Kids Killed in Mass Shootings in Schools in the US in Perspective

A common trope about US Schools is that they are shooting ranges, and that children in the US are in mortal peril from mass shootings. Other anti-US rhetoric commonly accompanies these claims.

We are told that Americans are more likely to die from a parachuting accident, being buried alive, a lightning strike, drowning in your bathtub or choking on food than from a terrorist attack, so they shouldn't worry about the risk of terrorist attacks. And that since the risk is so low, anyone who might be worried about terrorism, you're Islamophobic. And that Muslims are demonised for these rare terrorist attacks because they're an outgroup.

Given how much attention is placed on mass shootings at schools, one might be given to suspect that the numbers there might be similarly inflated.

So let us compare deaths of school students in mass shootings at schools to an American cause of death that most would consider banal.

Cows.

In a 2024 article published in Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology, Death and injuries caused by cattle: A forensic overview, Roger Byard informs us that "It has been estimated that approximately 20–22 deaths occur each year in the United States from cattle". Note that this is total deaths.

Meanwhile, in another 2024 article published in Pediatrics, School Shootings in the United States: 1997–2022, Rapa et al. inform us that "On average then, over the 25-year time span examined, there were approximately 5 fatalities and 5 injuries per school year that could be attributed to school mass shootings".

So about 4 times as many Americans die every year due to cows as in school mass shootings. Note that strictly speaking, the school mass shooting data includes adults as it is for all fatalities. It is safe to assume that most of them are students, as the majority of people in schools are students, but still this number somewhat overestimates the number of school students in the US who die from school mass shootings - yet we still get this seemingly shocking result.

Perhaps one might object by claiming that there're more school shootings nowadays, so newer data will show more kids dying in school mass shootings. So let us more generously test the claim.

School shootings are not evenly distributed across years. From the same paper, here is Figure 3: U.S. School Mass Shootings by School Year: Number of Fatalities and Number Injured, 1997-1998 through 2021-2022.

One can see that in the majority of years, there are no fatalities or even injuries from school mass shooting.

But for the sake of argument, let us cherry pick years to get the maximum number of deaths from school mass shootings. In school year 2017-2018 27 people died in them, and in 2021-2022 25 did. None died in the intervening years, so we get 52 deaths across 5 years, or 10.4 deaths a year.

This is still half the number of Americans who died due to cows every year.

Clearly, the amount of froth generated by school mass shootings cannot be attributed to the number of deaths alone.

Of course, if you apply the left's dismissal of jihadist terrorism and apply the same logic to their demonisation of guns and (white) gun owners that always accompanies school mass shootings, they will not like the results.

Links - 2nd September 2026 (1)

Meme - "HOW MUCH DO YOU LOVE KIDS COMPASS
*Jeffrey Epstein to Mr Rogers* *Ms Rachel to Israel*
Jeffrey Epstein & Ms Rachel: "PRO-DAYCARE"
Mr Rogers & Ms Rachel: "HEALTHY ADORATION"
Jeffrey Epstein & Israel: "FUCK 'DEM KIDS"
Mr Rogers & Israel: "NEIGHBORHOOD GENTRIFICATION"

Meme - Bonchie @bonchieredstate: "Look, Democrats just want to protect our democracy and restore norms by packing the Supreme Court, getting rid of the electoral college, outlawing "misinformation," censoring their opponents, banning guns, and ending the filibuster. Stop questioning their motives."

Wu Chi-wai: Hong Kong activist allowed to stay in UK after deportation threat - "Former Hong Kong opposition leader Wu Chi-wai has been allowed to stay in the UK with his family for six months, after initially being detained at the border. Wu had arrived at London's Heathrow Airport last Wednesday, where he was detained for nearly 10 hours and initially refused entry, he told BBC Chinese. He said he was later told he could stay for only one week, after which he would have to report to the airport to be deported. But on Monday, the UK Border Force approved his entry and granted him a standard stay of six months, he said. The 63-year-old was the leader of the now-defunct Democratic Party and one of the most recognisable faces of the city's quashed pro-democracy movement. Wu is one of the so-called Hong Kong 47, a group of high-profile pro-democracy leaders who were sentenced to jail after a controversial national security trial. He was released in June after spending more than five years in prison for subversion and other convictions. Wu told BBC Chinese that his son and wife moved to the UK in 2022 and 2023, and the only communication he had with them since then was through monthly phone calls and letters. He had hoped to reunite with his family in the UK during his recent visit, he added. Ahead of his departure, Wu said he had consulted staff at the British Consulate General in Hong Kong, asking if there would be any problems with his entry. "The information I received was that there would be none," he said, adding that consular staff said they would explain his criminal record and itinerary to the UK Border Force. The Border Force said he was not considered a "genuine visitor" who was solely visiting family, he said. Wu denies that he had intended to apply for political asylum in the UK - a claim that was previously reported in the media... Wu was using his British National (Overseas) (BNO) passport - a special travel document issued to Hong Kong permanent residents before 1 July 1997, when Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule - to enter the UK. BNO passport holders are typically allowed to stay in the UK visa-free for six months."

Meme - "The Olive Garden waitress when I ask for an extra fork to go with the strawberry cream pie"
"You naughty bastard! I'm still on my 2nd day... meet me out back in ten!"

Meme - Faramir with Eowyn: "This is my new girlfriend father"
Denethor: "You can do better"
Faramir: "Thank you for your concern father but she is the love of my life"
Denethor: "I wasn't talking to you"
Faramir:

Meme -"Christopher Lee: "But Peter, I want to be Gandalf."
Peter Jackson: "And that's exactly why you will play Saruman. Let the envy fill your heart, and guide you during the scenes"

Papa Johns employee fired for insisting on paying tax - "A Papa Johns employee was fired after he refused to be paid cash-in-hand because he wanted to pay the right amount of tax. Ashwani Kumar, who worked as a Papa Johns store manager, had to be removed from the pizza chain’s Harlow store by police after he refused to leave the premises when he was told he had been fired. A tribunal heard that Mr Kumar was dismissed for requesting itemised payslips and correct income tax and National Insurance reductions after finding out he was being given fake payslips by the franchise. The judge ruled in favour of Mr Kumar, who sued his former employer – franchise owners EEM London, EEM Holdings, and owner Abdul Sattar Askar – for automatic unfair dismissal, unlawful deduction of wages and failure to pay holiday pay."

Bernard Arnault hits back at claims his office won’t hire fat people - "Journalists from Left-leaning newspaper Le Monde made the claim after visiting the Paris headquarters of LVMH, the luxury goods conglomerate that Mr Arnault, 77, founded 40 years ago. “The women stand up straight, and are mostly young, pretty and slim. You would not come across a single overweight or sloppily dressed employee,” Raphaëlle Bacqué and Vanessa Schneider, reporters, wrote in their six-part series on the Arnault family. In a three-page response posted on LVMH’s X account, Mr Arnault said: “I offer my apologies to readers for this failure of bodily diversity, and I shall raise the matter with the company canteen on Monday... Le Monde reported that Hermès ties were banned from Mr Arnault’s suite at LVMH’s head office. The journalists wrote: “Not even an occasional visitor would show up in Monsieur’s office wearing a Hermès tie. An aide would hand you a different one before you even reached the elevator.” Mr Arnault said visitors did not have their ties confiscated: “We let them keep them. We simply offer a second one, more discreet, for the elevator. A question of manners. “I add, under the seal of secrecy, that I own several.” Mr Arnault said Le Monde had reported more favourably on the Wertheimer family, which owns Chanel, even though he and his family had cooperated more extensively with the two journalists. “I suspect you, very clearly, of having punished transparency,” he wrote, addressing the journalists directly. “Let that serve as a lesson for your next subjects.” But he said he would not be cancelling his subscription to Le Monde. “Rest assured, I shall keep doing the Monde crossword. That, at least, is excellent.””

Turkish governor fired after wearing Lycra cycling tights - "The governor of a province in Turkey has been fired following criticism of his choice of tight cycling clothes. Mehmet Fatih Çiçekli was dismissed with a decree signed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, after sharing photos and videos of himself on social media wearing Lycra. A number of politicians had rebuked the governor of Ardahan province for “spending all day creating social media content” in recent months and “wearing cycling tights all day”."

Japanese women complain about men’s hairy legs in the office - "Japanese women have complained of “leg hair harassment” after men were encouraged to wear shorts to work... the presence of bare legs in the office has triggered so much debate that a new term has been coined in Japanese media – sune-hara, or “leg hair harassment” – to describe the uncomfortable feeling many women feel when forced to see their colleagues’ uncovered limbs... One disgruntled woman said of the new dress code: “Middle-aged men, please do not wear shorts. It makes me uncomfortable. Please do not expose your shins. I don’t want to see them.”"
Don't tell men not to expose their legs. Tell women not to look

Shorts in the office is an HR incident just waiting to happen - "in the UK too, the heat is wreaking havoc on our fashion sense. In a 2024 survey, 75 per cent of people thought that men going shirtless was unacceptable “unless there is a very good reason”."

