Video published by Canadian retailer, not company providing assisted death

"This advertisement for an assisted suicide company in Canada has left many people around the world horrified," says a March 25, 2026 post sharing the video on X from "Dom Lucre," a social media personality who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory and spread misinformation debunked by AFP. 

"Suicide is being sold as the solution to problems. Murder is being dressed up with television ads."

The clip, in which a woman named Jennyfer discusses seeking "help to end my life," shows her spending time with others and participating in artistic experiences. At the end, her birth and death dates are displayed on screen.

The footage spread across X with amplification from Joey Mannarino, another repeated spreader of misinformation, as well as on Facebook, Instagram and the video-sharing platform Rumble.

Online articles similarly claimed the video showed an advertisement for an assisted suicide company in Canada.

Image

Screenshot of an X post taken March 26, 2026

Medical assistance in dying was first legalized in Canada in 2016 (archived here).

Originally available only to patients experiencing "grievous and irremediable" suffering whose deaths were "reasonably foreseeable," the law was expanded in 2021 to include adults whose deaths were not so imminent.

While the law requires patients make a voluntary request for MAID that is "not the result of external pressure," several publicized cases have raised concerns about the practice being too readily available to those experiencing health struggles or poverty.

AFP has frequently fact-checked false and misleading claims regarding MAID.

The posts claiming to show an advertisement for a company providing assisted suicide are similarly misleading.

Reverse image searches revealed the clip was released in 2022 by La Maison Simons, a Quebec-based retail company that sells clothes, accessories and home goods.

The department store does not provide medical services, but it received backlash over the video from critics who said it was "promoting" assisted death.

Local media at the time reported that Simons was attempting to create an "inspirational" film about British Columbia woman Jennyfer Hatch's decision to end her life after living for the years with the symptoms of Ehlers Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder.

Additional outlets reported how Hatch sought MAID after not being able to receive adequate care for her condition, which is not alluded to in the Simons film.

The original video, uploaded to YouTube and titled "All is Beauty," has been switched to private, but versions of the clip remain online with labels crediting the production to Simons (archived here).

A Simons spokesman confirmed in a March 31, 2026 email that the campaign was withdrawn but declined to comment further.

Both Health Canada and non-profit advocacy group Dying with Dignity told AFP that MAID must be provided by a physician or nurse practitioner.

The federal health agency said in a March 27 email that provincial and territorial governments make decisions about where MAID can take place.

While non-profit organizations such as MAiDHouse provide settings for the procedure, AFP could not find evidence of "companies" such as Simons administering assisted death.

Canada is assessing its preparedness to open up MAID to people suffering solely from mental illness after the expansion was previously postponed. Western Alberta province introduced its own legislation in March which would limit the procedure to adults whose death is foreseeable.

Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.