Transparent heart icon with white outline and + sign.

Life's busy, read it when you're ready!

Create a free account to save articles for later, keep track of past articles you’ve read, and receive exclusive access to all RP resources.

White magnifying glass.

Search thousands of RP articles

Articles, news, and reviews that celebrate God's truth.

Open envelope icon with @ symbol

Get Articles Delivered!

Articles, news, and reviews that celebrate God's truth. delivered direct to your Inbox!



Magazine, Past Issue

July/Aug 2025 issue

WHAT'S INSIDE: Are you still able: A nation-wide challenge to experience life without screens / Creation stewards in a logging town / Who do you want to be? RP's 10-day screen-fast challenge / We took the no screens challenge... and now we're changing our habits / What can I do anyways? 35 screen-alternative ideas / Is TikTok the ultimate contraception? / How to stay sane in an overstimulated age / Defeated by distraction / How to use AI like a Christian boss / Who speeches were they? On AI, and others, writing for us / The Way / Who is Mark Carney? / What if we said what we mean? - the political party edition / Am I lazy or just relaxing? What does Proverbs say? / Get out of the game: Christians need to steer clear of sports gambling / Man up: ARPA leaderboards and the call to courageous action / Christians don't pray / Our forever home / Calvin as a comic / The best comics for kids / Fun is something you make: 11 times for family road trips / Come and Explore: Mr. Morose goes to the doctor / Rachel VanEgmond is exploring God's General Revelation / 642 Canadian babies were born alive and left to die / 90 pro-life MPs elected to parliament / Ontario shows why euthanasia "safeguards" can't work / RP's coming to a church near you / and more!

Click the cover to view in your browser
or click here to download the PDF (8 mb)



News, Pro-life - Euthanasia

MP says: No MAiD for the mentally ill

BILL C-218 PROPOSES TO SCRAP EXPANSION OF EUTHANASIA FOR MENTAL ILLNESS

*****

MP Tamara Jansen has introduced a new bill that would repeal the expansion of euthanasia to those with mental illness. Four years into the conversation about euthanasia for mental illness, we can be incredibly happy that there is another proposal to eliminate one of the most egregious parts of Canada’s euthanasia regime.

History of the planned expansion of euthanasia for those with a mental illness

Euthanasia for those with a mental illness was first raised in Bill C-7 in 2021, which originally set a date of March 17, 2023 when euthanasia for those with mental illness would be legalized. After a report by a committee of the Quebec legislature recommended against euthanasia for mental illness and an expert panel report on euthanasia for mental illness noted significant risks, the government passed Bill C-39, which delayed the expansion of euthanasia for mental illness until 2024.

As that date approached, former Member of Parliament Ed Fast introduced Bill C-314, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying). If passed, that bill would have repealed the expansion of euthanasia to those with mental illness as the only condition causing their request. Although that bill received unanimous support from the Conservative, NDP, and Green Party, along with 8 Liberals, it failed to pass by a vote of 150-167.

As ARPA noted at the time, such a close vote, especially on a social issue dealing with a matter of life and death for those with mental illness, sends a message that Canadians have serious reservations about expanding MAiD further. If only nine more MPs had voted in favour instead of against, the bill would have passed 2nd reading and advanced to committee for further study.

In response to the close defeat of the bill and in light of concerns raised by nearly every provincial government that they weren’t prepared, the government decided shortly after to delay the expansion of euthanasia for mental illness for a second time, this time until 2027. In the wake of the vote, the Conservatives – who had unanimously voted in favor of entirely repealing the expansion – were riding high in the polls, were expected to form government, and promised to repeal the expansion of MAiD to those with a mental illness. But Trudeau’s resignation and Carney’s ascension led to a different outcome in the recent election.

With no Conservative government in charge of things and no commitment from the Liberals to revisit the issue, MP Tamara Jansen used her opportunity to introduce a private member’s bill on the issue. Her Bill C-218 is identical to the previous one introduced by MP Ed Fast and intends to permanently eliminate – rather than just delay – the tragedy of euthanasia for mental illness.

The tragedy of euthanasia for mental illness

Every case of euthanasia is a murder. And every case of euthanasia in our health care system is fundamentally at odds with the central premise of health care of doing no harm. But extending MAiD to those with a mental illness is particularly tragic.

Simple logic dictates that MAiD isn’t appropriate for people with mental illness. People who have a mental illness are not able to give fully informed consent to MAiD. By definition, their reasoning isn’t entirely sound, and so they should not be put in a position where they could choose to end their life. We should be providing suicide prevention – not assisted suicide – for those who are suicidal because of a mental illness.

As a nation, we have poured resources into suicide prevention across the country, particularly for people with mental illness. Canada now has a suicide crisis hotline to help people escape suicidal ideation. We should continue do to this rather than encouraging suicide assistance through MAiD. Indeed, offering suicide assistance undermines suicide prevention efforts.

