MADOC'S OPEN MIC THIS FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20 6:30 P.M. AT THE LEGION

Dear Friends:

So much looking forward to the Open Mic this Friday !!

I've been working hard to gain support and information for proposals that I put to our General Meeting tonight and 5 out of 6 of them PASSED !! Going to see some fun and important changes at the at our good old Legion. :D 

So Friday's my night to unwind and be with my friends. And YOU can all come and do that too!! 

Have lots of great live local music, we dance, we sing along. You can come and play or just come and enjoy yourself. We'll be pleased to see you. Bring your friends. Everyone is welcome.

We have all the equipment - you just need to bring your musical instrument if you want to play. 

Here's what other music is happening locally in the next couple of weeks (that I know of):

Every Saturday Night at The Gold Rush Tap Room, Torbic Kagmire hosts an Open Mic 6:00 - 9:00 pm.

February 28 at the Madoc Legion Music & Meat Draws - 50/50  with Dean Austin and Kevin Young

So see you Friday Night at Madoc's Open Mic !!

Elizabeth & Robert - & Elly too!! 😄💃💃 

CANADIAN FAMILY DISTRAUGHT AFTER DOCTOR EUTHANISED MAN BECAUSE HE WAS DIABETIC AND BLIND

Daily Mail

 

Family distraught after Canadian doctor euthanized man, 26, because he was diabetic and blind

By MELISSA KOENIG, US REPORTER

Published: 22:32 EST, 26 January 2026 | Updated: 07:33 EST, 27 January 2026

 

A Canadian family has been left heartbroken and angry after a 26-year-old diabetic and blind man died of 'physician-assisted suicide' - three years after they blocked his request for euthanasia.

 

Margaret Marsilla had been successfully able to prevent her son Kiano Vafaeian from dying under Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying program back in 2022.

 

She noted that Vafaeian did not suffer from any terminal illnesses. He was just blind and struggling with complications from type 1 diabetes as well as mental health issues.

 

Years later, though, on December 30, 2025, Vafaeian was granted a physician assisted suicide under Canadian law - which states only that patients must show they have an 'intolerable' condition that cannot 'be relieved under conditions that they consider acceptable.'

 

'Four years ago, here in Ontario, we were able to stop his euthanasia and get him some help,' Marsilla posted on Facebook in the aftermath.

 

'He was alive because people stepped in when he was vulnerable - not capable of making a final, irreversible decision.'

 

She went on to call her son's physician-assisted death 'disgusting on every level'.

 

'And I promise I will fight tooth and nail for my son and other parents who too have children that suffer from mental illness,' Marsilla wrote. 'No parent should ever have to bury their child because a system - and a doctor - chose death over care, help or love.'

 

Canada legalized assisted dying in 2016, initially limited to terminally ill adults whose deaths were reasonably foreseeable.

 

But eligibility was expanded in 2021 to include people with chronic illness, disability, and soon - pending a parliamentary review - those with certain mental health conditions.

 

The country now has one of the highest rates of medically assisted deaths in the world, 5.1 per cent, or a total of 16,499 deaths in 2024, the latest year for which there is data.

 

The fastest-growing category in Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) statistics is now not a specific illness but a catch-all labeled 'other'.

 

MAiD deaths in that category nearly doubled to 4,255 in 2023 from a year earlier, amounting to 28 per cent of all assisted suicide deaths, Sonu Gaind, a University of Toronto psychiatry professor found, according to the Free Press.

 

It is in that category that Vafaeian's death falls.

 

His mother has explained that Vafaeian got into a bad car accident when he was just 17 years old. He then never went to college and moved quite a few times, from living with his dad to his mom, then his aunt, the Western Standard reports.

 

The tipping point then came in April 2022 when he went blind in one eye.

 

That September is when he first tried to die of medically assisted suicide, even scheduling a time, date and location for the procedure in Toronto.

 

But his plan was foiled when his mother accidentally found the email confirming the appointment and called the doctor, pretending to be a woman seeking MAiD.

 

She recorded the conversation she had with the doctor and sent the tape to a reporter, after which the doctor postponed Vafaeian's scheduled procedure, then said he wasn't going through with it.

 

When Vafaeian later found out what had happened, he was furious at his mother, saying she had violated his right as an adult to choose death, the Free Press reports.

 

But Trudo Lemmens, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Toronto, who met Vafaeian in 2022 said his mother saved his life.

