Trial begins on whether religious facilities can refuse euthanasia in Canada

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (LifeSiteNews) — An important court case, the outcome of which will have “broad implications for religious freedom” in Canada about euthanasia being potentially forced in faith-based health care facilities, says a top constitutional group, is now proceeding in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

“The case has broad implications for religious freedom, patient choice, and the future of palliative care in British Columbia and across Canada,” noted the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) in a recent press release.

Canada’s foremost pro-life elderly care facility, the Delta Hospice Society (DHS), was allowed intervenor status in the constitutional challenge, which will decide whether or not faith-based health care facilities will be forced to offer state-sanctioned euthanasia, or “Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)” as it’s euphemistically known.

The DHS, as per the JCCF, noted that the Supreme Court of British Columbia will hear the case, with the trial scheduled to begin on January 12, 2026, and proceed until February 6, 2026, in Vancouver.

The particular case in which the DHS can intervene involves 34-year-old Samantha O’Neill, who was placed in Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital in early 2022, where she was diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer. The JCCF noted that, in 2023, O’Neill said she wanted to be euthanized.

However, because the hospital is run by Providence Health Care Society, a Catholic-based community, St. Paul’s Hospital refused to euthanize O’Neill, in accordance with infallible Church teaching.

O’Neill died in April of 2023 while she was being transferred to another hospital that would consent to her euthanasia request.

As a consequence of the ordeal, O’Neill’s mother Gaye, with the help of the pro-euthanasia lobby group Dying With Dignity Canada, sued “Providence Health Care Society and the Province of British Columbia, arguing that her daughter suffered needless pain and that her Charter rights to freedom of conscience and religion and to life, liberty, and security of the person had been violated,” the JCCF explained.

The woman’s family claims, as noted by the JCCF, that this refusal to offer euthanasia “on-site violated her Charter rights.”

Pro-life hospice happy to promote life and help challenge court case

The DHS was granted intervenor status by Chief Justice Ronald A. Skolrood, which means the society will be allowed to give evidence as well as legal arguments that support euthanasia-free palliative care facilities.

“We look forward to confirming section 7 of the Charter for Canadians who seek life-affirming spaces during their illnesses, so they are not deprived of life, liberty, and the security of the person,” noted DHS Executive Director Angelina Ireland in a media statement sent to LifeSiteNews.

Allison Pejovic, a constitutional lawyer, noted that in Canada, “There are many terminally ill palliative care patients in British Columbia who desire to spend their final days without being asked if they want their life ended by their health care provider.”

“It is important that these patients are able to access a MAID-free space which upholds their human dignity, liberty, and bodily autonomy,” she also noted.

“As an intervenor, the Delta Hospice Society will argue that many terminally ill patients wish to spend their final days in palliative care settings that affirm life and do not introduce euthanasia,” notes the JCCF.

“The Society will submit that section 7 of the Charter requires the availability of MAID-free palliative care spaces for patients who seek them.”

All intervenors in the case must file their written submissions by March 2026.

The Liberal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney has worked to expand euthanasia 13-fold since it was legalized in 2016. Canada now has the fastest-growing assisted suicide program in the world. Meanwhile, Health Canada has released a series of studies on advanced requests for assisted suicide.

Additionally, the Liberal government has been very much pro-abortion and has considered stripping Canadian pro-life charities and churches of their charity tax status.