Article By Frank Bergman
A disabled Canadian man is locked in a perpetual battle with his nation’s socialized health care system as he fights to continue living while taxpayer-funded doctors push to euthanize him under the government’s “assisted suicide” program.
Roger Foley is fighting to return home but says hospital staff are repeatedly attempting to railroad him into medically assisted death instead of treating his condition.
Foley says the battle has left him struggling to obtain the care he needs to stay alive.
He has spent years hospitalized with a debilitating neurological disease.
But his own physician says he could safely leave and receive better-matched care at substantially less cost, if Ontario approved an individualized home-care arrangement.
However, Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program offers cheap lethal injections that cost the government far less than long-term treatments.
As a result, Foley says he remains trapped in a system that is pushing to end his life while failing to provide the support necessary for him to live independently.
“I don’t want to die,” Foley pleaded in a new interview.
Doctor Says Foley Could Safely Go Home
Foley has spinocerebellar ataxia and says the assisted-death conversations began in 2016 at Victoria Hospital, part of the London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario.
A July 7, 2026, letter from his attending physician directly supports his effort to leave the hospital with adequate assistance.
“By any reasonable clinical standard, you could be discharged from our hospital if you had adequate support at home,” Dr. George K. Dresser wrote.
Dresser said Foley had been medically stable for much of his prolonged hospitalization, despite suffering hospital-acquired infections.
“You have been at London Health Sciences Centre because the unique needs that you have cannot be met by existing programs in the community,” Dresser wrote.
The physician described a standardized system poorly suited to Foley’s need for consistent caregivers and highly individualized assistance.
Keeping him hospitalized also carries a financial cost.
“A community-based, self-directed arrangement would in all likelihood cost substantially less than continued acute admission, while delivering far better-matched care,” Dresser wrote.
He urged Ontario’s Ministry of Health to authorize funding that would allow Foley to recruit, train, and manage his own personal support workers.
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Assisted Death Raised During Dispute over Discharge
Foley said assisted dying came up again during a disputed discharge process in 2017.
He alleged that he was threatened with approximately $1,500 in daily hospital charges if he refused the “care arrangements” being offered.
His position has remained consistent: He wants to live in his own apartment with caregivers equipped to handle his condition.
“I have my own apartment,” Foley told Fox News Digital.
“I still pay all my bills.
“The last 10 years I haven’t given up my apartment, and I have wonderful community [personal support workers] that are ready to start working for me as soon as I get the self-directed funding,” he said.
His apartment is accessible and has a ceiling lift to assist with mobility.
What he lacks, he says, is approval for the funding needed to put his care plan into action.
Lighting Dispute Makes Eating and Drinking Harder
Foley also described a dispute over lighting accommodations that he says has made routine care increasingly difficult.
His neurological condition causes sensitivity to certain wavelengths of light, including those emitted by fluorescent fixtures.
For years, he said, amber-spectrum lighting allowed caregivers to assist him without triggering symptoms.
But Foley alleged that the hospital withdrew those accommodations in May 2025 and began requiring care under fluorescent lighting.
He said he must now wear large, heavy protective goggles that strain his already compromised neck, complicating assistance with eating and drinking.
At times, he has relied on outside personal support workers to help him consume fluids.
Financial limitations have prevented him from arranging enough assistance to meet his needs.
Foley further alleged that some employees were instructed not to provide care unless fluorescent lights were switched on, even though other staff had helped him under amber lighting without difficulty.
Around the same time, he said, hospital personnel again began asking about suicidal thoughts.
Foley said he supports appropriate mental health care but no longer trusted those conversations because assisted death had previously been raised.
“I’m Not Giving Up”
Foley says the existing system leaves him choosing between indefinite hospitalization and community-care arrangements he believes would endanger his health.
“I’m not giving up,” Foley said.
“I don’t want to die, my daughters know I don’t want to die, my physicians have always been very explicit and direct that it’s not safe to put me in that type of close model that I need direct funding,” he added.
Dresser offered to work directly with provincial officials to help resolve the situation.
“I am therefore advocating that the Ministry to consider authorizing an individualized, self-directed funding arrangement that would enable you to be discharged from acute care and to arrange and direct your own care in the community,” Dresser wrote.
“I am very willing to meet with Ministry staff, to provide whatever clinical documentation is required, and to work collaboratively on the design and safeguards of such an arrangement.”
Foley is now involved in the Bring Roger Home campaign, working with a nonprofit to raise money for his care.
The effort includes releasing music he recorded years earlier, with proceeds intended to support his return home and eventually assist others facing similar circumstances.
Before his illness progressed, Foley worked in banking, television, and comedy, and trained as a professional wrestler.
He still wants opportunities to contribute.
“Just because you’re not the person that you were doesn’t mean that the person you are can’t be limitless and achieve positive things and goals,” Foley said.
His experience has made him an outspoken opponent of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying system.
According to the BBC, the program accounts for one in every 20 deaths in Canada.
Foley argues that patients must have meaningful access to treatment, disability support, and home care before assisted death is considered.
After nearly a decade fighting for that support, his goal remains to return home and live.
“Don’t give up who you are at your core and believe in yourself,” Foley said.
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