 

'The only reason that Kiano was alive when I met him is because his mother had the guts to go public, not because of the medical community that would've ended his life,' he said.

 

He then recounted how he thought Vafaeian's plan was 'dystopian'.

 

In the years since, Marsilla said she thought her relationship with her son was on the mend, as she set him up this past September with a fully-furnished condominium near her office in Toronto with a live-in caregiver.

 

Marsilla also drafted a written agreement promising Vafaeian $4,000 a month in financial support, and he talked to her about moving into the condo before the winter.

 

He even texted his mother at one point, saying he was 'looking forward to a new chapter', as he asked for her help to pay down his debts.

 

He said he was trying to save money so that they could travel together, but then flew to New York City to buy a pair of newly-released Meta Ray-Ban sunglasses, which some have praised as a breakthrough technology for those who are blind.

 

Marsilla told the Free Press she was uneasy about him traveling alone, but he texted her photos and videos of him with his new sunglasses.

 

At one point, Vafaeian admitted he was afraid the new technology would not help him and was worried he had wasted his mother's money.

 

'God has sealed a great pair for you,' she then responded.

 

'I know God protects me,' he wrote back.

 

By October, Marsilla bought Vafaeian a gym membership and 30 personal training sessions, all of which he used.

 

'He was so happy that he was working out and getting healthy,' Marsilla said.

 

Soon, though, he walked away from all of it, as his mother said 'something snapped in his head'.

 

Vafaeian checked himself into a luxury resort in Mexico on December 15, sharing photos of himself posing with resort staff, before he checked out after just two nights and flew to Vancouver.

 

Three days later, he texted his mother saying he was scheduled to die from physician assisted suicide the following day.

 

He then told his sister, Victoria, that if any family member wanted to be there for his final moments, they should catch the last flight out of Toronto.

 

'We were obviously freaking out,' Marsilla said, recounting how she criticized her son for 'throwing this on us now - right before Christmas' and asking him, 'What's wrong with you?'

 

Vafaeian then responded that he had asked for security to be present if his family showed up to the facility in Vancouver to try to stop him.

 

But Marsilla said she took it as a sign her son was wavering about his decision to end his life, becoming more encouraged when Vafaeian told her the next day that his assisted suicide had been postponed due to 'paperwork'.

 

At that point, Marsilla said she urged him to return home to Toronto, offering to buy him a plane ticket and telling him he had Christmas gifts waiting for him.

 

'No I'm staying here,' he responded. 'I'm going to get euthanized.'

 

It was Dr Ellen Wiebe who ultimately performed the procedure.

 

She dedicates half of her medical practice to MAiD and the other half to abortion, contraception care and delivering newborns.

 

'I've brought more than 1,000 babies into the world and ... I have helped more than 500 patients die,' she told the Free Press with a laugh.

 

Wiebe then described assisted suicide as the 'best work I've ever done'.

 

'I have a very strong, passionate desire for human rights,' she explained. 'I'm willing to take risks for human rights as I do for abortion.'

 

When she was then asked how she determines whether a patient is eligible for MAiD, she said they 'have long, fascinating conversations about what makes their life worth living - and now you make the decision when it's been enough.'

 

But shortly before he died, Vafaeian went to a law firm in Vancouver to sign his will, where he reportedly told the executioner he wanted the 'world to know his story' and to advocate that 'young people with severe unrelenting pain and blindness should be able to access MAiD' just as terminally ill patients can.

 

Vafaeian's death certificate now says his assisted suicide was based on the 'antecedent causes' of blindness, severe peripheral neuropathy (damage to the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord that causes pain and numbness) and diabetes.

 

An online obituary for the 26-year-old now remembers him as a 'cherished son and brother, whose presence meant more than words can express to those who knew and loved him'.

 

It said that in lieu of flowers, the family was requesting donations be made to organizations supporting diabetes care, vision loss and mental illness in Vafaeian's name.

AH: Just wondering when the Canadian government is going to make MAiD manditory.

CANADIAN MEDIA OUTLETS HELP WHIP UP U.S. INVASION FEARS

National Review

 

Canadian Media Outlets Help Whip Up U.S. Invasion Fears

By Becket Adams

January 25, 2026 6:30 AM

 

This is counterproductive.

 

For all the talk about the U.S. media’s sensationalistic tendencies, we have nothing on the Canadians.

