Prose writer. Patient/caregiver/#MAiD advocate. Approach with curiosity, listen to understand. (Un)learning on the unceded land of the Qayqayt.
New Westminster, British Columbia
Joined April 2011
- Tweets26.2K
- Following4.2K
- Followers1.7K
- Likes46.8K
Pinned Tweet
Somehow I’ve stepped back into this cesspool, that used to be a space I loved. For some reason I feel compelled to speak as an advocate for MAiD again, after many years of silence in this regard. Like Willy, I am compelled by the value of lived experience. 👇
My late husband chose the day he would die. And I was beside him when that day came.
That sentence is incredibly difficult to write.
But it’s also why I feel compelled to say something.
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of misinformation about MAID online. Claims about what the process looks like, who can access it, what safeguards exist and how decisions are made.
For me, this isn’t an abstract debate. It isn’t a political talking point. It’s part of my life.
My late husband chose medical assistance in dying. I was there through the process—from the conversations and assessments to the safeguards, the waiting, the preparation and, ultimately, the moment when he died.
I know what it feels like to sit beside someone you love while they make one of the most profound decisions a person can make.
I also know that my experience is just that—my experience. It doesn’t make me an expert on every aspect of MAID, and it doesn’t mean everyone’s circumstances are the same.
But I do think firsthand experience matters.
So I want to share what I learned—not to tell anyone what they should believe about MAID, but to help separate what actually happens from what people are claiming happens online.
You can support MAID. You can oppose it. You can have complicated feelings about it.
But whatever position you take, I believe we owe people the truth.
Because behind every debate about MAID are people.
People who are suffering.
People who are making impossible decisions.
People who love them.
And families who have to live with those decisions long after the conversation online has moved on.
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
Stats are but a minor part of the story; what really matters is the lack of privacy and the loss of dignity as we try to provide care in the fucking hallway
Ontario’s hallway health care numbers have hit unprecedented highs:
On an average day in Jan 2025, Ontario hospitals treated 2,088 patients in hallways, break rooms and other spaces never meant for care.
It was the most since Ontario Health began tracking the number in 2017 and 52 per cent more than January 2018, the winter before Doug Ford won a majority government promising to end hallway health care.
Story by @AidanChamandy thetrillium.ca/news/health/o…
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
Thousands of (mostly American) replies, so a quick follow-up. DEI in Canada doesn't mean hiring unqualified people. Quotas are banned under the Employment Equity Act, and every hire must meet the job's qualifications.
🧵….
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
More people voted for Olivia Chow to be mayor than Albertans voted to separate from Canada.
Noise on social media is just that: noise. These people get followers, RTs, but their genuine influence, the issues they complain about are not real.
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
For the Americans, affirmative action and DEI are not the same things. Affirmative Action is a legal policy in the US. We’re talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion, which typically reflects an organizations values and workplace culture. Calm down.
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
Olivia Chow is now the most successful singularly elected politician in Canadian history - Bradford LOST by 13 points - more than 130,000+ votes - but gets the lead on the headline like he almost did it? thestar.com/news/gta/brad-br…
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
Sorry BC. The next 4 years may be a complete hellscape. Hope you don’t value education, healthcare, the environment or human rights. Signed an Albertan.
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
We are disturbed to learn that @CalgaryOpera has removed bass-baritone Gabriel Sanchez-Ortega from future performances of "Tosca" after he unveiled a Palestinian flag during the curtain call on opening night. Art is political, and artists should not be punished for expressing support for the Palestinian people as they face a genocide. This decision must be reversed.
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
Neither Cartier-Bresson, Banksy nor Cold War Steve could have come up with such an image. Absolutely perfect composition and lighting (even the road signs are perfect)! 😍
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
Ahem.
For those who may be unaware, Montreal is a cold *winter* city. Colder and snowier than Toronto.
And it now ranks 2nd among the world’s best cycling cities.
So don't even.
momentummag.com/montreal-ran…
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
Why is Ottawa so hellbent on limiting access to MAID? Creating unreasonable barriers to medical assistance in dying for people with mental illness is discriminatory. Leaving policies on advance requests to the provinces is a cop-out, by @picardonhealth
theglobeandmail.com/opinion/…
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
As a homicide detective, I can say with all of my being that there is no lesson learned in seeing someone die. But there is a price. And that price is your peace. Your decency. And the soul of our society.
We don’t have to be this way, this fake tough but real ugly way. Stop
Breaking news: The firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be live-streamed, the Defense Department said.
“People need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. wapo.st/4hNxK0C
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
Years ago, my lifelong Conservative father-in-law was holding his grandson when he said supervised consumption sites “just enable drug use.”
I replied, “That's a dumb comment to make while holding your grandson. He might not be alive if one hadn't saved my life and connected me to recovery.”
You should have seen his face when I said that. 😳
“Whoops. I didn't think that through.”
So I arranged a tour.
He met the nurses, saw the care, the detox upstairs, and the connections to recovery.
He walked in believing these places enabled addiction, he walked out understanding they save lives.
Today, he's one of their biggest supporters.
Not because he abandoned his Conservative values, but because he realized compassion, dignity and keeping people alive were never at odds with them.
He didn't just change his opinion. He became an advocate for the very people he'd once dismissed.
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss.
The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians—including more than 21,000 children. Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed. That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing. Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them – all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes.
Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment.
To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
Eight people were murdered in Tumbler Ridge and you are using them to smear every trans person in Canada. The RCMP confirmed the shooter's identity the day after. Trans shooters are under 0.1% of U.S. mass shootings. Where is your outrage over all the rest?
unavailable
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
The University of Toronto cut ties with frats in the 1960s because they failed to admit a Black student. Queens University bans them outright. Frats are a nearly non-existent part of campus life across Canada and hopefully will stay that way.
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
I really hate having to point this out to those who'd like a Danielle Smith-type premier in British Columbia, but
BC now has lower unemployment than Alberta
BC now has a higher average wage than Alberta
BC has had much higher GDP growth than Alberta since the NDP was elected
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
My latest is out via Indigenous Insider. Please share/read at link below:
He’s 91. He fought wildfires his whole life. On August 1 he had minutes to grab his dog and run. 248 homes gone on Okanagan Indian Band land, and the chief calls it “the new normal.” This is climate change at an elder’s front door.
indigenousinsider.substack.c…
Jana Buhlmann retweeted
As a medical student I never thought I would have to learn this much about architecture, design and development. But what would you have us to do when chronically unhoused patients live only half as long as the general public?