As a country, we raise awareness around mental illness and encourage people to seek help or treatment. For example, Bell Let’s Talk Day is all about reducing the stigma around mental illness and getting people the mental health care that they need. MAiD for mental illness entirely undercuts these efforts. Rather than encouraging people to access mental health care, legalizing MAiD for mental illness encourages people to end their lives instead.

To really drive home the tragedy of euthanasia for mental illness, consider this story that we shared with young people at ARPA Canada’s “God & Government” conference a few months ago:

It’s February, and as you’ve experienced it is cold, and snowy. Just behind Parliament Hill the wind howls across the Alexandria bridge.

It’s just after dinner time, and a man originally on his way home from the corner store is now standing on one of the struts that hold the bridge in place. Emergency vehicles have begun swarming around, the bridge has been cordoned off, and traffic is being redirected to the Portage bridge further up river. A camera crew from Ottawa CTV station, craving a good story, hover just off the bridge, attempting to see what the commotion is all about.

Paramedics prepare warming blankets and pull out supplies. Police officers and other personnel chat to each other through earpieces. They’re waiting for someone. A moment later, an officer jumps out of a police car that pulls up just a few feet away from where the man clings to the buttress of the bridge.

“What’s your name, son?” the officer hollers over the whistle of the wind. “Can we talk about this right now?”

“I just don’t think I can do it anymore,” the man shouts back. “I’m done with everything. My depression is simply too much to bear. I don’t have any desire to live anymore.”

“I see,” the officer shouts back, “well if that’s the case…”

The officer jogs up to the side of the bridge, snow crunching under his heavy boots until he stands near the railing where the man is just within reach.

He hoists himself up onto the railing, reaches over and stretches until he has a hold of the bottom of the man’s heel. With a sudden jerk, he wrenches the man’s right leg high into the air. He disappears into the darkness below. “We’re good,” the cop chirps into his radio, “it’s what he wanted.”

The following morning’s headline in the Ottawa Citizen read, “Heroic Police Officer supports a young man’s right to Die with Dignity, in the face of overwhelming and debilitating depression.”

Virtually no Canadian wants to live in such a country. And yet, legalizing euthanasia in any form but especially euthanasia for mental illness, functionally puts our health care system in the exact same position.

The road before us

Bill C-218 again offers Canada the opportunity to step back from the euthanasia ledge and onto firmer ground that respects the value and dignity of very human life. We are grateful that another MP has taken up this issue and is pushing the government to repeal further expansion of euthanasia.

The new Parliament after the spring election has a fairly similar makeup in government as when Bill C-314 – the previous proposal to scrap the planned expansion for euthanasia for mental illness – was voted on. Prime Minister Carney has not expressed where he stands on the issue of MAiD. Perhaps he will whip his caucus to defend the previous government’s law, but perhaps he will allow a free vote among his MPs on the issue.

The fact that this is still a live issue and that now four separate pieces of legislation have arisen on this topic in just four years is a testament to your continual advocacy! ARPA groups across the country have worked hard to email and meet with your MPs, talk with your neighbors, and deliver nearly 250,000 flyers to spread the message of caring, not killing.

This has contributed to the ongoing conversation, but with another bill on the table, we need to get back at it. Take a few minutes to email your own Member of Parliament expressing your support of Bill C-218 and ask them to support it as well. Copy Prime Minister Mark Carney, Minister of Justice Sean Fraser, and Health Minister Marjorie Michel on that email, encouraging the government to support the legislation as well.

As Christians, we can continue to advocate for caring, not killing, in all circumstances. And we can continue to put pressure on our elected officials to do the same.

Levi Minderhoud is a policy analyst for ARPA Canada (ARPACanada.ca) where this post first appeared. It is reprinted with permission. Picture credit: office of MP Tamara Jansen.


Today's Devotional

July 2 - Fellowship in the light

“God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” - 1 John 1:5 

Scripture reading: 1 John 1:5-8; Ephesians 5:8-21

Light is a common metaphor in the Bible to describe who God is.  It speaks of God’s holiness or, in other words, His absolute moral perfection.  In God there is not even a hint of darkness nor could there be, for God >

Today's Manna Podcast

Manna Podcast banner: Manna Daily Scripture Meditations and open Bible with jar logo

Obedience

Serving #891 of Manna, prepared by B. Tiggelaar, is called "Obedience" and is based on Genesis 3:1-15.