Mother loses seven teeth after tripping over pothole - "Alison Smith, a 48-year-old café owner, said she was left with the injuries after tripping in the 3in-deep hole in the road on the Isle of Wight while walking to meet her daughter at night... Ms Smith permanently lost her teeth and suffered serious mobility issues in her left hand, meaning she no longer has the strength to pull herself up with it."

Blind drink-driver followed tail lights for 150 miles - "A blind drink-driver travelled 150 miles through the night by following the taillights of lorries. Anthony Hall, 49, had taken his partner’s car without permission before setting off from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, despite being registered blind, unlicensed and uninsured. He was also above the drink-drive limit as he made the journey towards Cumbria."

Why are millions of NHS crutches still gathering dust in Britain’s cupboards? - "Damaged crutches that are passed on to new patients are a potential safety and litigation risk, should the person then have an accident. Eventually the cost of sending out vans to pick up crutches, which only cost the NHS around £10 to buy, led them to tell patients to dispose of them themselves – a mentality that appears to persist. There are pictures on social media of skips filled with crutches, along with tales of their being strewn at local dumps."

French teenager fined £348 for licking a straw in Singapore - "A French teenager was fined in Singapore after pleading guilty to a public nuisance charge for licking a straw and placing it back in a vending machine. Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, 19, was handed a Sg$600 (£348) fine after admitting to posting on social media a video of himself putting a straw he had licked back into the dispenser for orange juice... Last year it deported an Australian man at the end of a nine-day jail term for rushing film star Ariana Grande during the Asian premiere of Wicked: For Good."

What it’s like to visit Europe’s last gender-segregated beach - "In a time of gender-neutral toilets, outfits and facial hair, it might seem anachronistic that a sex-segregated beach functions. And yet, in a quiet corner of Trieste’s harbour, one such site still exists – the last of its kind in Europe, a relic of a bygone era. Intrigued, I took a trip north east from my Emilia-Romagna home and, to my surprise, discovered that not only is it still thriving, it’s locally beloved. The beach – officially “Alla Lanterna” but affectionately known as Pedocin (meaning both “mussel” and “flea” in the local dialect) – hit the news in June following a heated dispute (initiated by a tourist) about the dividing wall, which extends 74m into the sea, with women on one side and men on the other."

Man blew up childhood home in Blackpool in mistaken belief he was disinherited - "Darren Davies, 55, poured petrol in the bedroom and the attic of his detached bungalow near Blackpool on March 27 last year. He then set the £260,000 four-bedroom property on fire with a candle and the resulting explosion engulfed it in flames, with glass and debris strewn across the road outside, and only one wall left standing."

Why Darwin’s discredited rival may be proved right 200 years later - "For centuries, Charles Darwin’s rival has been mocked and dismissed for his alternative theory of evolution. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed his evolutionary theory half a century before Darwin published his, but was derided by adversaries, and was even insulted by Napoleon Bonaparte. His belief that organisms can pass on physical changes acquired during their lifetime to their offspring has proved no more popular in the intervening centuries, and remains largely discredited in the scientific community. But 200 years on, “Lamarckism” may finally have come into fashion thanks to a wave of scientific papers, essays and books arguing that the theory can occasionally explain cases of evolution in the natural world... Prof Richard Buggs, a professor of evolutionary genomics at Queen Mary University of London, said there was a “growing acceptance” within the evolutionary biology community of evidence to support Lamarckism... tiny, transparent worms, known as Caenorhabditis elegans, can adapt to overcome infections, starvation, or stressful temperatures by producing ribonucleic acids (RNAs) that “fine-tune the activity of their genes to mount an effective response”. He claimed that adult worms pass along these small RNAs to their offspring – and even to further descendants – and that their offspring are thus able to cope better with those same stressors from birth. Prof Edelaar also gave the example of female killer whales that acquire the skill to hunt a different type of prey, such as seals instead of salmon, and claimed that this skill is then copied by their offspring."

Exclusive | Treasury stopped nearly $100M in taxpayer money from going to dead people - "The Treasury Department has blocked nearly $100 million in taxpayer money from going to dead people since implementing a government-wide payment verification process... The $99 million figure is a tiny fraction (0.0036%) of the $2.7 trillion the department reviewed as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on waste, fraud and abuse — but more than triple what Treasury discovered going to the deceased in the days before President Trump took office last year"

David Weigel on X - "Odd detail in new Talarico ad. He drives a Chevy Colorado, which has appeared in other ads and in profiles. But here he's driving a Dodge Ram 1500. And it's not hard to spot; you can see the plate, which is linked to an Enterprise rental. Was his car in the shop or something? idk, asked and didn't hear back"

Instagram - "When illustrator Kinntarou faced criticism over the design of his 211cm-tall main character, some fans argued that her proportions were unrealistic and could never exist outside of a drawing. Instead of arguing, he found someone who proved them wrong. The artist teamed up with a cosplayer who naturally matched the character's unique physique and recreated the exact pose from the artwork. With the same outfit, angle, and lighting, the side-by-side comparison showed that the character's appearance wasn't just fantasy, someone with those proportions actually exists. The photoshoot quickly became a reminder that real life is often stranger than fiction. Human diversity can surprise people, and artists don't always have to limit their imagination to what the internet considers "normal." Did this cosplay prove the character was more realistic than critics thought? #anime #fyp #animeedit #viral #foryou"

Richard Hanania on X - "Danish manager goes to work in Russia. He finds they treat him like a king and are too passive and deferential to get anything done. They think he's a weak and ineffective leader. People assume Russians are like Westerners because they look white, but the culture is third world"

End of Owning Music: How CDs, Downloads Died - "As streaming gives the music industry its biggest profits in a decade, the CD business continues to plunge. CD sales have fallen 80 percent in the past decade, from roughly 450 million to 89 million. Since Tesla began manufacturing cars without CD players, other companies like Ford and Toyota have recently followed. Downloads – once seen as the CD’s replacement – have plummeted 58 percent since peaking in 2012, their profits now even smaller than physical sales. Artists have taken note; Bruce Springsteen released his latest box set, The Album Collection Vol. 2, 1987-1996, exclusively on vinyl, with no CD option, unlike 2014’s Vol. 1. “It’s a streaming world and a vinyl world with a quickly diminishing CD,” says Daniel Glass, president of Glassnote Records, indie-label home of Mumford & Sons and Phoenix... Who’s still buying CDs? “The Walmart customer,” says Glass, adding that sales are still strong in “country, greatest-hits, soundtracks and baby records.” In the country world, Chris Stapleton’s second LP sold an impressive 373,000 physical releases last year. CDs are also doing fine in some international markets – in Japan, where streaming has been slow to take off, 72 percent of last year’s music sales were physical. Introduced in the early Eighties, the CD prompted massive record-business expansion over 20 years—and was surprisingly resilient even after Napster and online piracy, then the iTunes Store, threatened to destroy the format. As for modern-day CD enthusiasts, Glass points to older listeners who still prefer loading CD carousels rather than configuring Spotify or Pandora on car stereos or home-theater systems. And touring bands still find it far easier to sell a portable CD as a concert memento than an LP or portable hard drive... When vinyl sales started to climb in 2006, some experts saw it as a fad. No longer: Those sales hit a 25-year high last year, and labels are investing in more sophisticated packaging than ever"
From 2018

Whether slow or fast, here’s how your metabolism influences how many calories you burn each day - "If you really want to give your metabolism a jolt, the easiest way is to bump up your muscle mass and activity level. By increasing muscle mass, you’ll also increase the base number of calories needed to maintain those muscles. Instead of complaining about a slow metabolism, you can try to turn it up to be at least a bit quicker."

Department for Education on X - "What would you do with an extra 30 minutes in your day? 🤔 Free breakfast clubs are transforming mornings for 500,000 children - that's 95 precious hours back each year while children get a nutritious start to their day. Part of our Plan for Change ✨"
Bev Turner on X - "Is this actually satire...? Your government is using lazy parents & self-centred attitudes to advertise the BENEFITS of dumping the kids early at school!
"You're not sure if they've eaten" .. Wtf?
"I'd have a nap"
"I'd have coffee with the other mums"
They are literally advocating selfishness over the challenge of good parenting. We are in big trouble......"

