A Canadian Armed Forces veteran was offered euthanasia by a Government department responsible for pensions, benefits and services for war veterans after he contacted them for help with post-traumatic stress disorder.

David Baltzer, who served two tours in Afghanistan, explained how a Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) agent brought up the topic of “medical-assisted suicide”, saying “I was in my lowest down point, it was just before Christmas”.

“He says to me, ‘I would like to make a suggestion for you. Keep an open mind, think about it, you’ve tried all this and nothing seems to be working, but have you thought about medical-assisted suicide?’”.

“It made me wonder, were they really there to help us, or slowly groom us to say ‘here’s a solution, just kill yourself’”.

Baltzer had contacted VAC for support after the counselling and therapy he received on his return from Afghanistan – where he had seen “plenty of combat” – failed to improve his condition. Baltzer had then tried to deal with the trauma through the use of alcohol and substance abuse. 

Following the VAC agent’s offer, Baltzer was left reeling, saying “It just seems to me that they just want us to be like ‘f–k this, I give up, this sucks, I’d rather just take my own life'”.’

“That’s how I honestly felt”.

This scandal isn't new. Retired corporal, Christine Gauthier, who competed in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, testified before a Canadian House of Commons Veterans Affairs Committee at the beginning of December 2022 that an unnamed veterans affairs case worker had said, in writing, that Ms Gauthier could be provided with a euthanasia device when all she had wanted was a stairlift to be installed in her home.

Ms Gauthier, 52, said “I have a letter saying that if you’re so desperate, madam, we can offer you MAID, medical assistance in dying”.

Canadian veteran Kelsi Sheren said that she knows almost a dozen former military servicemen who have been offered medical assistance in dying by Canadian authorities, calling this “disgusting” and “unacceptable”. 

The Elim Pentecostal Church has pleaded with Westminster to honour the sanctity of life from birth to natural death.

In a press release responding to decisions in the House of Commons advancing Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill and liberalising abortion law in England and Wales, the Elim Movement warned that these developments undermined the value of every human life.

The statement followed an address by Professor John Lennox at the National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast on the theme of ‘God in the public square’.

The denomination, comprising over 400 churches in the UK and Ireland set out the Church’s “deeply held belief in the God-given dignity and worth of every human life” and urged Westminster to “consider the importance of human dignity from conception to natural death”.

Elim called on both Houses to reject “the belief that a just and compassionate society pits the rights of an unborn child with the rights of their mother, or spends time and money on assisted dying rather than improving palliative care and support”.

MPs, it said, should therefore revisit the decision to decriminalise abortion “as a matter of urgency”, and urged Peers “to engage in rigorous interrogation of the Assisted Dying Terminally Ill Adults Bill”.

Christian apologist Prof John Lennox told those gathered at last month’s event in Westminster Hall that “we need Christian faith in the public square”.

He warned: “Removing God from the public square does not leave it in some kind of neutrality. No. What happens is that doing God is replaced by doing not God—in other words, allowing the worldview of atheism to dominate.

"The very values that lie at the heart of all thinking about human beings and Western society — whether religious or secular — actually come from the fundamental teaching of the Bible: that all men and women are of equal value and dignity, since they are created in the image of God”.

Prof Lennox encouraged Christians “to be salt and light in the world – to bear witness to the truth by reasoning in the public space, as Jesus and his apostles did”. He added: “And if we don’t speak, then maybe even these thousand-year-old stones will cry out: Imago Dei.”

A woman in Canada has described the death of her husband, who died by euthanasia after developing severe pressure sores, as a “horror” as a public inquiry begins.

A coroner’s public inquiry has begun into the death of Normand Meunier, 66, who was quadriplegic and left on a stretcher in the Saint-Jérôme Hospital emergency room in Quebec in January of last year. He developed serious bedsores on his buttocks that left muscle and bone exposed because he did not have access to a special mattress, which would distribute weight evenly throughout his body. He subsequently opted to have his life ended by euthanasia under Canada’s ‘Medical Assistance in Dying’ programme. 

