The never-say-die Delta Hospice Society is now looking to Alberta in its efforts to establish a secular, euthanasia-free “sanctuary hospice” and escape the pro-MAiD agenda of the B.C. government.

Angelina Ireland, executive director of the non-profit society, said she and society directors travelled to Alberta in July to look at a possible site.

“We are actively looking for a property, and we have the money — hundreds of thousands of dollars — to buy,” Ireland said in an email interview. “It is a desperate situation in this country, and the Delta Hospice Society has been stalled, stonewalled, abused and vilified long enough.”

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A B.C. location remains the society’s first choice, but Ireland has been unable to get assurances from B.C.’s NDP government that it would not force the society to allow euthanasia in the proposed hospice. In fact, Ireland said NDP politicians have not even acknowledged messages she sent in May. 

“We receive nothing from the NDP but the sound of crickets,” she said.

The B.C. Catholic requested an interview with one of the politicians Ireland reached out to — Ravi Kahlon, the NDP MLA for Delta North and minister for jobs and economic growth. He did not reply.

Ireland said her concerns about government interference are justified, pointing to how it forced MAiD onto the campus of St. Paul’s Hospital, which, as a Catholic facility, does not allow euthanasia. It has also required non-faith-based, publicly funded hospices and hospitals, including their palliative-care wards, to permit euthanasia. The only exemptions in the government-controlled Vancouver Coastal Health Authority’s Guide For Medical Assistance In Dying are 16 faith-based institutions, including hospitals, hospices and seniors’ residences, where “assisted deaths” are not permitted.

The guide does not mention, however, that it has installed MAiD facilities adjacent to at least two of those facilities: St. Paul’s Hospital and St. John Hospice.

The Delta Hospice Society is not faith-based and therefore does not qualify for the religious exemption.

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“We are, and always have been, a palliative-care organization, not a faith-based organization,” Ireland said. “We adhere to an authentic and historically accurate definition of palliative care ... We do nothing to hasten death. Therefore, we do not employ euthanasia as a ‘health-care option.’ ”

Delta Hospice Society began leasing land in 2008 from the government-directed Fraser Health Authority, then built a privately funded, $8-million hospice and supportive-care centre on the property. The society ran the care centre with money it raised through the operation of a thrift store, but received operational funding for the hospice from the health authority. When the society refused to allow its hospice patients to be euthanized on site, the government cancelled the lease, seized the two buildings and took over operation of the hospice in 2021. It did not compensate the society for the value of the hospice or care centre.

Ireland said she has received assurances that the Alberta government would not interfere with the operation of a secular, privately funded MAiD-free hospice. She said her team examined a building in Alberta last month that, with “some renovations,” could become “a proper hospice.” She did not reveal its location.

“We are not looking for money from the Alberta government, only freedom to provide a hospice,” she said.

Ireland said the society would consider its Alberta hospice “a national sanctuary, and we will welcome British Columbians who need to escape B.C. medical tyranny and live well until their natural end.”

The B.C. Conservative Party has pledged not to force MAiD into any sanctuary hospice if it forms government, she said.

Dr. Anna Kindy, a family doctor and official Opposition health critic, said in an interview that the government’s taking of Delta Hospice’s assets was “completely wrong.” Kindy said she “very strongly” supports the society’s right to operate a MAiD-free palliative-care centre and intends to “bring the issue forward.”

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The type of end-of-life care a patient chooses should be “a personal choice, and government should not decide for you and should not remove an option that you may want,” Kindy said.

“And that’s what they did. They removed an option for people that don’t want to be in a surrounding of MAiD.”