World

Canada’s Euthanasia Program Is Under Scrutiny After a Doctor Did an Assessment in a Tim Hortons Parking Lot

By Mike Harper · May 29, 2026

In June 2023, Dr. James MacLean met Thomas Dillon outside a Tim Hortons in London, Ontario. Dillon was 45 years old. He had Crohn’s disease, a history of depression, alcohol abuse, and suicidal ideation. His family wanted to help him. MacLean had a different assessment.

MacLean conducted Dillon’s eligibility assessment for Medical Assistance in Dying — Canada’s government-authorized euthanasia program — outside the Tim Hortons location, determined he qualified, and then exchanged dozens of text messages with him to plan the end of his life. On January 29, 2024, MacLean met Dillon again at the same coffee shop. He then drove Dillon to an industrial unit used to prepare cadavers for funeral homes. He administered lethal medications there at 10:11 AM. Dillon was pronounced dead at 10:22 AM.

“Sorry you have to go through so much grief related to your decision to end your suffering with a medically assisted death.”

That was a text MacLean sent to Dillon during the planning process, according to records reviewed by the Ontario medical regulator.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario investigated MacLean and found that his conduct crossed professional boundaries. The public coffee shop setting was described as an “unduly casual approach” to MAID-related assessment conducted in an “informal public setting.” His decision to personally drive the patient may have “bordered on coercive,” the regulator found. The college also noted that Dillon’s family had been actively trying to raise concerns — and that MacLean was aware of this — but did not engage them in the assessment process.

“The family was not engaged in the assessment process, despite being the patient’s primary support and despite the MAID provider being aware they were trying to raise concerns.”

The college reviewed 20 patient charts from MacLean. It found that his conduct “exposes or is likely to expose patients to harm or injury” in five of them — a 25% rate across the reviewed cases.

MacLean’s punishment: six months of clinical supervision. He remains licensed to practice medicine. He remains authorized to provide MAID.

The case is one of two complaints against MacLean reviewed by the college, as reported by the Globe and Mail on Monday. The second involved a cancer patient who had signed a waiver of final consent — a provision allowing MAID to proceed even if the patient loses capacity before the scheduled date. MacLean arrived to administer the medications, but the required drug kit wasn’t ready at the pharmacy. In that same case, he failed to administer one of the three standard drugs in the MAID protocol — the one that paralyzes the patient’s muscles. After he left the home, the patient resumed spontaneous breathing.

Canada’s MAiD program was expanded in 2021 to include Track 2 eligibility — allowing euthanasia for people whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable. Dillon, whose chronic illness was not immediately terminal, was assessed under that expanded framework. In 2024, medical assistance in dying was the fifth leading cause of death in Canada.

MacLean is affiliated with Westmount Family Physicians. The college’s six-month supervision order is complete.