 

Consider the following: Throughout President Trump’s erratic and often bellicose effort to acquire Greenland, Canadian newsrooms have indulged in similarly lurid fantasies, repeatedly floating the possibility that the U.S. might invade the Great White North at any moment.

 

Just look at the headlines from this month alone:

 

“SURVEY – AMERICAN INVASION IMMINENT? OVER HALF OF CANADIANS THINK A CANADIAN INVASION LIKELY AFTER VENEZUELA OCCUPATION,” a syndicated Canada Newswire headline declared this past week.

 

Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail published an editorial titled, “In the age of Trump, it’s time to think about the unthinkable,” with the “unthinkable” being a U.S. invasion.

 

Earlier this month, the CBC ran an entire segment based on an “expert” assessment that “Canada should be prepared for possible military coercion from the United States.”

 

Just to cover her bases, the CBC host added, “Others suggest that the possibility of a military threat is unlikely. But that doesn’t mean Canada won’t face other threats from the U.S.” She then cited a separate report that claims the “U.S. political revolution led by Donald Trump is the top risk facing the world in 2026.”

 

These headlines and reports, of course, came amid Trump’s recent — and, um, poorly received — effort to acquire Greenland. For years, the president has tried to purchase the Danish-controlled territory, claiming it’s crucial to U.S. national security. Denmark has rejected Trump’s offers, prompting him to, for a while, publicly leave the door open to taking Greenland by force, even though it’s protected by NATO. In Davos this past week, he ruled out forcibly seizing the Arctic island. Relatedly, Trump has also joked in the past about making Canada the 51st state.

 

Folks, the U.S. isn’t going to invade Greenland.

 

It certainly isn’t going to annex Canada, and it’s misleading to audiences to point to the president’s Greenland rhetoric as proof of any intent. You don’t have to be a genius to see that Trump’s Greenland threats were just that — threats. He was applying his usual bullheaded negotiating style — without, unfortunately, a moment’s thought for how unsettling his rhetoric would be to fellow NATO countries. Denmark, I should add, engaged in some bullheaded counter-negotiating of its own by deploying additional troops to Greenland and asking its neighbors to do the same. (Some of us predicted all of this last week when this Greenland business took a more serious turn.) But good luck telling that to “over half of Canadians.”

 

Every criticism of Trump’s handling of Greenland is fair. He behaved shamefully. He hurt longstanding alliances while appearing to get very little in return. The White House lackeys who’ve entertained the talk of annexing Greenland and Canada have also behaved boorishly.

 

It’s also true that some of the coverage of Trump’s expansionist talk has been way over the top, particularly in Canada, where they apparently harbor a long-standing fear of a U.S. invasion, a fear that seems to have metastasized into outright panic.

 

“If the U.S. invaded, could Canada defend its sovereignty?” read the tease for an episode of the CBC radio show As It Happens.

 

Elsewhere, the Globe and Mail reported that the Canadian military is modeling an “invasion of Canada as Trump threatens Greenland.”

 

“Almost one in three Canadians say U.S. might try to invade Canada: poll,” read the headline to a January 14 report by the Canadian Press.

 

Whipping up audiences with fantasies of defending the homeland against marauding hordes of Yankees is exactly the wrong move in a time when cooler heads are desperately needed.

 

A cautious stance, or even some wild speculation-as-entertainment (like Don Lemon suggesting Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 might have disappeared into a black hole), is one thing. However, the tone and tenor of the Canada-invasion coverage — and there’s no shortage of it — is another thing entirely. The coverage is potentially dangerous and utterly unhelpful, especially when the target audience is apparently already primed to believe it.

 

The headlines this week aren’t even unique. Canadian media have been pushing this content since at least early last year.

 

“What if the U.S. invaded Canada?” CBC radio asked in February 2025.

 

The CBC published a report at the time titled, “The U.S. has always been an existential threat to Canada, military historian says.”

 

“American invasion of Canada would spark decades-long insurgency, expert predicts,” reads the headline to a March 2025 report by the Canadian Press.

 

This flavor of coverage is particularly unhelpful for those of us who want to restore some normalcy in the relationship between the U.S. and Canada.

 

Trump will be gone in three years, and so might his wrecking ball approach to foreign policy. But we’ll still have neighbors to the north who, evidently, have spent this time making spears from sticks to prepare for an imminent Yankee invasion — neighbors who openly fantasize about how they might creatively kill enough Americans to make their imagined occupation difficult.

