By Canadian Press

Case manager who talked assisted dying with veterans no longer employed

Dec 20, 2022 | 2:10 PM

OTTAWA — A Veterans Affairs employee who spoke to former Armed Forces members about accessing medical assistance in dying is no longer with the department, although the federal government would not say Tuesday whether she was fired or resigned.

Erika Lashbrook Knutson, a spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay, cited privacy concerns in refusing to disclose any further details after she revealed the employee’s departure on Tuesday.

“We had to follow to the letter the process laid out in the collective agreement with the union,” she said. “That kind of a process has some pretty rigid requirements on privacy and non-disclosure. But as of today, that employee is no longer an employee.”

The employee’s departure follows a Global News report in the summer that a former Armed Forces member who contacted Veterans Affairs for help was offered information about medical assistance in dying, which is also known as MAID.

MacAulay has said that an investigation launched in August found a single case manager acting alone had raised the issue with four different veterans since 2019.

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“We have scanned hundreds of thousands of files,” he said in an interview last week. “That’s all we’ve found to this point.”

The case manager, who has not been identified publicly, was subsequently moved into a position where she would not interact with veterans, MacAulay said.

The minister also reported that the issue had been referred to the RCMP. However, neither the Mounties nor the minister have said whether a criminal investigation is underway.

“I can’t speak for the RCMP,” he said. “But the fact is it’s in their hands and they will do it.”

The issue has added to worries about Ottawa’s plans to expand MAID to include people whose sole underlying health condition is a mental disorder — a change that was set to happen in March, but will now be delayed.

Veterans’ organizations have instead called on Ottawa to increase access to mental-health services for former service members, which includes addressing the long wait times that many are forced to endure when applying for assistance.

Many veterans with mental and physical injuries must wait months, or even years, for federal support.

Those wait times have persisted for years despite frustration, anger and warnings from the veterans’ community as well as the veterans’ ombudsman, Canada’s auditor general and others about the negative impact on former service members.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2022.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press