April 25, 2025 — A Canadian Forces combat veteran who once hunted the Taliban on long-range patrols says Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) offered him medical-assisted suicide during a mental health crisis — a move he says felt less like support and more like grooming, he said in an interview with The Sun’s Bryan Passifiume.
David Baltzer, who served two tours in Afghanistan with the elite Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, says the suggestion came during a phone call with a VAC agent on December 23, 2019.
“It made me wonder, were they really there to help us, or slowly groom us to say ‘here’s a solution, just kill yourself,’” Baltzer told the Toronto Sun.
The call came after a dispute with his assigned caseworker, and he was transferred to someone else. That caseworker, he says, asked him to “keep an open mind” before floating the idea of MAiD, which was championed by the Trudeau government before it expanded access to the program in 2021 under Bill C-7.
“He says to me, ‘I would like to make a suggestion for you. Keep an open mind, think about it, you’ve tried all this and nothing seems to be working, but have you thought about medical-assisted suicide?’”
Baltzer says it happened at his lowest moment, right before the holidays. “It just seems to me that they just want us to be like ‘f–k this, I give up, this sucks, I’d rather just take my own life,’” he said. “That’s how I honestly felt.”
‘Like Black Hawk Down’
Originally from St. Catharines, Ont., Baltzer enlisted at 17 and joined 2 PPCLI at CFB Shilo in Manitoba. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2006 under Operation Athena and saw intense combat.
“We went out on long-range patrols trying to find the Taliban, and that’s exactly what we did,” he said. “The best way I can describe it, it was like Black Hawk Down – all of the sudden the s–t hit the fan and I was like ‘wow, we’re fighting, who would have thought? Canada hasn’t fought like this since the Korean War.’”
Like many combat veterans, Baltzer turned to alcohol and drugs after his return. While he received therapy through VAC, he said it wasn’t helpful. Today, he says he’s doing well — but he hasn’t forgotten how close the system came to sending him over the edge.
‘It had to have been policy’
Mark Meincke, a CAF veteran and host of the trauma-recovery podcast Operation Tango Romeo, says he’s heard too many stories like Baltzer’s for it to be explained away by one bad apple.
“It had to have been policy, because it’s just too many people in too many provinces,” Meincke told the Sun. “Every province has service agents from that province.”
Meincke was one of the first to expose the issue, and says the government’s official line – that a single rogue caseworker was responsible – doesn’t hold water. While a 2022 VAC briefing cited between four and 20 cases, Meincke says he personally knows five and believes the true number is closer to 20.
“Veterans, especially combat veterans, usually don’t reach out for help until like a year longer than they should’ve,” he said. “We’re desperate by the time we put our hands up for help. Offering MAiD is like throwing a cinderblock instead of a life preserver.”
‘It’s their job to serve us’
Baltzer says Veterans Affairs needs total reform – starting with getting civilian caseworkers out and bringing in veterans who understand what those who’ve seen combat are dealing with.
“I remember saying to them, ‘if it wasn’t for us you wouldn’t have a job, so maybe you should be more helpful,’” he said with a laugh. “We served our country, it’s their job to serve us.”
