In his Calgary speech on Jan. 24, Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host and often a controversial figure, made several misleading or inaccurate claims on medical assistance in dying, Canada's immigration policy and the opioid crisis. He repeated similar claims in his Edmonton speech later in the day.
Here's a fact check on some of his claims.
Misleading on MAID
Carlson, while addressing people in Calgary, said the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø government is killing "over" 50,000 people through MAID, and he "bet" that all of them are ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø-born. He added the government has not released the numbers on race or citizenship status of those applying for MAID. He also claimed people receiving assisted death are "not actually terminally ill. They're just sad," calling the assisted dying program a "genocide."
Rating: Misleading/False
In 2022, 13,241 people received MAID, bringing the total number of medically assisted deaths since 2016 to 44,958, . The number of people seeking MAID has climbed exponentially over the six years for which data is available, with Canada's program now .
It is false to say that those seeking assisted death are "just sad." To , a person must have a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability; be in an advanced state of irreversible decline in capabilities; and experience enduring and intolerable suffering.
"All three of these criteria must be met for a person to be deemed eligible," said Anne Génier, senior media relations adviser with Health Canada, in an emailed response.
While the federal government is exploring avenues to expand MAID to include mental illness as a sole underlying medical condition, it is not legal yet. On Feb. 1, the federal government to delay MAID expansion until March 17, 2027.
Cancer, at 63 per cent, was the leading condition for MAID seekers in 2022, followed by cardiovascular conditions. Neurological conditions – such as Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis, dementia, spinal stenosis and supranuclear palsy – made up 12.6 per cent of applicants. All MAID approvals made up 4.1 per cent of all deaths in Canada in 2022.
While Carlson is right that there are no existing data on the race or citizenship status of those who were granted MAID, a will change that. Going forward, reports will include race, Indigenous identity and disability of those seeking MAID, starting with the 2023 report, scheduled to be released later this year. Health Canada, however, already tracks the age and sex of those seeking MAID.
Carlson's false equivalence between genocide and Canada's MAID program is tied to his promotion of the "great replacement" conspiracy theory, which is rooted in racist, white nationalist beliefs in Europe and the United States. Proponents of the believe non-white immigrants are being brought into their countries by liberal governments to "replace" white voters with electors more likely to keep them in power.
Carlson's version of the theory doesn't directly mention race, but keeps the false notion that the government is trying to change the makeup of the country through immigration – in this case, combined with assisted death.
Carlson has previously made false claims about MAID on Fox News, saying a "new law in Canada is expected to allow children to be killed by doctors, by state doctors, without the approval of their parents." In his , he repeated the claim, saying the government is going to expand the MAID program to children. This is false.
High immigration, low impact on elections
In his on Jan. 24, Carlson claimed Canada's standard of living is in free fall at exactly the time when Canada is importing more people per capita than any other nation in the world. He added the government is replacing the population to influence the voting power of the citizens: "If you don't like the way the public votes, import your voters. That's precisely what they're doing."
Rating: Misleading
Once again, Carlson was alluding to the "" theory in his Edmonton speech – a theory rooted in the belief that non-white people are replacing white citizens. Carlson has associated immigration with political power, and has several times, including during a May 17, 2022, telecast, "There’s a strong political component to the Democratic party’s immigration theory … and they say out loud: ‘We are doing this because it helps us to win elections.'"
Carlson offered no details to back up his claims about ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø immigration trends, only saying vaguely that immigration was good for Canada in the past, but now millions of people are coming into the country for "no obvious benefit."
Canada's immigration rate , with 8.3 million or almost one-quarter of the population being landed immigrants or permanent residents in Canada – the largest proportion since Confederation and highest among the G7 countries, Statistics Canada said in an emailed response.
There were approximately 3,535,000 permanent residents in Canada between Jan. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2023, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in an email.
It added that only 31 per cent of the permanent residents became citizens of Canada over the past decade. This means about 2.7 per cent of the total ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø population () are immigrants who gained citizenship in the past 10 years – and who will be eligible to vote in the next federal election.
IRCC and Statistics Canada did not provide immigration rate per capita, in comparison with other countries, and it is not clear what statistic Carlson is basing his claim on.
The government's with immigration is to address labour shortages made worse by an aging population with a .
The Bank of Canada's 2023 says strong immigration since the start of 2022 has helped increase Canada’s workforce, boosting the level of potential output by two to three per cent without adding to inflation.
Not all immigrants with voting rights such as casting ballots, seeking information on a political issue, contacting a politician or signing a petition.
A shows voter turnout and political engagement among racialized ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs are somewhat lower compared with other ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøs. "They were six to seven percentage points less likely to vote in the last elections compared with citizens forming the rest of the population," the report shows.
No youth prescribed fentanyl
Carlson claimed during both his Calgary and Edmonton speeches the government of British Columbia is giving fentanyl to children without the consent of their parents. "Ask yourself, if someone is giving fentanyl to your children, what's kind of the message of that? Well, they're trying to kill your children, obviously," in Calgary.
Rating: False
No youth under 19 has been prescribed fentanyl as an alternative to street drugs since British Columbia's Art Aronson, public affairs officer at the B.C. Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, said in an emailed response to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø.
It's possible Carlson got this false idea from about the B.C. government planning to prescribe fentanyl to children published on Jan. 10 in the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Post. Text from the article was on , with readers expressing concerns.
While the provincial government brought in the safer supply policy, the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) – an independent group of researchers focused on substance use and addiction medicine – established guidelines for clinicians working with people with substance use disorder, helping them implement the policy. The prescribed safer supply resources are for , and – all released between 2022 and 2023.
"There are no recommendations for harm reduction for children. This does not exist," said Kevin Hollett, spokesperson at BCCSU.
The safer supply protocols include under-19 guidelines mainly because of the already existing provincial Infants Act, which allows mature minors "to consent to a medical treatment on their own as long as the health care provider is sure that the treatment is in the best interest, and that the child understands the details of the treatment, including risks and benefits," according to the Government of B.C. .
"As youth have rights to health care entrenched in the Infants Act, added safeguards were included in the guidelines," Hollett said.
"For participants who are youth age <19 years, two-prescriber approval is strongly recommended," the guideline says on page 10 of the .
"Practically speaking, this means that the level of capability needed to consent to more significant forms of health care – like prescription alternatives to toxic street drugs – is higher than for more routine, day-to-day health care," said Aronson with the B.C. Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction.
He added these types of rules are in place because while in practice most parents are routinely involved in medical decisions about their children, some young people come from extremely difficult backgrounds, where it would not be safe or in the best interests of their health for their parents to be involved in their health care decisions.
"This practice is consistent with other areas of medicine such as immunizations, the prescription of contraceptives, testing for sexually transmitted infections, etc.," he said.
Sources
MAID claims
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Fact check: Children are not eligible for medical assistance in dying in Canada – ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø ()
Immigration claims
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Fentanyl claims
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Facebook posts referencing the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Post article can be found () and ()
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You can find out more about ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø here and about ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Press Fact Checks here. To reach our fact-checking team with any tips, corrections or comments, please email us at cpfactcheck@thecanadianpress.com.
