Canada’s controversial Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program killed more people in 2024 than gun homicides did in the United States, statistics show.
According to the latest official Health Canada data, a record-high 16,499 people were killed by the Canadian government in 2024, amounting to about 5% of all recorded deaths. The vast majority, 95.6%, were White.
During the same year, 15,364 people died in the US by firearm homicide, a report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions shows, 1,135 fewer than the MAID death toll despite the US population being about eight times larger than Canada’s.
The statistics were highlighted in a map posted on X on Tuesday an account called The Art of Purpose, which was shared by Republican senator Mike Lee.
“State-administered death is now more common in Canada than gun homicide is in the US. That didn’t happen by accident,” he wrote.
State-administered death is now more common in Canada than gun homicide is in the U.S.
That didn’t happen by accident. https://t.co/53TXkLQE3j pic.twitter.com/nfcHxg45TW
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) September 21, 2026
Canada’s MAID program was launched in 2016 for people whose death was “reasonably foreseeable”, but was expanded in 2021 to make those with chronic diseases and other physical conditions eligible, and advocates now want people suffering only from with mental health issues to be included.
On Sunday the family of an 83-year-old woman who was killed by the MAID program on July 10 spoke out and alleged she was euthanised against her will.
Brigitte Kranendonk told the Daily Mail that her grandmother Brigitte Stegemann cried “I’ve made a mistake” and failed a cognitive test which is supposed to determine whether she was able to consent to MAID, but was killed anyway, and died covered in blood due to a botched first IV attempt.
“She was a vulnerable human being, and they saw an opportunity,” Ms Kranendonk said.
“No one had ever done MAID at this residential home before: this was their very first MAID procedure. So I don’t know if they just dropped the ball, because they didn’t know what they were doing.”
In 2024 a woman who was paralysed after taking her third Covid vaccine was twice offered MAID, and in 2022 a Canadian Forces member alleged he was offered MAID after asking for support for PTSD.
A month later a paralympian veteran testified that she was asked if she wanted to be euthanised while fighting to have a home wheelchair ramp installed.
Header image: The map showing MAID and gun homicide deaths (The Art of Purpose – X).
