Our Core Concept: The Right to Live

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      At the heart of our nation lies a promise: that Canada is a country of compassion, opportunity, and fundamental human rights. Yet for hundreds of thousands of our citizens with disabilities, this promise is being systematically undermined. The struggle they face is not one of personal failing, but a direct consequence of a system design that equates disability with poverty.

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This page explains the undeniable facts of this design and introduces our founding creed: The Right to Live.

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Disability and Poverty: A System by Design

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     In Canada, relying on provincial or federal disability support is not a path out of hardship; it is a direct route into deep poverty. This is not an opinion; it is a measurable, statistical fact.

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• The Definition of Deep Poverty: Canada's official poverty line is the Market Basket Measure (MBM), which represents the cost of a modest, basic standard of living. "Deep poverty" is typically defined as having an income below 75% of the MBM.

• The Reality of Support: Provincial disability income support programs, which are the primary source of income for many Canadians with disabilities, consistently provide benefits that fall thousands of dollars below the MBM. For example, in Ontario, the maximum annual rate for a single person on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) is significantly below the MBM for any major city in the province [1]. This isn't a gap; it is a chasm.

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For a person with a disability who must rely on these programs, deep poverty is the default state. It is the calculated baseline from which they are forced to exist.

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      This design has a compounding effect. As the severity of a person's disability increases, so do their costs for medical supplies, specialized diets, accessible transportation, and personal care. However, the 'one-size-fits-all' financial support does not scale with these needs. The result is a cruel paradox: the more significant an individual's disability and associated costs, the more profound their poverty and the suffering that accompanies it, and thus the greater pressure towards euthanasia or suicide.

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From Poverty to a Choice of Death

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     When the state designs a system where survival means living in perpetual poverty, suffering is not an accident—it is an inevitability. For Canadians with disabilities, this is the daily reality: a life where essential supports are denied, costs compound with every increase in severity of disability, and every pathway to relief is blocked by bureaucracy or empty funding envelopes. In this system, hope is rationed, and dignity becomes unaffordable.

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     This is the terrain in which Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) has shifted from a question of terminal illness to a quiet solution for desperation. For many, death is not chosen freely; it is chosen because life has been rendered unbearable by design.

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     This is not theory—it is documented fact. Investigations have revealed Canadians with disabilities seeking MAID because they could not secure safe housing, home care, or basic medical supplies. One woman, denied accessible housing after years of requests, scheduled her death because her only alternative was continued existence in a mold-infested apartment that endangered her health. Others, unable to afford pain management or mobility equipment, have declared that they would rather die than continue fighting a system that treats their survival as optional. These stories are not anomalies—they are symptoms of a policy architecture that converts poverty into pressure, suffering into surrender.

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And when the state finally intervenes, it does not arrive with what was withheld—adequate income, housing, care, and inclusion. It arrives with a procedure. A lethal prescription. An offer of peace and relief—relief it refused to provide in life. The instruments of death are presented as dignified, efficient, and humane. Canada employs Secobarbital, internationally recognized as the “gold standard” for a calm and painless death, promising a serene drift into nothingness. For those who have endured relentless deprivation, this promise of comfort is not neutral—it is overwhelmingly seductive.

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      The incentives run deeper. Assisted death does not invalidate life insurance policies, a detail widely understood by those who feel reduced to financial burdens. For parents, partners, or siblings who have been made to feel like liabilities, the calculus becomes crushing: one final act of self-sacrifice could transform their death into financial security for the ones they love. And so, poverty and pain—manufactured by faulty systemic design—conspire with policy to make death appear rational, even desirable.

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     When a system enforces deprivation and then frames death as the compassionate exit, what remains of choice? What remains of autonomy, when survival requires enduring endless suffering, while death is expedited, incentivized, and wrapped in the language of dignity? This is not freedom—it is coercion disguised as care.

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Our Creed: Upholding the Right to Live

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    We refuse to accept a system that manufactures and enforces poverty—then offers euthanasia as its final remedy. The Right to Live is our creed, our banner, and our promise. It is the principle that grounds our existence and shapes our vision for Canada’s future.

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     We define this right as:

“The societal commitment to ensure that Canadians can live—not merely exist—through adequate support, security, and dignity, so that the choice to die is never driven by poverty or desperation.” 

Definition of 'the Right to Live'

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The Right to Live is not a plea for charity—it is a human, moral, strategic, and fiscal imperative for Canada.

 

It is Human

No individual should face a false choice between a life of systemic suffering and an expedited, state-administered death. This is not freedom—it is systemic coercion disguised as compassion.

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It is Morally Right

A nation’s character is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable. Allowing poverty-driven euthanasia via the system's own designs is a profound violation of that responsibility—a quiet cruelty disguised as compassion. Upholding this right affirms that every life carries intrinsic worth beyond economic calculus.

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It is Strategically Imperative

Canada’s global reputation as a champion of human rights is eroding. When the United Nations and our own Human Rights bodies warn that our disability policies border on coercion toward death, our credibility collapses. This damages our ability to influence global policy, weakening the moral authority we once held. Defending the Right to Live safeguards not only lives but the integrity of Canada’s voice on the world stage.

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It is Fiscally Visionary

Prevention costs less than crisis—and compassion costs less than neglect. Supporting Canadians with disabilities reduces downstream healthcare costs, preserves human potential, and strengthens domestic economic resilience. Beyond borders, Canada’s brand as a humane society is an economic asset. The price of forfeiting that reputation—in trade, tourism, and investment—far exceeds the investment required to uphold life and dignity.

 

The Right to Live is a societal commitment to replace managed suffering with unwavering support—a promise that no Canadian shall bear the failures of our system with their life.

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This is our cause. This is the vow our members, volunteers, and donors uphold through awareness, direct relief, and national action. Join us in building a Canada where the Right to Live is not an ideal, but an unbreakable guarantee.

Our Path Forward

 

Right to Live Canada was created to translate this creed into a concrete, actionable solution. The opportunity lies within a key safety check in Canada's MAID program: the two-assessor system. Assessors are obligated to ensure an applicant has "evaluated all possible viable alternatives" before approving an application. Currently, for those experiencing suffering driven by poverty and lack of support—a phenomenon we identify as Poverty Driven Disability Euthanasia (PDDE)—no specific resources exist for an assessor to refer. This leaves them with no choice but to approve the application on the grounds of that very lack of alternatives. Right to Live Canada is building the system to fill this gap. We are developing a ‘Social Brokerage’ operating model—a pioneering solution designed to provide tangible, life-affirming alternatives and restore choice where it has been coercively removed. Our work is to engineer and implement the systems necessary to uphold the right to live, translating our creed into concrete, national action. ​

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Why This Matters

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The Right to Live is not only ethically non-negotiable—it is fiscally prudent and strategically essential. In a publicly funded healthcare system, preventing crises costs less than treating them, and avoiding preventable deaths shields Canada from a narrative that our social framework quietly condones what history taught us to reject.

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By standing with us, you help Canada live up to its promise—to protect the right for all to live with dignity.

 

 

Sources: [1] Maytree Foundation. (2023). Welfare in Canada, 2022. This report provides detailed breakdowns of provincial social assistance rates compared to the Market Basket Measure (MBM) across Canada. [2] Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2019). End of Mission Statement by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Catalina Devandas-Aguilar, on her visit to Canada.