On Salt Spring Island, a 91-year-old man had already made a clear decision about the end of his life. He put it in writing: he did not want to die by MAID.
In his final week, he began to show unmistakable signs of cognitive decline. It was the moment he was least able to hold that line for himself, and it was then, his daughter says, that a nurse liaison connected to an Anglican MAID committee urged him to change his mind.
His daughter posts on X as @agrariangrrl and describes herself as a “Sasklander returned from BC.” In 2026, quoting a Conservative MP’s question about whether consent should still be required under any expansion of advance requests for MAID, she wrote about her father. She tagged the post #SSI and Green Party MP Elizabeth May, whose riding includes the Southern Gulf Islands.
“My 91 year old Dad had an advanced directive to not die by MAID,” she wrote. “In his last week of life, he had begun to show clear signs of cognitive decline, a nurse liason with the Anglican MAID committee pressured him to change his directive.”
He had said no, in writing, while he was well. The pressure came when his mind was failing. His daughter’s account is a warning about what advance requests and consent can mean in practice for the very old.
Sources
Case reference: Q9V3-EGK5-2978-NWKW
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