Just two months ago, an Abacus Data survey commissioned by the Canadian Health Coalition<\/a> found that 63 per cent of Canadians believed their health system was in a \u201cstate of crisis,\u201d while 55 per cent reported noticing the system getting worse over just the last five years.<\/p>\n Years-long wait times for surgeries and diagnostic procedures are often one of the most conspicuous signs of chronic Canadian health-care shortages.<\/p>\n The OECD publishes regular tallies of health-care wait times throughout the developed world, and Canada consistently ranks near the bottom.<\/p>\n In a 2025 report, Canada ranked as the worst in the OECD<\/a> for both the average wait time to see a doctor and the average wait time to see a specialist.<\/p>\n The Fraser Institute has similarly been tracking Canadian wait times since 1993, and has recorded a more than 200 per cent increase in the amount of time between when a Canadian is referred for a procedure, and when it actually happens.<\/p>\n In 1993, the average Canadian waited 9.3 weeks for treatment after receiving a referral from a family doctor. As of 2025, that wait time is now up to 28.6 weeks<\/a>, more than six months.<\/p>\n In recent years, Second Street has been using Freedom of Information requests in an attempt to determine just how many Canadians are dying while awaiting medical treatment.<\/p>\n In its most recent survey, published in December, the organization found 23,746 deaths<\/a> across a 12-month period beginning in April 2024. Since the organization started tracking waitlist deaths in 2018, it has identified 100,876.<\/p>\n \u201cThe figures gathered often represent stories of patients suffering in their final years \u2013 chronic pain while waiting for hip surgery, cloudy vision while waiting for cataract treatment and even deaths due to long wait times,\u201d read an accompanying Second Street analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n All the while, Canada is continuing to post the world\u2019s highest annual rate of MAID deaths. The most recent figures released by Health Canada show 16,499 MAID deaths in 2024, representing one in every 20 deaths in the country (5.1 per cent). <\/p>\n And as has been revealed in several high-profile MAID controversies, some of these deaths have occurred as a direct result of a patient\u2019s inability to find proper medical treatment.<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n In 2022, it emerged that a B.C. woman featured in a pro-MAID commercial released by the clothing retailer Simons had sought out assisted suicide<\/a> only after years of failing to secure treatment for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. <\/p>\n In 2024, 30-year-old Quebec woman St\u00e9phanie Lavoie went public<\/a> with her decision to choose MAID after multiple failed attempts to obtain proper treatment for Lyme disease.<\/p>\n The Canadian MAID regime is unique in that it explicitly allows patients to choose death even when viable treatment options exist.<\/p>\n In most of the world\u2019s other countries with some form of euthanasia or doctor-assisted suicide, the procedure is only available for patients with a terminal illness.<\/p>\n But ever since 2021, Canada has allowed MAID for anyone experiencing a \u201cgrievous and irremediable\u201d illness, even if that illness isn\u2019t terminal.<\/p>\n And the Government of Canada officially defines<\/a> a \u201cgrievous and irremediable\u201d illness as an \u201cunbearable\u201d illness or disability that \u201ccannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, the Government of Canada\u2019s official MAID guidelines also encourage doctors and nurses to tell patients when they become eligible for death.<\/p>\n Health-care practitioners are told<\/a> it is their \u201cduty\u201d not to \u201cassume all persons potentially eligible for MAID are aware that MAID is legal and available in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, when 11 per cent of Second Street poll respondents say that an acquaintance has been \u201coffered MAiD for a condition they felt was treatable,\u201d they\u2019re describing a scenario that is both legal and encouraged within Canadian hospitals.<\/p>\n The poll was conducted between Oct. 16-18. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size (1,510) yields a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.<\/p>\n
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