Delta Hospice Society (DHS) is now authorized to present key contentions and evidence in an ongoing lawsuit trying to forcibly compel faith-based health-care facilities to provide assisted suicide to palliative care patients by stripping away these organizations’ transfer authority.  

Earlier this month, Chief Justice Ronald A. Skolrood of the Supreme Court of British Columbia granted DHS intervenor status in the case of O’Neill v. British Columbia (Minister of Health).  

The non-profit palliative care organization incorporated in 1991 — pro-life, but not faith-based — joins the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, British Columbia Humanist Association, Canadian Centre for Christian Charities, Canadian Physicians for Life, Christian Legal Fellowship and Evangelical Fellowship of Canada as third-party intervenors. The Canadian Constitution Foundation also sought to submit an amicus brief, but Skolrood denied its petition because this group's arguments centred around “moral judgments and lifestyle choices” would “amount to an “unwarranted and impermissible expansion of the litigation beyond the scope framed by the parties."

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For over 10 years the DHS offered a palliative care space free of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) at the Irene Thomas Hospice in Delta, B.C., but ultimately lost operational control of the facility to the Fraser Health Authority in 2021. In 2020, the pro-life board of directors sought for DHS to become a Christian society to avoid the province’s edict to provide MAiD.

DHS lost the centre, but it has kept marching forward as a pro-life entity armed with a constitution that ensures any future palliative care space it operates will be sans euthanasia.

In reaction to the court’s intervenor approval, DHS executive director Angelina Ireland said her society is determined to stand up for Charter rights as they advocate that many terminally ill patients do not want to be burdened with queries about their interest in MAiD.

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“We look forward to confirming Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for Canadians who seek life-affirming spaces during their illnesses, so they are not deprived of life, liberty and the security of the person,” said Ireland.

Calgary-based constitutional lawyer Alison Pejovic said DHS’ background in operating a hospice, coupled with its ongoing advocacy for, and connection with, palliative care patients through its hotline will enable the society to “provide a unique perspective to the court.”

“Family members and people in palliative care regularly call them and tell them about how they're being harassed,” said Pejovic, senior counsel and assistant litigation manager for Charter Advocates Canada. “The family members (complain) that their loved ones are being harassed sometimes multiple times by medical teams who don't seem to take no for an answer when the person in palliative care says, ‘I don't want MAiD.’ That person is being approached, sometimes multiple times, which can be psychologically distressing.”

Pejovic surmised that the multi-week trial will commence in January 2026. Intervenors will be allowed to observe the trial and, at minimum, will file written submissions. It is yet to be determined if DHS and others will receive approval to present oral presentations in court.  

Gaye O’Neill, the administrator of her late daughter Samantha O’Neill’s estate, first filed this suit alongside palliative care provider Dr. Jyothi Jayaraman and the pro-euthanasia organization Dying with Dignity Canada in June 2024. The defendants are the Minister of Health, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and Providence Health Care, a Catholic health-care provider that operates 18 hospitals, long-term care homes, hospices and community clinics across B.C.’s Lower Mainland.

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In early 2022, Samantha was admitted to St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver and was diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer. The following year, she decided to seek a medical-killing procedure but was informed that St. Paul’s Hospital — overseen by Providence Health Care — did not perform MAiD.

Samantha died on April 4, 2023, as she was set to be transferred to a facility that offered assisted suicide. Her mother, Gaye, sued because her daughter suffered unnecessary pain waiting for the transfer, arguing her Charter rights to freedom of conscience and religion and life, liberty and security of the person were violated.