Can We or Cannae We? - "a reader asked me if I thought the Democrats could survive as a viable political party and what I would do if I ran the DNC to save it—and strangely enough, I have been thinking about how it could be possible the Democrat Party could ever return to relevancy, given that it has sold its soul to collectivism, communism and antisemitism. First of all, given that over the past year there have been actions taken (defunding NGOs, cleaning up voter rolls, deporting illegal aliens, SCOTUS declaring racial gerrymandering illegal) and information revealed (the revelation that ActBlue has never monitored foreign money flowing into Democrat coffers) that have materially weakened the Democrats financially, electorally, and reputationally, it would seem their legitimacy as a political party is in question. Their success appears to depend completely upon siphoning taxpayer funds, election fraud, manipulation of representation (via inflating population headcounts using illegal immigration, racialism and foreign funding. I mean, Holy hell, Batman, from Snakehead Carville to Graham “Herr” Platner espousing everything from confiscation of private property to violent revolution to assassinations, it does appear the have lost their ever-lovin’ F-ing minds. The lurch to the far left is just part of the story, but it also might be the only thing that saves them. Sounds weird, right? Maybe a little counterintuitive?... If I were in charge of the DNC, I would plan an ambush— and the single most celebrated example of an enemy being intentionally invited into what appeared to be success, only to discover too late they were trapped is Cannae. It is usually considered the gold standard because Hannibal essentially convinced the Romans they were winning right up until the moment they realized they were surrounded... World history proves communism doesn’t work because it destroys every incentive to improve anything and every attempt at it has failed miserably, resulting in poverty, hardship and death. That’s no secret—and something else that is not a secret is that this bunch of “comrades” in the Democrat camp are some of the least qualified, least philosophically grounded and most intellectually deficient people to ever try to collectivize an entire socioeconomic system in history. This is the dumb being led by the dumber. While they appear to be succeeding, populist communism is a complete dead end, but it could be useful in the long run as long as it is used as a feint to pull Republicans farther to the left, as Hannibal did the Roman troops, and once I drew them in far enough, I would expunge the idiot radicals from the Democrat Party in a grand purge and declare that the Democrat Party is the true home of free market conservatism, muscular foreign policy, and constitutional protections. I would claim that Democrats are the true America Firsters."

Eric Daugherty on X - "🚨 BREAKING: CNN SHOCKED as 59% of Democrats believe their *OWN PARTY* does not get things done, 68% that they don't have strong leaders. And only 16% of Americans say the Democratic Party has "strong leaders," 19% say Democrats "get things done." Huge yikes."

Army turned First and Second World War gravestones into gravel - "The British Army crushed gravestones belonging to Commonwealth soldiers after they were removed from Basra, in southern Iraq, according to newly emerged documents. Hundreds of gravestones engraved with the names of those killed in both world wars were removed from the Basra War Cemetery in 2003, over fears that they could be destroyed or vandalised. A further 80 large panels bearing the regimental crests of Army units and the names of war dead were also removed. However, emails and minutes disclosed under the freedom of information act revealed that the memorials for Britain’s war dead were destroyed and turned into gravel. The documents record that by March 26 2005, authority had been given for the gravestones to be crushed and for the material to fill a drainage ditch at the Army’s Shaibah logistics base, around nine miles from Basra."
Time to condemn Israel for desecrating Western war graves by exposing Hamas tunnels

Links - 1st September 2026 (2 - Jason Arday)

Meme - Daniel Concannon: "The Jason Arday story:
~ Be Black pathological liar
~ Become Cambridge professor based on your lies & anti-White hiring standards
~ Get paid with White people's tax money to do anti-White agitprop
~ Commit numerous criminal frauds
~ Get exposed
~ Kill yourself
~ Be called a lynching victim of White people
There is absolutely no set of circumstances that can't be turned into 'White People Bad'."
Prof. Hanna Kienzler @Hannakienzler: "Jason Arday was killed by a lynch mob whose harassment drove him to death. He was made killable by an institution that exploited him to fix its structural racism, then failed its duty of care. Justice must be served, and those responsible held accountable."

Meme - Supertanskiii @supertanskiii: "I hope all those racist bastards are happy with themselves for driving a young black man to his death. You essentially achieved an indirect lynching. God, I fucking hate what this country is becoming."
Supertanskiii @supertanskiii: "Ann Widdecombe, starting her descent into hell."
Left wingers are continuing to pretend he was innocent of plagiarism, pretending his lies didn't exist. Of course he was a victim though he tried to harass people with lawyers, the police and corporate disciplinary processes.
Left wingers want to muzzle the press when it doesn't push the left wing agenda because it's only fascist to criticise the press when it does.

Meme - *Drake Hotline Bling*
"Jason Arday. George Floyd" *crying green haired Commie pig with septum ring*
"Charlie Kirk. Ann Widdecombe" *laughing green haired Commie pig with septum ring*

Meme - Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu: "This is a public execution. You hounded Jason Arday to death. You murdered him. You killed him. I warned you. I knew this is exactly what you all wanted with your 'racism' masked as accountability. Your white supremacist blood thirsty lust to destroy DE) masked as public execution. Shame on you."
Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu: ""How you died does not redeem how you lived" That's a freaking bar! Pastor Howard John-Wesley sums up the selective outrage over Charlie Kirk powerfully We won't be gaslit by the #WeAreCharlieKirk cult."
Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu: "Charlie Kirk was no political martyr and targeted people for his self- serving political interest. Hunting down those who don't care he is dead is a violation of their freedom of speech. Idolising his legacy of hate and political violence while weaponising his assassination to manufacture a fake crisis of war is staggering."

Meme - Jeremy Kauffman: "In 2020, Mike Adams committed suicide after being canceled and losing his job as a professor. Adams was never dishonest. All he did was say things like "rioters are thugs" and "women's studies aren't essential". Even in death, the media ran awful headlines like this."
"Professor who announced retirement after racist and sexist tweets died by suicide. UNCW's Mike Adams hadn't been heard from for days, before deputies found him dead inside his bedroom. Controversial University of North Carolina Wilmington professor found dead"
Zarah Sultana MP @zarahsultana: "If Jason Arday were a white middle-class academic, he would not have been hounded by the British press in the way he was. My thoughts are with his loved ones. May he rest in peace."

Lucas Lynch | Facebook - "It's possible my view that "peak woke" had passed was premature.  This is sheer religious insanity on display, and yes, only religion could make people act so insane in massive numbers in a way that nobody would do on their own.  Arday was an obvious fraud, lifted up by a giant religious framework to a position of esteem he did not deserve. Reputable journalists tried to investigate him, and were met with threats of lawsuits and police action. The extent of his fraud could not be more clearly exposed now - and yet in the face of such obvious evidence, the faithful are now elevating him to sainthood, and looking for heretics to execute. You can (and should!) criticize the person who ultimately brought this to light - but you cannot simply dismiss the overwhelming evidence that has now been confirmed by reputable journalists and publications in the field.   This strange new religion continues to be exactly that. Arguments that are impervious to evidence. Axioms that cannot be questioned. Heretics that must be punished. The faithful find this debacle especially threatening because it exposes the racket for exactly what it has been known to be for some time. Who is going to trust an academic establishment that so enthusiastically embraces fraud and anti-truth as its founding principles? Who are they to accuse Donald Trump of lying, when there is no such thing as truth as their bottom foundation? The same people who told you it was safe to go out in massive protests during the plague, and the same people lying about the Jewish state are now demanding that this fraudster is actually one of the anointed martyrs for "the cause" - not a liar and deceiver who, in a final act of selfishness, decided to abandon his family in the face of his deceit.   This is George Floyd 2.0 - the creation of another DEI saint in a religious tale similarly detached from reality. (You can admit this and still know that Floyd did not deserve to be murdered as he was, and that it is tragic that this person took his own life and left his family to the wolves)."

Ghent University shouldn’t have suspended Nathan Cofnas | The Spectator - "It is ironic that the “be kind” brigade beating their breasts and wailing about the “lynching” and “assassination” of Jason Arday think the appropriate response is to whip up hatred against Nathan Cofnas, the scholar who exposed Arday’s academic misconduct. At the vigil for Arday at Trafalgar Square in London, several speakers singled out Cofnas for blame, including Diane Abbott MP, who described him as a “racist.” Nathan contacted me shortly afterwards worried that he risked being murdered if he set foot in London... It now looks as though the organisers of the Two Minutes Hate against Nathan in Trafalgar Square have got their wish – he’s been suspended by Ghent university, where he held a position as a postdoctoral researcher, pending an investigation. His sin, apparently, was not to expose Arday’s plagiarism, but to talk about it in an unseemly way afterwards – a sleight of hand we encounter again and again at the FSU: it’s not what you said, but the manner in which you said it.  In its communications about Nathan’s suspension, the university has emphasised how many people have written to it, presumably demanding Nathan’s head, as if that makes the decision more acceptable. The mob has spoken, is the subtext. If we deny them their pound of flesh, our reputation will suffer.   I daresay Nathan will lose his position at Ghent and that will send a message to other young academics, just starting out in their careers, who stumble across examples of misconduct in their fields. If the wrongdoer is the beneficiary of DEI, who will dare speak up? Best to keep quiet. Look what happened to Nathan Cofnas.  It’s as though the famous fairytale about the little boy who points out the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes has been rewritten by a ‘sensitivity’ reader. In the new version, the emperor commits suicide, while the boy is subjected to a show trial."
Harassing academics, retaliating against whistleblowers and suppressing academic freedom are only bad when they threaten the left wing agenda. Of course, left wingers hate the Free Speech Union too, because they hate free speech

