There’s a picture I use at the end of my new speaking presentation — guilty as charged with a shameless plug in the first paragraph — of a young man on a rolling Canada highway. Curly brown hair. A minuscule wince of pain on his driven face.
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I look at it. Often.
And ask myself, if that image doesn’t define what we do as Canadians, and more importantly, how we get things done in this country, what does?
The federal government’s position on Medical Assistance In Dying — a political hot potato, getting burned more and more by the day, and thus confusing countless Canadians, continues to underline a shameful echo ringing from coast to coast.
Credible news sources say Canada leads the 11 countries in the world who offer MAID legislation with people asking for help with their death — a statistic some would wish they could, but cannot, nonchalantly sweep under the proverbial rug.
The Trudeau government is proposing to expand MAID to those who live with mental illness.
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Let’s not beat around the bush or sugar-coat it any more, folks.
We’re not caring for each other enough in Canada.
That’s right: it’s a collective we’ve-dropped-the-ball and is, honestly, bigger than we can barely imagine. Casting blame on the establishment — governments, the medical profession, the media, and, yes, even sacred institutions as the church — is easy.
Convenient.
Because, experts say, blaming is a form of denial, of not accepting responsibility.
But let’s take this a few more words.
Public pressure sometimes changes legislation. I don’t think this is the case for MAID.
Sadly, I think it’s too late. Because all of us make up support systems for family members and friends with chronic pain, or a disability, or a terminal illness, or living with a mental illness.
So … here comes the big question: have we come up short in asking for more?
More funding. More support staff. More care. More clinic trials. More self-help groups. More psychological support. More (you fill in the blank.)
Yet, it’s a daunting task. Because, and I speak from experience from living with a disability, sometimes you … well, you get emotionally and physically exhausted to ask, yet again, one more time for help.
So you don’t.
The danger is once you stop asking for one thing, you might become complacent — and not ask so much.
If it starts to snowball, more challenges could surface.
And once public pressure is lifted, discussion fades to a noticeable silence which could, ironically, be an alarm for funders of programs and services.
The danger is funding could very well stop.
It’s hard to convincingly prove in the case of MAID.
But if we strongly subscribe to the notion of change, perhaps we can increase public awareness and keep asking for more support for family and friends with mental illness.
You might think this is pie-in-the-sky-thinking.
But I wonder how that young man with the curly brown hair on the shoulder of a highway would have to say about MAID.
That would be Terry Fox.
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