Red heart icon with + sign.
Family, Movie Reviews

Switched

Comedy / Family 2020 / 104 minutes Rating: 6/10 In this Christian spin on Freaky Friday, Cassandra Evans is the brilliant nerdy girl who gets her wish to have the most popular, and meanest, girl in school, Katie Sharp, learn what it's like to live a day in Cassandra's shoes. Yup, this is a body-swapping movie! Cassandra makes her wish after getting pranked by Katie Sharp – the bully doused her victim with a bag full of sour milk and then posted the video for her 4 million social media followers to see. Cassandra goes home in tears and then prays to God that Katie could really understand what it's like to be on the other side of her videos. The next morning it happens: the two of them waking up in each other's beds... and bodies. Now the two foes have to negotiate how to live out each others' lives while they're waiting for their bodies to swap back. Cassandra has an upcoming audition to get into the Juilliard School of Music, and Katie has a daily schedule of videos that her parents force her to make. Adult viewers will anticipate that the lessons are going to go both ways. Yes, Katie begins to learn how painful it is to be bullied, but Cassandra also learns that Katie's life isn't as idyllic as it seemed from the outside: bullies sometimes have problems of their own. And it is no spoiler at all to say that by film's end, the two of them have become the best of buddies. Cautions At one point Cassandra's mom reminds her that she's to love others as she loves herself, so she better start loving herself. But Matthew 12:31 doesn't command self-love; it is instead premised on the fact that we do all love ourselves. (Even when we say we hate some part of ourselves, that's self-love still – we're disappointed because we aren't as beautiful as we think we really should be.) That's just a passing mention though, and the encouragement to love others, even when they make it difficult, is much more the point of the film. When it comes to being bullied, Cassandra is given different advice by friends and family. Parents will need to sort through with our kids when they should go to their teachers, when they should stand up for themselves, and when they should just ignore the bullying. The film doesn't really answer that dilemma, as it is solved here with a body swap, which isn't an option open to the rest of us. Conclusion The first fifteen minutes – where Cassandra is worried about her audition and her popularity, and then gets bullied by Katie – will be hard for sensitive souls in this film's tween/early teen target audience. But after Cassandra and Katie switch bodies, the hijinks are likely to grab them. Production values are decent, and the acting is generally okay – this is slightly better than the average among Christian fare – so the main reason it scored just a 6 is because it is cliched. To the producers' credit, they know the whole body-swapping thing has been done before (Freaky Friday,  The Shaggy Dog) so they lean into the cliche and run with it: we've got the nerdy girl with glasses who is wicked smart, and the mean popular girl who is all about make-up and fashion. Cassandra's mom is the nicest mom ever, and Katie Sharp's parents are so obsessed with worldly success that they've both quit their jobs so they can manage their daughter's social media rise. If it all wasn't so deliberately over the top it'd be dreadful. As it is, the cliches still get to me a bit... but I am not the target audience, and I might be rating this lower than they would. All in all, this reminded me of a Disney Channel TV movie that I would have liked as a kid, but wouldn't have watched over and over. Check out the trailer below for a good taste of what to expect. The same production company also made Identity Crisis, about a shy girl cloning a more confident copy of herself. It has the same vibe, is also well intended, and comes from an explicitly Christian worldview, but it ends up unintentionally portraying confidence as being bubbly and going on shopping trips with the girls. So it didn't quite warrant a review. Still, it was safe... and if you liked this one, you might want to check it out too. ...





Red heart icon with + sign.
News

Saturday Selections – Dec. 10, 2022

Bugs with gears? (1 min) What the narrator here credits to evolution Christians can enjoy for what it reveals about God's ability – His amazing engineering on the smallest scale – and God's personality, how He has packed the world with marvels like this, undiscovered for thousands of years, but just waiting there for us to uncover. Leaders need to be readers ...and, as Dr. Wes Bredenhof writes, it isn't just a matter of reading lots, but reading deeply. 5 new stats you should know about teens and social media Every teen seems to have a phone, Tik Tok is huge, and kids need parents to control their own habits so they'll be better able to mentor their own children... One way the KJV is better (1o-min read) While I won't be switching to the Authorized Version (AV, also known as the King James Version or KJV), I did find this quick debate, for and against, illuminating. It highlighted that in one respect the KJV does what any modern English can't do: it distinguishes between the plural and singular usage of "you" by offering thou (singular you) and ye (plural you). Or this might be making the case for a Texan Version (TV) where we'd distinguish the singular from the plural by using "you" and "y'all." The first two minutes after church is over Tim Challies, on the importance of those first two minutes after the church service is done. Jordan Peterson on whether gov't COVID overreaches could lead to a "social credit" system (2 min) China has been implementing a "social credit" system in which citizens are scored on their compliance, and citizens who have committed no crime might still be denied rights others with higher social credit scores enjoy, like the ability to take flights. In Canada, the government has attempted this on a smaller scale in initiatives like denying pro-life groups money for student job creation that went to other organizations with higher (not in name, but in fact) "social credit" scores.  You can click on the title above for the whole interview. ...