Right-to-die activist wins posthumous award for tell-all about secret assisted suicides

Read Story Transcript

When the Canadian Magazine Awards handed out their inaugural prizes on Friday, the author who won best story wasn't there to accept his honour. 

John Hofsess's Toronto Life piece — "By the time you read this, I'll be dead" — was published posthumously, at the author's request.

Hofsess, who had pulmonary fibrosis and prostate cancer, travelled to Switzerland for a medically assessed death in February 2016. In his magazine piece, he confessed to having helped eight Canadians take their own lives, including Canadian author Al Purdy. 

• AS IT HAPPENS: Hofsess says he helped 8 Canadians end their lives

"I knew what a big deal the story was. We've certainly never published anything in the magazine where the writer confesses to what is essentially murder — or, in this case, eight murders," Toronto Life editor Sarah Fulford told As It Happens host Carol Off. 

"I also knew that Hofsess was interested in ending his own life and was hoping to have the piece published after he died. So these were two totally uncharted situations for us and I was certainly cautious, but deeply curious."

The Right to Die Society of Canada founder from Victoria, B.C., dedicated his life to advocating for the legalization of assisted suicide in Canada. In his award-winning story, he revealed that he'd run an " underground assisted death service" for Society members.

At the time, assisted death was illegal in Canada. Since it was legalized with the passage of Bill C-14 on June 17, 2016, more than 1,300 people in Canada have died with medical assistance. 

• 'I just told him I loved him': 1 man's story about medically assisted death
• 1 in 10 requests for a medically assisted death granted, doctor says

"We operated on the Robin Hood principle: members who could afford to cover the costs of our illegal ­operations helped compensate for those who couldn't," Hofsess wrote.

"All of this took place in secret. Between 1999 and 2001, we provided eight members of the Society with assisted deaths. The celebrated Canadian poet Al Purdy was one of them, and he authorized me to publish this posthumous account."

News that Purdy chose to end his own life was a bombshell revelation — even to his friends.  It had been previously reported that he died of natural causes. His last moments are described in vivid detail in the piece.

• AS IT HAPPENS: News of Al Purdy's assisted death leaves friend feeling 'confused'

"I found it incredibly powerful. And, of course, it came to us right around the time that The Supreme Court was making assisted suicide legal and we were about to see a government bill that was going to change the landscape in Canada. So this was all deeply on my mind and on the minds of Canadians," Fulford said.  

"The story itself was agonizing to read and so powerful because it was so vivid and detailed."

Fulford remembers finding out that Hofsess had died and that it was time to hit publish on the story. It was a bag of mixed emotions for her and the Toronto Life staff, she said.

"I think everyone at the office — and I certainly didn't do this alone, I worked with some great colleagues who edited this piece — felt two pretty profound things: like, terrible sadness for him because we had gotten to know John over the course of editing this piece, and I think he died very unhappy. He was alone in his life and he had terrible, terrible health problems and had run out of money," she said.

"I certainly also felt a little bit of joy and relief for him because he was suffering so terribly and he had agency in his death. He had chosen to die in Switzerland and he had designed his own death."