Mental illness and mental health recovery are both poorly understood and negatively impacted by ignorance, stigma and discrimination, contributing to extremely poor outcomes for millions of people in the world, including suicide.
According to research “many people describe stigma as being worse than the condition itself” (The Lancet, 2022). In fact, a report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment in Australia identifies that stigma came close to my own suicide (Work Wanted, 2012, p.19).
While recovery-oriented services are chronically under-funded by governments, the collective ignorance demonstrated by Canadian politicians warrants special attention. Under the leadership of former prime minister Justin Trudeau, legislation was enacted to expand the eligibility of medical assistance in dying (MAID), permitting medical practitioners the ability to administer lethal injections to people who express a desire to die and whose sole medical condition is mental illness. “The eligibility date for person’s suffering solely from a mental illness [for death by MAID] is now March 17, 2027” (Government of Canada).
Shortly after Mr. Trudeau became prime minister of Canada, he was sent an open letter by Professor Patrick W. Corrigan. The late American mental health scholar, researcher and social scientist was a world-leading expert on the stigma of mental illness. In his correspondence to Mr. Trudeau, Professor Corrigan addressed my experience of severe mental illness in Canada and subsequent recovery in Australia, concluding with the assessment: “Knowledge of Mr. Mahar’s story will serve to challenge the stigma of mental illness, raise awareness of recovery, and inspire hope for people with mental health problems and their families” (February 22, 2016).
I want to use my story to challenge stigma, raise awareness of recovery, inspire hope, oppose the expansion of MAID’s eligibility to individuals whose sole medical condition is mental illness and for one additional public interest objective.
Five days before Professor Corrigan sent his open letter to the prime minister, I sent an open letter and documents to Mr. Trudeau, myself. In that open letter, I identified myself as a former insider in the Canadian broadcasting industry and addressed a case of long-term systemic corruption involving subsidies to media companies and public officials at the Canadian Radio-television (CRTC) — a case of corruption hereinafter referred to as the “File 1000-121 Affair.”
It is a matter of public record that I am a whistleblower who formerly challenged “some of the most powerful vested interests in the country” (Peter Kent, Global Television).
It is the right time for me to actively return to the matter and advocate for a public investigation into the File 1000-121 Affair — and to find out what kind of prime minister Mark Carney is.
The archive on this website contains material to substantiate the facts being presented.