The day before his death in March last year, Meunier told Radio Canada “I don’t want to be a burden. At any rate, the medical opinions say I won’t be a burden for long; as the old folks say, it’s better to kick the can”.

Meunier’s widow, Sylvie Brosseau, told reporters that “His last two weeks…it was horror”. She said “It was horrible. He had no buttocks. There was nothing left”. She described the system as “totally negligent”.

Brosseau highlighted a lack of communication between different parts of the healthcare system as a major factor in the failures of proper care that led to her husband’s decision to request an assisted suicide.

Meunier was told that the sore – a gaping hole a few centimetres in diameter – would take several months to heal. The day before his death, he told Radio Canada that he preferred to end his physical and psychological suffering by opting for state euthanasia.

The inquiry was demanded by Moëlle Épinière et Motricité Québec, an advocacy group for people with spinal cord injuries.

The group’s President, Walter Zelaya, told reporters that “There are deaths that happen that shouldn’t happen, because we have everything we need to treat these people”.

He added “We have the expertise, but often we lack the coordination. There’s negligence that happens”. 

Zelaya also stated that bedsores are often not considered important, even by some healthcare professionals. “There’s a misunderstanding among key personnel. It’s important they understand a pressure sore can lead to death if it’s not treated properly”.

Normand Meunier’s final trip to the hospital was not the first time that he had struggled to access adequate care. After becoming quadriplegic in 2022, hospital visits became a regular occurrence.

In the months prior to his death in 2024, he had been hospitalised numerous times with infections. 

“Each time, we had to ask for the special mattress which never arrived. It was a constant battle,” Munier’s wife said. “At the end, the head of the ER threatened to ban me from entering the hospital”.

Disability advocates in Canada have warned that Normand Meunier’s death highlights the reality of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) providing an excuse for the inadequate provision of medical care.

“It is becoming an alternative to decent care, and the numbers will explode” said Steven Laperrière, general manager of Regroupement des Activistes Pour L’Inclusion au Québec (RAPLIQ), a group that offers support and advocacy in defending the rights of disabled people.

1% of the 28,000 respondents to a recent poll run by The Telegraph said were opposed to the extreme abortion up to birth law change that was recently voted through by MPs in the House of Commons.

The extreme abortion amendment, tabled by Tonia Antoniazzi MP, was passed by MPs by a vote of 379 to 137.

This amendment, if it remains in the Crime and Policing Bill and if the Bill receives Royal Assent, will change the law so it will no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason, including sex-selective purposes, and at any point up to and during birth, likely leading to a significant increase in the number of women performing dangerous late-term abortions at home.

A Telegraph reader, Rosemary Wells, commented that the law had “legalised murder”, writing “A baby at full term or even six weeks before birth is capable of living outside the womb and is completely sentient. They’re conscious and able to feel pain. This law has legalised murder. This is legalising the destruction of anyone who is inconvenient and unwanted”.

Another reader, Giles Darling, wrote “Imagine how many people alive today could have been legally terminated if this abortion-up-until-birth policy had been the law in the past? A child with a congenital condition or an unwanted genetic trait could miss their chance to be an impactful future scientist or entrepreneur”.

Bernie Carolan, who contacted his MP about the vote, wrote “I asked her to vote no, as medical professionals have publicly raised grave concerns about the procedures involved in late-term abortions. These are not abstract debates – it’s a matter of life and human dignity”.

Even pro-choice readers shared their displeasure at the extreme amendment. Sheridan Cooper wrote “There is no need for this. I’m pro-choice, but the cut-off point is there for a reason,” whilst  Nicola Bradley, who also said “I am pro-choice”, described the law change as “disgraceful”.

There has been a massive backlash after Tonia Antoniazzi MP said in an interview that she was comfortable with women being able to abort a viable baby at 37 weeks. Reform UK have indicated that they would reverse the baby-murder bill if they form a government after the next UK general election.

