A Case of Recovery

Three decades ago, a naked man walked through the perfume section of a Toronto department store (Toronto Sun, November 15, 1996). 

Two decades later, a prominent American mental health scholar, researcher and social scientist who was a world-leading expert on stigma wrote the prime minister of Canada, stating that knowledge of the story of the man — who was then living in Australia —would “serve to challenge the stigma of mental illness, raise awareness of recovery, and inspire hope for people with mental health problems and their families” (Patrick W. Corrigan, February 22, 2016).

In the interim, the same man living in Australia advocated for an investigation into the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), resulting in a Member of Parliament stating in the House of Commons that citizens were “owed more than $1.2 billion” (Libby Davies, February 8, 2008).   

Two months before the MP’s statement in the House of Commons, the man living in Australia made a presentation at the World Psychiatric Association International Congress about his recovery from bipolar disorder (Keith Mahar, December 1, 2007). 

Fourteen months before he walked through the Hudson’s Bay department store in 1996, a respected Global Television news anchor reported that the man was “widening his crusade against some of the most powerful vested interests in the country” (Peter Kent, August 8, 1995).  

Since I am that man, I can explain my story.

Over the past two decades, I have shared aspects of my experience of severe mental illness in Canada and recovery in Australia in a number of settings and to various audiences, including to a few thousand high school students in Canberra as a volunteer educator (MIEACT); in a short film (The Naked Advocate – 2006); as a peer worker in a recovery-oriented community mental health program (PHaMs); a talk at The Street Theatre in Canberra in (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – 2011); a chapter in Coming Out Proud to Erase the Stigma of Mental Illness (Changing My Mind – 2015); the case study into the File 1000-121 Affair (One Media Law – 2016); and at a number of mental health conferences. Recently, I’ve co-facilitated two Psychosis and Recovery groups.   

Recovery is possible, yet recovery is poorly understood and significantly impaired by stigma, discrimination and under-funding of recovery-oriented services. 

It is a critical time to reduce ignorance, challenge stigma, raise awareness of recovery, and inspire hope. 

Eligibility for medical assistance in dying (either “MAiD” or “MAID”) in Canada is scheduled to be expanded for people whose sole medical condition is mental illness, starting in early 2027. 

Frankly, I am shocked at this legislation. 

Furthermore, the death of 26-year old Kiano Vafaeian on December 30, 2025, raises extremely serious questions about the implementation of MAiD in Canada and whether mental illness is already being used by medical practitioners to end the lives of vulnerable people.