 

The Canadian perspective isn’t hard to understand. They don’t like living next door to an erratic and overwhelmingly powerful cowboy. Fair enough. We’ll work on that.

 

Hopefully, they eventually come to understand our perspective, which is that we don’t particularly enjoy living next door to an exceptionally paranoid neighbor who daydreams about killing U.S. servicemen in Red Dawn–style guerrilla warfare.

 

Maybe then we can both calm down long enough to figure out how to go back to coexisting.

AH: Not that we could defend ourselves if they, or any other nation for that matter, decided to invade anyway.

There wouldn't be an insurgency because the government doesn't want Canadians to have guns, which is a pretty good indication we should be acquiring guns.

TERRIFIED TEXANS OPEN FIRE ON STRANGE WHITE STUFF FALLING FROM SKY

Babylon Bee

 

Terrified Texans Open Fire On Strange White Stuff Falling From Sky

Environment

Jan 15, 2024 ? BabylonBee.com

 

DALLAS, TX — According to reports, terrified Texans have taken up arms to fire on a strange white substance falling from the sky.

 

"I don't understand it and I don't intend to!" said local Dallas resident Billy Carson as he fired a pair of six-shooters into the sky. "You'll never get us alive! We'll fight to the last man! Yee haw!"

 

Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement in which he asked Texas residents to remain calm as they sort out the strange new threat. "We don't know if it's an attack from outer space or some sort of falling ice," the governor said. "It's too soon to tell, but it's clear beyond a reasonable doubt that our way of life will be forever changed."

 

"Make peace with God; death is falling from the sky."

 

The white substance, which northern Texans call "snow" has been linked to a series of vandalism cases in which water pipes have burst and electric lines have snapped under the weight of so-called "ice."

 

At publishing time, millions of Dallas residents were buried alive under two inches of "cold white stuff."

MOM ARRESTED AFTER 19 MONTH OLD FLIES OUT OF CAR INTO MIDDLE OF INTERSECTION

PEOPLE

 

Mom Arrested After 19-Month-Old Baby Flies Out of Car Onto the Road in the Middle of Intersection — and Miraculously Survives

By Angel Saunders  Updated on January 27, 2026 11:52AM EST

 

A California woman has been arrested after video footage showed her infant flying from a moving vehicle and narrowly avoiding being run over by her SUV.

 

Jacqueline Hernandez, 35, of La Habra, was arrested on suspicion of felony child abuse after her 19-month-old fell “from the passenger side of a moving vehicle," the Fullerton Police Department said in a Monday, Jan. 26, press release.

 

Warning: Some viewers may find the following video disturbing.

 

Authorities believe the incident, which happened at the intersection of N. Euclid St. and W. Malvern Ave, occurred on Jan. 20, between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. local time. Police did not receive reports on the incident until a witness came forward on Jan. 24 and reported seeing what happened.

 

In the video, as a black SUV enters the intersection and completes a turn, the front passenger door opens and a small child falls to the ground and into the roadway.

 

The video appears to show the child nearly being run over before the driver abruptly stops, jumps out of the vehicle, picks the child up and runs back to the driver's seat and drives away."

 

In addition to being almost run over by the car they were in, a light colored car driving behind the black SUV also almost hit the child after the mother narrowly missed.

 

The driver of the second car slammed on the brakes while a yellow car behind it swerved to not hit the other cars.

 

“The witness was able to provide identifying information related to the vehicle involved. Officers conducted a follow-up investigation, which led them to a residence in the City of La Habra,” police said. “Officers located the vehicle, the child, and the female involved in the incident seen in the video.”

 

Police added that the baby sustained injuries consistent with the fall and was transported to an area hospital for treatment, but is expected to make a full recovery.

 

It is not immediately known if Hernandez has retained an attorney.

 

Under California law, children under 2 years of age "shall ride in a rear-facing car seat" unless the child is 40 pounds or more, or is 40 or more inches tall. "The child shall be secured in a manner that complies with the height and weight limits specified by the manufacturer of the car seat," the California Highway Patrol site reads. Rear-facing seats should also never be placed in front of an active air bag. Children must also be seated in the back seat of a car until age 8.

 

This remains an ongoing investigation. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Fullerton Police Department’s Sensitive Crimes Unit, Detective H. Rios, at (714) 738-6782 or hrios@fullertonpd.org.

 

Tips can also be shared anonymously at Orange County Crime Stoppers at (855) TIP-OCCS or visit www.p3tips.com/913.