Canada's 'Doctor Death' Has Killed Hundreds Of Patients

Dr. Ellen Wiebe does not heal her patients. Instead, she kills them.

The doctor operates an abortion mill in Vancouver, called the Willow Clinic, where she also performs assisted suicides. In Canada, this practice of doctors killing their patients is called “medical assistance in dying,” or MAID.

“She does abortions during the day, and then she goes out and provides euthanasia to sick old people,” Angelina Ireland, executive director of the Canadian nonprofit Delta Hospice Society, told The Federalist. “Some might consider her to be a massive serial killer.”

Wiebe once operated a family practice but “now restricts her practice to women’s health and assisted death.” She is the research director of the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers (CAMAP) — an organization supporting doctors who deliberately kill their patients — and sits on the clinicians advisory council for the powerful pro-euthanasia lobby Dying With Dignity Canada. 

Canada legalized MAID in 2016, revising criminal code to let doctors kill their patients. Officials updated the law in 2021, removing the requirement that a patient’s death be foreseeable. Groups like Dying With Dignity Canada have since been pushing to expand the euthanasia program to “mature minors,” and parliament has been debating the issue. 

In an interview with Wiebe, the disabled actress Liz Carr — a public opponent of euthanasia — asked the doctor if someone like herself would be eligible.

“Liz, right now you love life, and you want to live. But there’s lots of nasty illnesses you might get,” Wiebe replied, breaking out in laughter. 

The doctor said killing people is her favorite part of the job.

“I love my job. You know, I’ve always loved being a doctor,” Wiebe said. “But this is the very best work I’ve ever done, in the last seven years. And people ask me why, and I think, well, doctors like grateful patients. And nobody is more grateful than my patients now, and their families.”

The typical MAID process seems deceptively peaceful. A doctor uses three chemicals to kill the patient, administering Midazolam, a sedative; propofol, which induces a coma and stops breathing; and rocuronium or cisatracurium, muscle paralytics. The medications render the patient unconscious and paralyzed, creating a morbid illusion of calm — though the patient is under respiratory arrest.

“After they’re in a deep coma, then we give the medication that stops the breathing and stops the heart,” Wiebe said in a webinar. “They’re in a deep coma, and then it’s over. … They’re such calm, peaceful deaths.”

Alexander Raikin, a visiting fellow in bioethics at the Ethics and Public Policy Center who writes for The New Atlantis, told The Federalist that if doctors fail to follow the MAID regulations and processes specified in criminal code, they void their exemption, and could face charges of assisting a suicide.

“If you fail to follow any of the safeguards or eligibility criteria, you are then not protected through the criminal code exemptions that allow for euthanasia-assisted suicide,” Raikin said. “What Canada’s example shows is that, in reality, it’s impossible to have oversight.”

Killing the Vulnerable

Wiebe has gained positive press from legacy media outlets like The New York Times for killing her patients — more than 430 of them. She has been repeatedly accused of violating rules governing how doctors kill their patients. 

While discussing accusations that she approved a patient for MAID without due process, Wiebe said that “angry family members are our greatest risk,” according to The New Atlantis.

A judge granted an injunction in October to keep Wiebe from executing a woman, 53, with bipolar disorder. After quitting her medication too quickly, the patient began to experience physical symptoms that made her suicidal. The woman then sought Wiebe’s assisted suicide services, and at the end of their first call, the doctor allegedly approved her for MAID. 

Since the woman could not find a witness to sign the MAID form, a volunteer at Wiebe’s clinic signed it for her, according to the injunction. The law also requires two medical providers to approve a patient for euthanasia, so when the woman could not find approval from a second professional, Wiebe allegedly called in the ironically-named Dr. Elizabeth Whynot to sign off. 

Meanwhile, the woman’s husband has been trying to save her life. He claims his wife is ineligible to end her own life, and that Wiebe “breached” her “statutory duty” to adhere to the MAID process.

Raikin said family members often have to get involved to save their loved ones’ lives. “The police are just uninterested in this.”

Had the husband not intervened, Wiebe would have killed his wife at 8 p.m. on Oct. 27, at the Willow Clinic. 

The facility is in the Fairmount Medical Building, which closes at 6 p.m. Ireland said she worked in the same building, on the same floor as Wiebe’s facility, for “many years.”

“The whole building is closed. … Nobody’s there,” Ireland said. “There’s basically a euthanasia clinic right there that operates after hours in downtown Vancouver.”

In 2017, Wiebe allegedly snuck into Vancouver’s Louis Brier Nursing Home, where she killed 83-year-old patient Barry Hyman, according to the Vancouver Sun. Wiebe claimed Hyman and his family requested this.

Since the nursing home is an Orthodox Jewish institution, it would not allow euthanasia on the grounds. Louis Brier CEO David Keselman told the Vancouver Sun the killing “was hidden” and “there’s no documentation.”

“We have a lot of Holocaust survivors,” Keselman said at the time. “They’re going to feel like they’re at risk when you learn someone was sneaking in and killing someone.” 

The nursing home filed a complaint against Wiebe with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, but the doctor ultimately cleared the review process. “There was no discipline, and so she only just continues,” Ireland said. “The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia has done nothing to stop her.”

Wiebe also killed a man who was rejected for MAID because he did not have a serious illness and was incapable of making “informed decisions” about his health, according to The New Atlantis. 

After previous providers rejected the patient as ineligible, Dying With Dignity Canada referred him to Wiebe, who arranged the rest. 

“He flew all by himself to Vancouver. … I picked him up at the airport, um, brought him to my clinic and provided for [euthanized] him,” Wiebe said, according to The New Atlantis. 

Wiebe said in a webinar she has faced “10 different College [of Physicians and Surgeons] complaints” regarding her euthanasia practices. “Everyone came out in my favor that I had in fact done everything right.”

“She will have people come to Vancouver to be killed,” Ireland said. “She’ll meet them at the airport, and then she’ll bring them back to her office, and then she’ll kill them.” 

Slaughtering the Unborn

At the same location Wiebe performs euthanasia — the Willow Clinic — she also performs abortions. The facility offers “medication abortion” both in person and through video call appointments. Its website portrays a medical abortion as a “process which appears just like a miscarriage, which can be completed at home.” “For many people, this is more convenient, comfortable, and private.”

The abortion medication is free for those with a British Columbia Services Card, but patients are on their own to pay for painkillers.

Wiebe said in a webinar she has been aborting babies since the 1970s. She complained about facing pressure when she or other abortionists would botch an operation. 

“If a patient had a complication from an abortion — an infection, a bleed, or whatever — we’d go into the hospital and our work would be scrutinized. And, you know, it was like, ‘Those terrible doctors who do those abortions, what a mess they make,’” Wiebe said. “Our colleagues really would come down on us; there’s an enormous stigma. And guess what? We get the same in MAID.”

Ireland said she has seen Wiebe multiple times “over the years” while working in the same medical building.

“She has a perpetual scowl on her face and never speaks to anyone, not even in passing or to be polite,” Ireland said. “Oddly, during her interviews, she actually smiles and giggles. … So bizarre! Perhaps she really enjoys recounting her ‘work’ which she describes as very satisfying.”

The Federalist asked the Willow Clinic for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.

Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is originally from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.