Sickening! That's the only way to describe watching serial baby-killer Lilly Allen joke and gloat over butchering "four or five" of her own unborn babies. Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and actress Lily Allen shocked even the pro-abortion press by noting, on a recent podcast, that she cannot remember how many abortions she has had. 

On a July 1 episode of the Miss Me? podcast, Allen got detailed about her personal life. “I have an IUD [intrauterine contraceptive device] now,” she told co-host Miquita Oliver. “I think I’m on my third or fourth and I just remember before that it was a disaster area. I would get pregnant all the time.” 

Allen, who has a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old daughter with her ex-husband, then discussed the babies she had aborted. “Abortions, I’ve had a few but then again,” she sang laughingly to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s My Way. “I can’t remember exactly how many. I can’t remember, yeah. I think maybe like five – four or five.” 

“I remember once getting pregnant and the man paying for my abortion and me thinking it was so romantic,” the singer said. She has since changed her mind about that particular instance. “Tell you how romantic it was – I don’t think he texted me after. Fair, tbh. I was a crazy b**ch. Still am.”  

Far from being shocked, interviewer Miquita Oliver responded by noting that she, too, has had “about five” abortions, and that getting the contraceptive IUD coil ensured that she “stopped getting abortions,” which had become routine. “The pattern would be: Unfortunately, get pregnant, like, not want to be, have an abortion, then while I was sedated in said abortion, they’d give me a coil,” she said. “I felt really embarrassed to even say that I had more than one abortion, why the f**k should I be ashamed? I have had a few.” 

“It actually irritates me, and I’ve said it before on the record. I’ve seen memes going around sometimes, on Instagram from pro-abortion accounts or whatever, whenever this conversation comes up, and suddenly you start seeing people posting things about extraordinary reasons for having an abortion,” Allen agreed. 

“Like: ‘My aunt had a kid that had this disability,’ or whatever, ‘If she went full term it was going to kill her, so we have to,’” she continued. “It’s like, shut up! Just: ‘I don’t want a f*****g baby right now.’ Literally: ‘Don’t want a baby’ is enough reason.” 

“One of the abortions I had, I hated the guy and had absolutely no interest in having his f*****g child,” Oliver added. “I was like: ‘Absolutely not,’ and as you know, throughout my 20s and 30s, having a baby wasn’t really very important to me, and I’d have hated if I didn’t have the option and the freedom to do what I needed to do for my own life.” 

Interestingly, the reaction to this casual conversation – in which the killing of nine or ten pre-born babies was discussed and profanely defended – was horror, both on social media and even in the press, with notable exceptions, tinged their coverage with disapproval. Although pro-abortion commentators cannot say why, the lighthearted, cheery discussion of multiple abortions seems… wrong, even to them.

They will find out just how wrong, soon enough, for God will surely not forgive them their crimes.

Today’s reading from the Book of Genesis confronts us with one of the most sobering moments in Sacred Scripture: the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone raining down from Heaven. The cities were consumed, not simply by natural disaster, but by divine judgment. The cry of sin had reached Heaven – and the Lord answered with justice.

And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven (Genesis 19:24).

Lot and his family were warned. They were urged not to linger:

Arise, and take thy wife, and the two daughters which thou hast: lest thou also perish with the wicked of the city (Genesis 19:15).

But even as angels urged them, Lot hesitated. The temptation to delay, to look back, to soften the warning – this remains a deadly temptation today.

Our world stands in a similar place. We are drowning in a culture that celebrates impurity, mocks God’s law, and defies the natural order. And yet, we go on as if there will be no reckoning. We brush aside Heaven’s warnings. We hesitate.

The sin of Sodom was not merely about lust. It was about pride, rejection of God’s design, and the complete inversion of truth and goodness. It was the final stage of a people who had forgotten God and made idols of their passions. And let us not deceive ourselves: such sin cries out to Heaven still.

