New conversation Is It Really a Choice? Rethinking MAiD and Autonomy in Canada

Open Minds with Christopher Balkaran

The important questions rarely have simple answers.

Thoughtful conversations with experts, thinkers and public voices—exploring the issues shaping Canada and the world with curiosity instead of certainty.

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Latest episode · July 29, 2025

Is It Really a Choice? Rethinking MAiD and Autonomy in Canada

A thoughtful look into Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) system through the lens of Ontario’s Chief Coroner. What role does marginalization, social isolation, and access to care play in the decision to die?

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About the host

Curiosity before certainty.

Christopher Balkaran created Open Minds to explore difficult questions without steering listeners toward a predetermined answer. Raised in Scarborough and trained in public policy, he brings a researcher’s discipline and a conversationalist’s openness to every episode.

“The more we understand a person or an issue, the more complexity we discover.”
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