BREAKING: Ghent University’s trans rector suspends ‘race realist’ Nathan Cofnas over Jason Arday’s death - "It goes on to say that "The manner in which you publicly presented your role in the allegations concerning the late professor Jason Arday has reinforced concerns among the university’s community that your public interventions seem to develop into targeted campaigns of professional elimination." And thus, concludes the letter, Cofnas needs to be eliminated... Ghent University rector Petra De Sutter announced the investigation. De Sutter, a trans-identified male and Green Party member, was hailed when he was appointed in 2020 as deputy prime minister in Belgium, the first trans minister in Europe. De Sutter is a doctor and was a professor of gynecology and had previously had to turn down an honorary doctorate after it turned out De Sutter "used fabricated AI quotes in a speech" in the fall of 2025.   In response, De Sutter said, "While this decision was undoubtedly difficult, it is, given the circumstances, the right step." The false quotes included one from Albert Einstein, "dogma is the enemy of progress." De Sutter said "I deeply regret that I fell into this trap. I cannot undo this. This experience provides an important lesson and will further stimulate the debate around AI. Internally, this discussion has now been placed at the top of our agenda."   Arday, too, was accused of using AI to create his written work. There was even speculation that his resignation letter was generated by AI... Cofnas spoke to Winston Marshall about "race realism," revealing that much of the reason he was fired from Cambridge was owed to his citing Harvard University's own statistics that showed "if admissions were based only grades and test scores... the undergraduate population would be 0.67%, so slightly less than 0.7% black.""
I saw left wingers claiming that he was being disciplined because of his prior racist writing. So much for that. Also as usual they pretend not to understand things. Retaliating against whistleblowers under an excuse is still retaliation

Crémieux on X - "Cofnas isn't making random allegations, he's repeating a known thing the person persecuting him right now had to apologize for publicly. It's remarkable how the people attacking Cofnas seem to be so uniformly incurious, malicious, and prone to lying. They choose to be this way!"

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry on X - "Imagine if, in 2005, some bayou swamp white nationalist wrote a science fiction novel where, in 2026
- A black man who brags about being mentally retarded is made a full professor at Cambridge to universal acclaim
- The only one brave enough to expose him is a race scientist
- Who is then persecuted by his superior, a male gynaecologist turned transvestite who is, like the black guy, ALSO a fraudster
I would have thrown it at the wall
I would have called it the most ridiculous thing I'd ever read
I guess in the book the hero would have been named Hans Herrenrasse and be 7' tall and blonde and blue eyed, instead of being a soft-spoken Ashkenazi Jew"

Uncaptured by Janet Murray | Facebook - "Author Candice Carty-Williams has withdrawn from Cheltenham Literature Festival because it is sponsored by The Times. She says that, following the death of Professor Jason Arday, she had “no choice” but to withdraw - and criticises the newspaper for making no comment. But she did have a choice. She has chosen to boycott a literary festival because its sponsor reported serious, evidenced questions about a prominent Cambridge academic’s work. The Times reported that its analysis had found “impossible data” and inconsistencies in Arday’s academic work. Investigating such claims is what newspapers are supposed to do. There is no established evidence that its reporting caused Arday’s death. Indeed, the Samaritans specifically warns against attributing suicide to a single event or factor. Carty-Williams is entitled to withdraw. But there is also something deeply ironic about an author using her position at a literary festival to exert pressure on a newspaper over its reporting. Writers rightly defend their freedom to publish difficult or unpopular ideas. That principle must also extend to journalists investigating evidence that others would prefer left alone."

Murray Walters on X - "One reason Arday is so vigorously defended is that his boosters and apologists are just like him. They have never had to acquire any specialist knowledge about anything, and what little they have is either undergraduate dilettantism in disciplines you can now master in the time it takes to watch two YouTube videos, or is in word-salad-fantasy garbage disciplines. Freelancers with arts degrees are certainly the worst. If I had a grievance personality, no useful education, yet wrote for a living, he'd be my guy too."

We have, I fear, confused power with greatness | Facebook
Left wing logic - "neurodivergent" people can't help but plagiarize. Good luck if you point out this means "neurodivergent" people don't belong in academia.
Left wingers (e.g. in the comments) keep pushing that tired line about how his alleged plagiarism was the literature review so it's a false positive and/or that plagiarism detection tools don't know if you cited the quoted bits properly so there's no proof he plagiarized. Either they don't know that his plagiarism has been extensively publicly documented or they're lying. Either way their claims are false and their opinion is worthless.

Edward Graham on X - "The @nathancofnas  affair really does show how bizarre DEI culture in academia has become.  We have a system where ordinary white, heterosexual men are expected to accept that their achievements and opportunities somehow count for less.  I don’t begrudge anyone their success. I don’t care whether you’re Polish, Jewish, black, gay, straight, male or female. If you’ve got the ability, do the work and succeed.  What I object to is being told that merit and competition are somehow suspect because of who you are.  And then you get the rather surreal spectacle of one trans activist presenting an honorary degree to another trans activist for their work on DEI and LGBTQ issues.  At some point, you have to ask whether academia is rewarding scholarship or simply rewarding activism."

Matthew Abraham on X - "This article argues that plagiarism accusations were weaponized against Arday and used to target him. Yet, in some sense, the plagiarism was the least of Arday’s issues, He literally had nothing to contribute from the standpoint of scholarship since he just repeated DEI talking points that he used to advance and embellish his own biography.   It’s amazing that auto ethnography became so central to DEI scholarship: “Believe me because I said it happened.”  @StanleyRidgley  @Rach_IC  @darrengrimes  @kevinnbass"

Carole Cadwalladr on X - "NEW: I can't get this story out of my head. And I know I'm not alone. The attempt to cover up the complicity of the UK media's role in Jason Arday's death may be its sickest move yet. 🔗 Below"
Geoff Shullenberger on X - "Carole Cadwalladr is a premier purveyor of what Joseph Heath and @danwilliamsphil have called “highbrow misinformation.” She concocts conspiracy theories whose purpose is to insulate the progressive establishment from criticism, even as she presents herself as anti-establishment.
Her Cambridge Analytica and Arday stories amount to the same thing: attributing all the events she and her followers deplore to shadowy right-wingers conspiring to dupe the public."

Benjamin Ryan on X - "Carole Cadwalladr Must Run a Correction On Her Faulty Arday Report After She Failed to Acknowledge My Reporting
@CaroleCadwalladr has falsely claimed that “no one” in the media tracked down the multiple contemporaneous reports of Jason Arday (supposedly) running 30 marathons in 35 days in 2010. I found almost all of these references—presented a few days ago by the Middle East Eye as if no one had yet reported them—and reported them on my Substack on Aug. 1 and in the Washington @FreeBeacon  on Aug. 4.  Therefore, I respectfully request that Cadwalladr corrects her false claim in her Substack and acknowledges my reporting from three weeks ago. If she is an honest journalist she will run an editor’s note acknowledging her error  I further suggest that she acknowledges that these contemporaneous news reports of Arday supposedly running 30 marathons in 35 days do not prove he actually accomplished that feat. They prove that he told people he did so. Note that he availed himself of the services of a pair of PR men to promote his efforts. (He claimed in his memoir that they offered their services pro bono. Oddly, he gives them pseudonyms.) That is why he got multiple local press outlets to cover the supposed feat. But Arday did not run as a part of any official races and did not run with a GPS tracker. So these reports do not prove he completed these runs.  I must say, I find it galling when people condescend to the media about what a bad job the media did about some subject, but in the process these people fail to get the story right themselves.  This screenshot is from her errant Substack:"

Paul Holden on X - "Just shameful that this was all available online and no media outlet bothered to look. Just scoffed and sneered at a gifted academic and athlete. The worst of us killed the best of us."
James C Graves on X - "All that photo proves is that a group of his supporters and friends--30 to 50 people--joined him for a photo where he claimed he finished his 30th marathon.  Show me his entrance card, times and finish from a single organized marathon.  If you are going to claim you are a world class endurance distance runner better come with some unimpeachable documentation when you have a record of making improbable Walter Mittyish claims (near professional at billiards and soccer).  Guy was just a fraud who couldn't live being exposed."

Peter J. Williams on X - "Direct link to Jason Arday’s contemporaneous 2010 blog detailing his 30 marathons in 35 days. It gives times and various witnesses. HT @MonkEmma"
Cockford Ollie on X - "On 9 Feb this year, the blog is captured as private. https://t.co/floMvkUCr8 Interesting that 6 days prior, on 3 February 2026, the police had asked Jack Grove to back off"

Benjamin Ryan on X - "This fundraising page of Arday's didn't prove he ran 30 marathons in 35 days. It proved he only raised £6,285, even as he told credulous local reporters writing about his supposed marathon running that he'd raised about £100,000 over the past eight years. How? He never explained."

