It's despair.
Despair is transient.
It will go.
will go if we just give people the time and the support that they need.
And MAID does complete, completely the opposite.
Again, if you want to support the documentary, it's at made documentary.com.
I think it's one of the hardest things I've ever done, but I think one of the most important because stories like Lori's and stories like the people we've interviewed, they will change minds.
They will save lives.
That's my hope.
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place.
That is, if Charlie Angus doesn't have me taken to jail.