The fire that fell was not only punishment – it was a sign. A sign that God is not mocked. A sign that wickedness has consequences. A sign that Divine Mercy does not eliminate Divine Justice.

And his wife looking behind her, was turned into a statue of salt (Genesis 19:26).

She looked back. She could not let go. How many today, even those in the Church, hesitate to leave behind the ways of the world? How many still turn back toward what God is calling them to flee?

Brothers and sisters, the Gospel is good news – but it is not soft news. The same Lord who came to save us is the One who warned us that the days of Lot would return (cf. Luke 17:28–30). And we are living in them now.

The Lord is patient. The Lord is merciful. But His warnings are not empty. His justice is real. And His call is urgent.

+Joseph

A school has U-turned on inviting a drag act to perform at its Pride event after a big backlash by angry parents. The family protest was even picked up by their MP, who labelled it “morally reprehensible”.

The welcome victory for activist parents came after a leaflet produced by Swindon and Wiltshire Pride was given out at a primary school.

The drag performance was advertised as part of the school’s upcoming annual Pride event, with children as young as eleven to attend.

Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman intervened after being contacted by parents in her constituency who were concerned about the plans for the inappropriate and sexualised performance.

The Conservative MP explained that drag “is highly sexualised, presents a demeaning and distorted image of women”.

She said: “Pretending to children that a man can be a woman if they put on some makeup and wear a dress is wrong,” and branded hosting a drag act at a school a “morally indefensible safeguarding issue”.

Following a meeting with the school’s headmaster, Braverman commented on X: “I want to thank the school for listening to me and changing course.

“There are many ways in which schools can support LGB students but facilitating a sexualised, demeaning and offensive form of adult entertainment on its premises – and funded by the taxpayer – is not appropriate.”

Parents have raised concerns about a Pride leaflet produced by Swindon and Wiltshire Pride and given out at a primary school, which the charity said is “all part of a drive to be more inclusive of the expansive breadth of identity within the community”.

A parent and former teacher commented that the guide was “really concerning”. She particularly highlighted the polyamory section “encouraging children to have multiple sex partners” and a section to “raise awareness of the lesser known identities across the fetish spectrum”.

Helen Joyce, the Director of Advocacy at women’s rights charity Sex Matters, said the resource implies that children need to “find themselves on the list”, whereas she believes they should instead be “protected from such misguided and harmful ideas”.

More than 200 Church of England clergy have signed a letter objecting to the decriminalisation of women who abort up to birth.

Last week, MPs approved Tonia Antoniazzi’s New Clause 1, an amendment to the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill, which will allow a woman to kill her unborn baby at any stage of pregnancy without sanction, by 379 votes to 137. They also rejected a proposal to reinstate in-person consultations under the pills-by-post scheme.

The letter, which includes signatures from 13 bishops, branded the amendment “a dangerous change”, and warned that the change would put women and unborn children at “even greater risk of harm”.

The clergy stated: “As many elected politicians move further away from the Christian moral values that have hitherto shaped much that is good in our national life, our concern is that the vulnerable and voiceless are increasingly overlooked.”

They said the “tragedy of abortion will invariably move us to compassion for the pregnant woman”, but added that her unborn child “is also deserving of compassion and needs protection under the law”.

The letter raised particular concern about “the availability of the abortion pill by post, without recourse to in-person consultation with a medical professional”, and expressed hope that the House of Lords would change the legislation for the better in their scrutiny of the Bill.

Revd Richard Bastable, who coordinated the letter, said: “The proposed change in the law puts women and unborn children at greater risk, especially in cases of abuse and coercion.”

He added: “This, together with the current debate on assisted suicide, indicates a worrying move to prioritise social liberalism and personal autonomy in a way that causes harm to the most vulnerable and those who are voiceless, both at the beginning and the end of life.

“It is the Church’s task to offer advocacy, protection, and to show society a better way.”

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4c-zAIFp3x0