Bernard T. Joy on X - "Story time: I am still listening to academics vociferously defend Jason Arday concerning his dismissal and the plagiarism allegations. However, I have to remember that all these people know how cruel and cutthroat their profession is. I know a professor who was dismissed for reading a chapter of a novel by a famous literary modernist in a class on famous literary modernists. Because the original text contained a word students did not like on grounds that it is a racist word, the professor went through disciplinary procedures and was let go. You would not believe that, would you? And yet it happened and not only did no one in this warm and loving academic community care about this terrible injustice against this person, many actively celebrated it in colloquia I attended. So, with my knowledge of that kind of background, it is very hard to care about the complaints of academics who wish to create sympathy for someone who committed plagiarism. Either you care about the wellbeing of your colleagues or you do not care."
They only care about those who push the left wing agenda

Sidsy on X - "I have been told I obviously have an "agenda".
So, to be clear:
My "agenda" is to look objectively at the claims and assess the available evidence. There is definitely evidence that Dr Arday undertook a marathon challenge; that is indisputable.  There is also evidence that he made claims around that challenge (both at the time and particularly later) which appear to be either untrue or embellishments. Specifically:
1. Claiming that he ran nine marathons whilst his right leg had "ballooned to twice its size"
2. Claiming that two to three thousand people were waiting for him at the finish. Both these claims are contradicted by photographic and video evidence from that day, as I have shown.
3. His later claim (in 2021) that he had run all the marathons in under five hours, clearly not supported by his blog which shows all of the later marathon times as between five and nearly six and a half hours.
Emma was aware of all of the above but chose not to include these claims in her thread. As I said in my original post, evidence that Dr Arday said something is not evidence that it happened.  And given his many other verifiably false claims (particularly re. his professional CV), yes - I will question everything. That is not an unreasonable position to take when you believe in proper fact-checking."
Bley Mingus on X - I don't are about the marathons, his claim that he was mute until 11 is far more serious."
Sidsy on X - There are many other claims that are more serious, including those on his professional CV. I've only listed those in relation to this challenge here as Emma chose to do a 26-post thread about it to supposedly show how the press "lied" and didn't do their job properly. Emma, of course, has written no threads about his verifiably false claims re. qualifications and titles."
chevronroady on X - "Emma cares about the 30 marathons because the rest is so far fetched she doesn't have a leg to stand on. It's preposterous but that is the mentality of the cult."

Melissa Chen on X - "You guys realize that the leftist reaction to the Jason Arday case is going to incentivize more and more people to just "self-ID" as autistic or neurodivergent right?   Why? Because it instantly unlocks two-tier judgment. There will be massive upside to identify as "neurodivergent" and no downside. It's a choose-your-own-adventure but this time you're just choosing your own alibi.   No one challenges the claim, and you might even score an endorsement from figures like autism expert Simon Baron-Cohen.   The same excesses that distorted the trans movement will now come for "neurodivergence." Increasingly, mental health status is treated as a moral free pass - permission to act like an asshole or commit crimes (see the Lindsay Clancy case)."

Darren Grimes on X - "Only in Britain could you fake your credentials, lecture students on white privilege to mask your own inadequacies, and still get a candlelit vigil from the cultural class."

Thread by @chrisJmaggio on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Of the over 500 signatories on this list, it seems, based on my brief investigation, that a very small number said or signed anything publicly in defense of Rumeysa Ozturk. I’m sure this was just an oversight.  For transparency, I asked ChatGPT to search for public statements and public signatures related to Ozturk for those who signed the Cofnas letter. It only found 1 (Michael Glennon). Some of this could be because many of the signatories of the Cofnas letter are based outside of the US, but 150 are US-based, and by that logic only 7 on the letter are based in Belgium. It could be of course that ChatGPT is missing people, but 1 found out of over 500 seems notable"
Left wing logic: if you speak out against academia retaliating against a whistleblower who exposed plagiarism and don't speak out against a student's visa being revoked for writing an op-ed, you're a hypocrite (even though those are in different countries, involve different types of institutions, are different types of activities and retaliating against whistleblowers is against EU law while the US government has broad authority to revoke student visas). Ironically, when you ask left wingers why they're obsessed over their trivial causes and ignore much bigger ones, they say everyone has the right to pursue their own causes

Bo 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇬🇧 🇵🇱 on X - "This is a thorough piece on affirmative action at Harvard in terms of admissions for different racial groups. It gives context to the oft-quoted 0.7% black students at Harvard if DEI didnt exist, which is usually misattributed to Nathan Cofnas."
If Cofnas quotes something Harvard's own data says, that's proof that he's a racist white supremacist

أبو عمّار on X - "This interview of @nathancofnas  by my old colleague @NickFerrariLBC  (who - lest we forget - infamously said during Covid “ban the unvaccinated from leaving their homes”) highlights everything wrong with today’s uniparty media.   Ferrari was having an entirely different (woke: “how can you say that??”) conversation to the one Cofnas was having.  A fair broadcaster would accept that Cofnas here was saying:
a) Group differences in test scores are confirmed by research. And Harvard (wrongly in Cofnas ’ view, and my own) practices positive discrimination to reverse this.
b) to make his point about the unfair impact of positive discrimination on American-Asians, who score higher than others, Cofnas had quoted Harvard’s own data on his blog: if Harvard ditched positive discrimination, only 0.7% of black students would gain entry (and American-Asians would gain more places).
c) Cofnas explained that observable group differences do not apply to all ‘outlier’ cases, and hence he accepts that individual blacks can, and do, excel.
Like Cofnas, I also reject Harvard’s positive discrimination and I value meritocracy. Probably unlike Cofnas, I doubt group differences in IQ can be reliably isolated as to cause. And regardless, I am suspicious of IQ scores being used as a reliable measure of intelligence anyway.   BUT, despite my likely disagreeing with Cofnas here, it is obvious Ferrari wasn’t interested in a conversation here. He was simply grandstanding as a virtue-signal. Just as he did during Covid."

CowLivesMatter on X - "Cutting right to the chase: I think we are asking the wrong questions about the Arday case, and we're allowing Cambridge and the most powerful people in the UK to run out the clock.  Don't be distracted by the plagiarism question. It hardly matters. All that matters is that no one, especially a man with severe learning differences, can teach himself a wholly new discipline and write an original work of scholarship in it in 3 years, while also working numerous full time jobs, caring for elderly parents and a young family.  This is the timeline between when Arday finishes his Masters in Physical Education (2012) and defends his PhD in Sociology (2015)."
Wanjiru Njoya on X - "Yes. And he was "laundered" from Liverpool John Moores, an ex-poly where standards are under less public scrutiny, up through Glasgow and Durham which are in the Russel Group. Cambridge would not have hired him straight from Liverpool John Moores."

How Colleges Produce Socialists

How Colleges Produce Socialists - WSJ
When your first brush with adulthood involves endless consumption and no cost, it gives you the wrong idea of how the world works.

What’s behind the craze for socialism among young people? The New York Times, focusing on the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York membership surge, offers the conventional view: that it is fueled predominantly by “frustration with the economy” and the desire for a social safety net. The same report notes that the DSA member base has become younger and more white-collar, with its greatest appeal to college-educated urban dwellers.

Why college students? The usual assumption is that professors are indoctrinating students, but that’s too simple. The campus itself is a powerful factor.

When students arrive in college, they encounter a vague sense of freedom. What they often do not realize is how controlled their campus experience is. Universities operate as a closed economy: centrally administered, collectively resourced, carefully controlled by administrators who hope their plans aid retention efforts.

Over the past several decades, the college campus has morphed into a comprehensive residential and lifestyle provider. Beginning in the 1990s, when colleges started competing more aggressively for larger enrollment numbers, investing in student life became a way to recruit students. Expanded student unions, more-comfortable residence halls, larger recreation centers, campus programming offices and improved dining choices became the norm.

By the early 2000s, colleges faced an “amenities arms race.” Rec centers were revamped with climbing walls and lazy rivers; dorms gave way to apartment lofts with expansive lounges; campus coffee bars were established with national brands.

The upgrading of amenities wasn’t only a matter of physical adjustments. Administrators, aware that nonacademic factors can influence educational outcomes, sought to provide full-scale support not only to ensure graduation (tutoring and writing centers) but also personal growth (wellness and DEI programming). Specialized administrative units and support services grew quickly, outpacing academic departments. Critics have argued that this growing array of services contributes to rising college costs and an emphasis on comforts and conveniences rather than educational value.

This transformation has been especially pronounced at America’s wealthiest and most selective colleges and universities. At elite institutions, students enter a nearly self-contained community. They ride campus buses without paying a fare. They enter expansive recreation centers without a membership card. They attend concerts, meet career coaches, reserve study rooms, download software, join student organizations, and participate in countless campus activities without ever reaching for a wallet.

None of these services are free. Their costs are embedded in tuition and fees, endowment income, donor support and government funding. Yet, because students rarely confront a price at the point of use, they experience consumption without consequence or even comparison.

The dining hall is a perfect example: The student’s economic background is invisible as everyone eats from the same options available in the food court. There is no price signal, and a student who eats three plates of pasta and a bowl of soft-serve ice cream has the same meal plan as one who has a salad and a glass of water.

Students’ insulation from costs and price signals has important consequences. As Friedrich Hayek emphasized, prices communicate information and make trade-offs visible. They reveal scarcity and coordinate countless individual decisions across society. When prices are bundled or obscured, consumers—in this case students—encounter fewer day-to-day reminders of opportunity costs or the economic realities that accompany virtually every decision in ordinary life. All-inclusive services inevitably cultivate different economic habits than an environment in which individuals routinely weigh costs, compare alternatives, and make purchasing decisions.

For many 18-year-olds, college is the first large institution they experience independently from their families. Spending four formative years in a community where hundreds of services are collectively financed and individually consumed can shape assumptions about how institutions function and how resources should be allocated. As institutional economist Douglass North argued, institutions shape the “rules of the game” by influencing the mental models people use to interpret the world. Four years in a planned and bundled environment can leave a lasting impression of what is normal, which graduates carry over into the “real world.”

The question isn’t whether universities should provide such services. It is how living in such an environment shapes a generation’s understanding of markets, institutions and economic expectations.

If transportation is universally available without fares on campus, it may seem natural to ask why urban transportation doesn’t function similarly. If counseling services and mindfulness programs are readily available in college, paid time off for mental health may seem like a reasonable expectation in the workplace. If fitness centers, technology services, entertainment options and countless other amenities appear to operate without cost, comprehensive public provision elsewhere may seem practical.

When the costs of collectively provided goods are invisible, the investments required to sustain them are easy to overlook. The result is an environment where consumption is highly visible while production and financing remain in the background.

That helps explain why politicians advocating expansive government programs often find receptive audiences among younger, college-educated voters. A cohort raised on all-you-can-eat meal plans, campus shuttles and bundled student services may be evaluating public policy through the only economic model they have ever personally experienced. Viewed through that lens, it becomes easier to understand why proposals such as city-run grocery stores and fare-free public transit have gained traction among younger voters, including those who supported New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

A greater willingness to rely on government intervention in economic affairs isn’t confined to the political left. Today’s political leaders increasingly look first to large institutions to coordinate solutions. Whether the proposal involves government-supported family benefits, universal child care, industrial policy, subsidized housing or publicly funded college, the common thread is confidence that centralized institutions can effectively organize resources on behalf of citizens.

Vice President JD Vance has openly criticized laissez-faire capitalism and in one recent interview emphasized access, meaning and belonging in language that echoes themes often heard on elite college campuses. According to Mr. Vance, people should aim to find their purpose and a sense of contribution that extends beyond economic efficiency. He scoffs at the idea of earning a living in a cubicle.

That emphasis on community and institutional belonging raises an interesting question about where such assumptions are cultivated. At Yale Law School, where Mr. Vance studied from 2010 through 2013 with practically a full ride, students occupied one of the most architecturally distinguished academic environments in the country. The Sterling Law Building was designed to evoke England’s historic Inns of Court, complete with soaring stone archways, stained-glass windows, carved oak interiors, tranquil courtyards, and communal spaces intended to foster scholarly community. Students had access to the Lillian Goldman Law Library, one of the world’s premier collections, along with an on-site dining hall, Café Law, plus student lounges, meditation spaces and the Payne Whitney Gymnasium, a recreation complex spanning more than a dozen acres with swimming pools, squash courts, basketball courts, climbing facilities, fitness studios and hundreds of pieces of exercise equipment. Most of these amenities were simply part of campus life.

It’s worth considering whether elite campus environments normalize an organizational model that many of today’s millennial political leaders seek to replicate through public policy.

Mr. Mamdani’s undergraduate experience at Maine’s Bowdoin College (2010-14) is another example. Bowdoin consistently ranks among the nation’s finest residential colleges, with dining services that receive national recognition for quality and variety. Every student is issued a MacBook Pro, iPad and Apple Pencil, making cutting-edge technology an assumed component of the educational experience rather than a personal purchasing decision. The Bowdoin Outing Club, one of the oldest collegiate outdoor programs in the country, organizes more than 150 trips each year, providing equipment, transportation, guides, and leadership training at little or no additional cost to participants. Students ski at the college’s Nordic center, skate at the Sidney J. Watson Arena, and borrow outdoor equipment from an extensive gear library. They even stay in a college-owned cabin along the Appalachian Trail.

The point isn’t that either Mr. Vance or Mr. Mamdani supports particular policies because of the amenities he experienced in college. It is that these environments may foster a blinkered way of thinking about institutions, social provision and what constitutes a normal standard of living.

Given these arrangements, is it any wonder that many graduates experience sticker shock on entering adult life? Grocery bills, utility payments, security deposits, transportation, internet service, gym memberships and countless other expenses suddenly become explicit rather than bundled. What many describe as an “affordability crisis” may partly reflect the shock of moving from a bundled institutional economy for which someone else usually pays to an unbundled market economy in which one has to earn his own keep. That makes adulthood feel less like independence and more like an abrupt transition into a harsh world of trade-offs.

The irony is striking. America’s leading universities devote enormous effort to preparing graduates for participation in a dynamic market economy, yet daily campus life is one of the least market-oriented environments in the world.

This doesn’t mean students inevitably leave campus embracing socialist politics. But institutions teach lessons beyond their formal curriculum. If we want to understand why a generation increasingly looks to large organizations to solve complex social problems, we should spend less time scrutinizing classroom lectures and more time examining the economic environment students inhabit every day. The most influential economics lesson many students receive may come from the institutional design of the university. Before blaming the professors, consider the campus.

Links - 1st September 2026 (1 - Euthanasia in Canada)

M.A. Rothman | Facebook - "𝐊𝐄𝐋𝐒𝐈 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍 𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐊: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐖𝐎𝐊𝐄 𝐔𝐏 𝐌𝐈𝐃-𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐃 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍
Kelsi Sheren — a Canadian veteran and one of the loudest critics of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program — sat with 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘰𝘥 and walked through what the press is not telling you about “𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩.”
𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝟏: 𝐃𝐞𝐧𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤. A woman went in for euthanasia. “𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘳.” They started the procedure. Halfway through she woke up screaming “𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘦. 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘦.” 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐝. Court ruled the doctor did nothing wrong.
𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝟐: 𝐊𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐮, 𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝟐𝟔, 𝐎𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨. Approved for MAID by a Dr. Tepper at “𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘥𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦” (a Canadian euthanasia clinic) at age 𝟐𝟐. His diagnosis: 𝐓𝐲𝐩𝐞-𝟏 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧. He had untreated mental-health issues and active substance use. “𝘏𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱. 𝘏𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘔𝘈𝘐𝘋.” His mother went to the media. The doctor backed off — because 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚 𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐚 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫’𝐬 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤. “𝐖𝐡𝐲? 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲’𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠”.
𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝟑: 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐚’𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 — 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃 𝐭𝐨 “𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐳𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞.” The 2023 Ahmed parliamentary report proposed euthanizing down to age 12. 𝐈𝐟 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃 𝐢𝐬 “𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐦𝐚,” 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬?
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐫∗𝐠-𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐫. 𝐉𝐨𝐞𝐥 𝐙𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐭 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝. The head of Critical Care and Anesthesiology at Emory ran post-mortem autopsies on over 200 lethal-injection patients. 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝟖𝟎% 𝐡𝐚𝐝 “𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐲 𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐬” — 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡. The drugs cause “𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘢 — 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯.” 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐟𝐟 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫. Canada quietly stopped allowing MAID patients to be considered for organ donation — UNTIL recently. Now it’s the 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 they have. “𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳?” 𝐁𝐂 — 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐚 — 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚. 𝐂𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝-𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝: 𝐚 “𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐝” 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞-𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥. Increase the morphine. The patient sleeps. Breathing slows. They pass naturally, comfortably, with their family there. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥? Because 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐚 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞-𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃. Delta Hospice Society lost $20M+ in funding because Angelina Ireland — a former palliative patient who got better and runs the facility — said no on religious grounds.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃’𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭-𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬: Quebec, Ontario, BC. “𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘥-𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘓𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺. 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘨𝘦 70+.” A $𝟏.𝟐𝟕𝟑 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 “𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬” 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝟐𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 — per a single government estimate Sheren cited — if you swap healthcare for the cheaper option.
𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐯𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬. 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞."

Canada risks 'suicide contagion' if MAID approved for mental illness | National Post - "People with mental illnesses are already dying assisted deaths in Canada “under the guise of flimsy medical excuses” and others will “doctor shop until death” if euthanasia is allowed for psychiatric suffering alone, MPs and senators were told this week.  “I and other colleagues are experiencing this: People are clearly getting MAID for reasons that are frankly illegal,” psychiatrist Dr. John Maher told a special joint parliamentary committee weighing Canada’s readiness to extend assisted death to those whose sole underlying condition is a mental disorder. Maher, who specializes in treating severe mental illness, also warned Canada risks a “suicide contagion” effect if medical assistance in dying (MAID) becomes seen as a legitimate option for mental suffering. He pointed to the Werther Effect, a phenomenon that refers to a rise in suicides after publicized reports of celebrity deaths by suicide. Rates of suicide in jurisdictions that have legalized doctor-assisted death “have risen much faster after it was legalized than before,” he said.  “Suicide contagion is a well-proven reality. Don’t pretend that it won’t happen in Canada,” he said. The committee has heard conflicting testimony over the safety of expanding MAID eligibility to those with mental illness alone, including over whether, or how, a mental disorder could be considered incurable.  Maher, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Ethics in Mental Health, works with specialized teams that treat the most severe mental illnesses.  “For the last 23 years I’ve treated patients that other psychiatrists told me could not get better and they get better,” he told the committee.  “Suffering can always be reduced…. There is absolutely no such thing as ‘everything has been tried,'” he said...  “People need lifeguards, not someone to push you under,” he said.  Maher rejected the argument by MAID proponents that a request for assisted death is well thought out while true suicides are impulsive.  “Decades of suicide research put the lie to this: 80 per cent of suicide attempters thoughtfully plan their suicides,” he said.  “MAID is suicide par excellence, like having a wedding planner to make it all as easy as possible, even with same-day service.” At times, requests for MAID are made urgently: In 2023, 54 requests for same day assessments and provision (less than 24 hours) were reported in Ontario, and 154 provisions occurred the day after the MAID request, according to Ontario data.  Conservative MP Andrew Lawton asked Maher, “When you describe mental health as already qualifying people in the eyes of some assessors and providers for MAID, you’re describing criminal misconduct, are you not?”  “I absolutely am,” Maher responded. He said he had a patient with schizophrenia who was approved for MAID based on a treatable skin condition and a sore ankle from not cooperating with physiotherapy for a broken ankle. “That is what’s happening. These are already happening,” he said.  Maher told the committee he tried reporting his concerns with a doctor to a provincial college and was told “until the patient is dead there is no malpractice.”  “My teams are pulling their hair out over people planning to refuse medications so they can get get MAID who would have healed, recovered,” he said.  “I had a patient today (with) schizophrenia very, very cavalierly say if he didn’t get a job and a girlfriend he’s going to get MAID.”"

Canada told mentally ill must be euthanized lest they kill themselves - "Jocelyn Downie, a leading MAID activist since 2004, warned that if the federal government keeps excluding mentally ill Canadians from accessing assisted suicide, the result will be more mentally ill Canadians dying by suicide... The argument is not a new one. In fact, it’s been at the core of the Canadian assisted suicide regime since the beginning... In 2021, she co-authored a paper which argued that suicidal ideation should not disqualify patients from wanting to seek a doctor-assisted death. It argued that suicidality may not even be evidence of mental illness at all."
Why even bother with suicide prevention? Just send everyone who wants to kill himself for MAiD

Families of Canadians who received MAID talk of rushed assessment, not being told of decision: study - "Rushed, incomplete assessments, families kept in the dark, loved ones driven to choose MAID because of unbearable suffering. A new study adds to growing evidence that Canadian families’ experiences with doctor-assisted death are deeply mixed, with some describing the experience as raw, traumatic and surreal — including sometimes oddly “cheerful” providers... In 2021, 61-year-old Alan Nichols, who had a history of depression, was euthanized over the objections of his family and nurse practitioner soon after being hospitalized for a psychiatric episode. The sole condition listed in his MAID application was hearing loss... “Canada is now noted as the fastest growing assisted dying program in the world,” the U of Alberta research team wrote... in some cases the decision for MAID was driven by... feared loss of autonomy, and having to rely on others for daily tasks like bathing or toileting, or the possibility of moving into a nursing home... Some MAID deaths were driven by insufficient home care — “they come when they come but not when you need it,” one family member said — or drawn-out waits to see specialists. “My mom needed psychiatric help,” reads one transcribed interview. “My mom was a victim of a broken healthcare system. My mom had been trying to see specialists for months and months and months (for a brain injury)…. It got to the point she lost all hope. “And so my mom ended her life because of desperation, not anything to do with dignity.” “Although many participants experienced respectful, caring and compassionate interactions with healthcare professionals involved in the MAID process, others did not, adding to already stressful and intense emotions,” the researchers wrote in BMC Palliative Care. Some families described hasty assessments done over Zoom, without deep discussions about alternatives and supports families could offer to help, and “what felt like a rapid assessment-to-provision timeline, which contributed to concerns that MAID may have occurred prematurely.” Canada’s law requires two assessors to agree a person is eligible for MAID. But some families said the second assessor seemed to simply “rubber stamp” the first assessor’s decision. Concerned were raised about the accuracy of assessments, including whether mental health issues were fully addressed. A two-page list compiled by one family of their father’s history of depression, suicidality, personality traits and other suspected mental illnesses was largely ignored... Some participants described dispassionate care and a “cold, uncaring, unempathetic” MAID provider. “Booking our MAID date was like booking a dinner reservation. So, it’s just all very, very, very impersonal.” What one family found most off-putting was that the MAID provider seemed strangely “cheerful about it.”... “MAID policy is often framed as purely about autonomy. But health care has never treated autonomy as absolute,” said Dr. Ramona Coelho, a family physician and member of the Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner’s MAID death review committee. “Most families are not asking for veto power,” she said. “They are asking to share information, to be involved and to know that all safeguards and care options were meaningfully considered.”"
This doesn't stop euthanasia supporters from claiming all of them want to die and they are all suffering from terminal diseases, and only religious extremists oppose euthanasia

Alberta to ban doctors from offering euthanasia before a patient asks — unlike rest of Canada - "Alberta doctors will be explicitly banned from raising assisted death with a patient without the person first bringing it up... Some critics argue that it’s “mind boggling” that, across Canada, medical assistance in dying (MAID) is being presented as a care option. The fear is that initiating a discussion about MAID risks unduly influencing someone to choose it, given doctor-patient power dynamics... That fits with most jurisdictions in the world with legalized euthanasia: The suggestion must come from the person... Ontario family physician Dr. Ramona Coelho said she has witnessed patients being approved for MAID quickly, “without a deep dive of their suffering” or discussions around possible solutions to reduce the suffering... Coelho, who cares for people with complex conditions such as disabilities, mental health issues and chronic pain, said patients have told her they’ve been offered MAID repeatedly, by different people, “and sometimes felt pressured to book MAID assessments.” While it’s not the majority of doctors in MAID practice, it raises patient safety issues, she said. “While these conversations are often framed as compassionate, we have to consider the risks, particularly the risk of discrimination,” Coelho later said in an email. Doctors, like anyone else, can hold both conscious and unconscious biases, she added. “This means certain groups — such as people with disabilities, older adults, racialized communities and women — may be more likely to have MAID raised to them based on assumptions about their quality of life, and discrimination,” Coelho said. “The suggestion that MAID should be put on the table for anyone who might qualify runs counter to the core duty of physicians to respect the standard of care,” said Trudo Lemmens, a University of Toronto professor in health law and policy. “In standard medical practice, physicians must not offer a therapy that comes with significant risks, if other less intrusive means to help the person are available,” he said. “It’s mind boggling that MAID would have to be offered as some form of universal therapy for chronic illness,” Lemmens added. “Imagine what that will mean if suffering from a mental illness is a basis for MAID.” Would a person who has had recurrent cycles of depression be offered MAID at some point, he asked. “It’s perfectly reasonable and in line with suicide prevention if health-care providers are prohibited from bringing up MAID,” Lemmens said."
The pro-euthanasia people are going to be very upset

Andrew Lawton on X - "Psychiatrist promoting expansion of MAID to people with mental illness says depression or an eating disorder could qualify someone for assisted death."
From Mona Gupta
The "myth" of the slippery slope strikes again

B.C. woman claims she was offered MAID in Vancouver hospital before other treatments - "A B.C. senior is speaking out after a simple trip to an emergency department last year, she says, took an unsettling turn.  For 83-year-old Miriam Lancaster, the experience started as she was getting out of bed one morning.  “I put my foot on the floor and had such excruciating and unusual pain that I called out,” said Lancaster. Paramedics rushed Lancaster to Vancouver General Hospital, but when she arrived, she claims the initial treatment offered to her by a young doctor came as a shock.  “The admitting staff in the ER had whistled me into a bed, and she was the first medical person questioning me, and that’s where it all started,” said Lancaster.  She says the doctor began asking about medical assistance in dying (MAID)...   Lancaster, who declined MAID, says doctors later identified the pain as a fractured sacrum — a bone in the base of the spine which is treated through bed rest...  the Alberta provincial government introduced a new bill to implement safeguards around MAID and provide new frameworks to protect vulnerable individuals.  Lancaster says the same legislation should be considered in B.C.  “Hospitals should review their policy and not be so hasty to offer MAID,” she said...   A 2025 Statistics Canada report on MAID found B.C. was among the provinces with the most MAID provisions"

B.C. woman offered assisted suicide for fractured hip bone : r/ilovebcsub - "The Supreme Court determining that the 'right to life' in the charter meant the right to death was peak stupidity. Time to clean house."

Kari Bundy - Health Activist | Facebook - "🚨 An 84-year-old Canadian woman says she was offered medical assistance in dying (MAiD) almost immediately after arriving at Vancouver General Hospital, before any doctor had asked about her symptoms or attempted a diagnosis. The patient, who asked to be identified only as Miriam, described the experience in a recent interview with Amanda Achtman, founder of the Dying to Meet You Project.  Last year she woke up in severe pain and was unable to get out of bed.  Her daughter called an ambulance, and Miriam was taken to the hospital for evaluation. According to Miriam, a young doctor came to her bedside and, in her words, "the very first words out of her mouth [were]: 'We would like to offer you MAiD.'"  Miriam said she was stunned. "That was the last thing on my mind! I just wanted to find out why I was in pain! I did not want to die!" She had not requested assisted dying, discussed it with anyone, or been told she had a terminal condition.  After a month in the hospital, Miriam recovered fully.  She has since traveled to Cuba, Mexico, and Guatemala, describing her recovery as "amazing" and saying there was "no need for MAiD to even be suggested." The account has renewed debate over how MAiD, Canada's government-regulated euthanasia and assisted suicide program, is presented to patients, especially older adults in acute distress.  Critics cite reports of unsolicited offers and argue the system sometimes positions assisted death as an early option rather than a last resort.  Supporters say MAiD provides compassionate choice for those suffering intolerably. Conservative MP Garnett Genuis has introduced Bill C-260, the Preventing Coercion of Persons Not Seeking Medical Assistance in Dying Act.  The private member's bill would amend the Criminal Code to prohibit certain individuals, particularly those in positions of authority outside direct clinical care, from initiating discussions about MAiD with people who have not expressly requested the conversation. Miriam's story, shared through Achtman's advocacy work, joins other similar accounts that have surfaced in recent months.  It raises questions about safeguards, informed consent, and whether fiscal pressures in the healthcare system influence how end-of-life options are presented. Cases like this highlight the ongoing tension in Canada between expanding access to MAiD and protecting vulnerable patients from undue influence.  As the program continues to evolve, stories from patients and families are prompting calls for clearer boundaries in medical practice. What are your thoughts on unsolicited MAiD offers in acute care settings?"

Alberta seeks to set limits on use of medically assisted dying - "Alberta has proposed a bill that would limit the use of medically assisted dying - also known as voluntary euthanasia - in the Canadian province solely to end-of-life circumstances... Alberta is the first jurisdiction in Canada to independently propose limits to the practice.  Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, said during a news conference on Wednesday that Maid should only be an option for those with no hope of recovery... The proposed seeks to prohibit doctors from unilaterally raising Maid with patients and banning its public advertising in healthcare facilities. It would also enshrine conscience protections for healthcare professionals and institutions."
This is why left wingers hate Alberta so much. Best quote: "Being alive is a terminal illness"
Left wingers usually defend euthanasia claiming that it's only for those who are going to die already. I guess the cognitive dissonance to claim that in response to this article was too much, even for them

Canada: Man gets next-day assisted death after alcohol-related falls - "A Canadian man who was hospitalised due to repeated alcohol-related falls had his life ended by assisted dying the day after having virtual eligibility assessments, despite no clinical investigations and no terminal diagnosis.   An official report by the Chief Coroner of Ontario’s Medical Assistance in Dying Death Review Committee (MDRC) highlighted that the man, known as Mr A, had previously been found ineligible to end his life under Canada’s euthanasia and assisted suicide regime because he did not have a “grievous and irremediable condition”.   The report states that Mr A developed covid approximately a month after his prior assisted death assessment, but was showing “no significant impact to his function or ability to live independently”. During this period, Mr A was suffering from alcohol use disorder.   Just over a month later, Mr A was admitted to the hospital due to what the attending practitioner referred to as falls that were “precipitated by alcohol use and decreased oral intake of other fluids”. Shortly afterwards, he was voluntarily admitted to a psychiatric unit in a care institution; following a psychiatric assessment, this status became an involuntary admission.   During his psychiatric admission, Mr A experienced a functional decline and repeatedly expressed a wish to die, expressing significant pain in his upper arm.   Mr A asked to be provided with state assistance in ending his own life. He received two virtual eligibility assessments by phone, one after the other, which the inpatient treatment team was not made aware of, and was found to be eligible due to a presumptive diagnosis of complications following covid and possible heart failure, though no additional clinical investigations took place.   Immediately following the assessments, Mr A was transferred to a hospital, where he was found to have a dislocated shoulder, which was subsequently stabilised.  The next day, Mr A was discharged from the hospital and ended his life with the assistance of the state...   According to the report, most members of the MDRC agreed that the short turnaround time between Mr A’s virtual eligibility assessments and an assisted death “did not promote a quality approach” to assisted dying. They argued that a short timeline like this does not allow for adequate investigation of an individual’s conditions or collaboration with a treatment team, evidenced by the fact Mr A’s treatment team were not aware of his over-the-phone assessments. They also argued that this does not allow for alternative care options to be offered."
Clearly, upper arm pain is a terminal disease

Shocking report exposes terrifying reality of assisted suicide in Canada - "In one shocking case, a woman in her 80s, only referred to as Mrs. B, had her life ended under the country’s euthanasia program despite withdrawing her request — when her husband and caregiver requested it again on her behalf.  The woman, who suffered from chronic complications following coronary artery bypass graft surgery, was receiving palliative care support at home when she told her family that she wanted to end her life through the MAiD program.  She then informed her assessor that she “wanted to withdraw her request, citing personal and religious values and beliefs,” according to the report. Her spouse then requested another euthanasia assessment, which deemed Mrs. B eligible despite her expressed desire to opt for palliative care instead.  A third assessor confirmed the second assessor’s approval, and Mrs. B received MAiD the same day. MAiD was passed in 2016 and originally required a 10-day waiting period between a request for assisted suicide and the act of euthanasia. This requirement was removed in 2021 by Canada’s parliament for those whose deaths were “reasonably foreseeable,” despite concerns that patients would opt for same-day suicides because it was quicker than accessing high-quality palliative care...   Critics have held up Mrs. B’s case as evidence that patients are being given same-day euthanasia because it is easier for doctors to arrange than end-of-life care, and families are taking it due to caregiver burnout.   Mrs. B was granted same-day euthanasia, despite her first assisted suicide practitioner having “concerns regarding the necessity for ‘urgency’ and… the seemingly drastic change in perspective of end-of-life goals, and the possibility of coercion or undue influence (i.e., due to caregiver burnout),” the MDRC’s report stated. “The focus [in this case] should have been on ensuring adequate palliative care and support for Mrs. B and her spouse. Hospice and palliative care teams should have been urgently re-engaged, given the severity of the situation,” Dr. Ramona Coelho of the MDRC said.  It is the latest troubling incident under Canada’s euthanasia program, which many say is targeting so-called “burdensome” groups such as the elderly and disabled.  The policy was described as “probably the biggest existential threat to disabled people since the Nazis’ program in Germany in the 1930s,” by Tim Stainton, director of the Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship at the University of British Columbia in 2022."
Clearly, euthanising her was the right decision, because she had been brainwashed by religious extremists into withdrawing her MAiD request!

200+ Ontario residents were approved for assisted suicide on the same or next day in 2023 - "Assisted suicide became even easier to get after Liberals passed Bill C-7, which got rid of a mandatory 10-day reflection time before someone could have themselves killed by euthanasia.  A report has highlighted just how prevalent euthanasia has become in Canada’s largest province of Ontario, noting that, of the thousands who died from assisted suicide, some 200 died from the procedure after getting same-day or next-day approval.  The 2024 report from the “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAID) Death Review Committee (MDRC) of Ontario noted how, in 2023, a total of 219 Ontarians were asked to die by euthanasia and then were given quick approval, under what is known as Track 1.  Track 1 rules stipulate that a person has to have a reasonably foreseeable death.  Of the quick assisted suicide approvals, 30 percent of them chose to die the same day, records show.   Highlighted was a case of a man, known as Mr. C, in his 70s with cancer. He asked for assisted suicide, and five days later, he was placed in the hospital.  While in the hospital, his condition worsened to the point that he could not speak clearly. The person who was the assisted suicide practitioner tried to “vigorously rouse” him to get him to consent to being killed. This was after holding his sedation for 45 minutes.  He was killed later that day.  According to some members of the MDRC, not giving the man sedation for 45 minutes was “insufficient time for medication clearance.”  There are many cases like Mr. C in Ontario, according to the report. Assisted suicide became even easier to get after Bill C-7 came to light, which got rid of a mandatory 10-day reflection time before someone could die by euthanasia...   Euthanasia is now the sixth-highest cause of death in Canada, after it was not listed in Statistics Canada’s top 10 leading causes of death from 2019 to 2022.  In 2021, the federal government under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expanded euthanasia from killing “terminally ill” patients to allowing the “chronically ill” to qualify after the passage of Bill C-7. Since then, the government has sought to include those suffering solely from mental illness."