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House Hansard - 159

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 13, 2023 11:00AM
  • Feb/13/23 6:20:35 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, the member's question speaks to the spirit of my speech and what I was trying to address here, the last-minute actions and the non-action on the government side when it comes to addressing even election promises. It has been dragging for the last eight years, and there is no action happening to support the palliative care promise the government also made. We are on the same page here, to call for a stop in dealing with last-minute legislation that comes in and does nothing but delay. It is toxic. This is a poison that we could ask Canadians to take at some point, but it is not acceptable. It is our responsibility, on our shoulders, to address this and deal with it as we are representatives of the Canadian population.
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  • Feb/13/23 6:21:42 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, in his speech, the member for Edmonton Manning spoke about the need for more mental health supports. Last week, we had an announcement with respect to health care, but nothing with respect to dedicated mental health funding. I asked the parliamentary secretary about this last week, whether the governing party remains committed to a $4.5-billion Canada mental health transfer. Could the member speak about whether he, too, is calling for the need for the Canada mental health transfer?
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  • Feb/13/23 6:22:21 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, it was in our platform during the last election to address this. Mental health is a health issue. The two can never be separated. The strategy has to be wide and wise to be able to address all the issues, because health care is at the front of everything we do in this country. It seems that the government is missing the point on that. We call on the government to act wisely and to act in the best interests of all Canadians by seriously looking at the mental health issue that we are facing.
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  • Feb/13/23 6:23:06 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, we are living in a time when Canadians have lost trust in our institutions, whether it is the government, whether it is media, whether it is even the medical profession. We need to rebuild that trust. Canadians need to believe in their country and what it stands for. This bill that we are passing, hopefully, would just delay a very bad idea. Could my colleague comment on why we really have to stop and re-evaluate? He said in his speech that he never even thought this would go to mental health. The original justice minister who put this forward was against it. Why do we have to rebuild this trust? Why is it so important that we speak out against this?
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  • Feb/13/23 6:23:56 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, this issue is for everybody, for every politician in Canada and in this Parliament, to work together on. There is no way this should be swept under the rug. We can delay the poison pill that we could give to Canadians—
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  • Feb/13/23 6:24:22 p.m.
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Resuming debate, the hon. member for Provencher.
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  • Feb/13/23 6:24:27 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, I thank all my colleagues who have spoken so eloquently here these past many hours. It will come as no surprise to my colleagues that I am opposed to medical assistance in dying and also opposed to any expansion thereof, but I will be voting in favour of Bill C-39, because what it would do is delay the imminent move the Liberal government wants to make, which is to extend MAID to those with mental illnesses. When MAID first came to this House and was presented by the Liberal government, I was on the justice committee, and I, early on, warned this House that MAID was going to be a slippery slope, that “reasonably foreseeable” would not remain the standard by which MAID cases would be adjudicated, and that the legislation would also pose a serious threat to those with disabilities, the elderly, the poor and particularly those with mental health issues. In August of last year, the Associated Press and the National Post both published reports on what has been happening in Canada's hospitals since the Liberal government introduced one of the most permissive assisted suicide regimes in the world. The results are alarming. In an interview, Tim Stainton, director of UBC's Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship and one of our leading experts on the subject, called MAID “the biggest existential threat to disabled people since the Nazis' program in Germany in the 1930s.” A follow-up article in Forbes magazine written by journalist Gus Alexiou, who himself suffers from multiple sclerosis, states, “unfettered accessibility [to MAID] could...prove to be one of the most malignant forces the disability community [including those with mental disability or illness] has had to contend with since the 'mercy killings' of the Third Reich almost nine decades ago.” This is because their reporting discovered that the people who are being targeted for MAID, and I do not think “targeted” is too wrong a word to use, are the most vulnerable Canadians: those who are disabled, seniors, those living in poverty and those with a mental illness. Their story begins with Alan from B.C., who suffered from severe depression. He was administered MAID shortly after being taken to the hospital for a psychotic episode. His family begged the doctors not to kill him, as he had been involuntarily admitted and was in the throes of a psychotic episode when he demanded MAID. The family's pleas were ignored, and Alan was dead shortly thereafter. As Dr. Mark Komrad, a psychologist at John Hopkins Hospital, accurately predicted, our law “will provide, not prevent, suicide for some psychiatric patients.” Alan's death was not a reasonably foreseeable death. He was killed because he had a mental health condition. Then, there was a disturbing incident where a Veterans Affairs agent casually offered MAID to a veteran with PTSD and a traumatic brain injury, something they had no business doing. To its credit, the government dealt with that employee, and I commend it for that, as I commend it for taking this pause on MAID expansion. I was in government, and I know how hard it is to walk back on things. It takes courage to do that, so I am glad the government has seen fit to do so. However, it turns out this one veteran incident was not an isolated incident; it was one of six incidents, that we know of, where it was suggested that veterans should consider assisted death. Moreover, let us be clear about what we are talking about, because as I listened to the justice minister and read some of what has been put into print, it does not sound like he is convinced that those with mental illness should not receive MAID. It just sounds like he was not ready to go. CBC, on February 2 of this year, quoted him as saying: COVID slowed everything down. To be honest, we could have gone forward with the original date, but we want to be sure, we want to be safe, we want everyone to be on the same page. We want, in particular, those health practitioners, those faculties of medicine, colleges who had some concerns to have the time to internalize what is happening. Let me read that sentence again: “We want, in particular, those health practitioners, those faculties of medicine, colleges who had some concerns to have time to internalize what is happening.” That does not sound like an about-face to me. It sounds like the minister and the government still have every intention of moving forward with this. According the National Post, a 2021 report by the UN “warned that Canada's liberalization of euthanasia posed a dire threats to its elderly and [infirm] populations.” That threat certainly includes those suffering with mental illness. The report said, “There is a grave concern that, if assisted dying is made available for all persons with a health condition or impairment [including mental health]...a social assumption might follow...that it is better to be dead than to live with a disability.” Given what we have seen to date, that certainly appears to be the case. Just a little less than a year ago, last February, I received an email from a constituent. She is not my constituent but a constituent of a Liberal member of Parliament. It was sent to several MPs. I would like to read it into the record. It comes from a woman by the name of Melissa, and this is what she said: ...I was the farthest thing from a being a productive member of society. 15 years ago I was struggling really badly. I had entered into my second year of grade 10, which was due to a mental health diagnosis. I was diagnosed with PTSD, a personality disorder, major depression, and I had anxiety and was on a bunch of antipsychotics. I was in and out of crisis stabilization units, psych wards and a couple years later I got kicked out [of] a safe home for youth. I got kicked out of school and home because I was overdosing on the prescription medication and was self mutilating. I was a lost cause and didn't want [to] live and suicide was the only way out from all this pain......or so I thought. She continued: ...it would have made me a prime candidate for MAiD, since my condition was nearly impossible to overcome apart from a miracle. I was a burden on my family, the medical system, the education system, and on top of it had chronic stomach issues and back pain which I would frequent the hospitals for. If I had an open door to access MAiD, that would have been something I would have seriously considered and would not be here to tell you about my story. There are so many young teens that, like myself grow up in broken homes and get stuck in hopelessness and despair, and there are others who have everything they could ever want, yet still suffer from issues affecting their mental and physical health. Not everyone overcomes and it gets carried into their adult life, which makes them eligible for Medical Assistance in Dying. She went on to say: When you make the choice to go through with MAiD you no longer have an opportunity to go back and reconsider your decision. I know people suffer, and life can be tough and there are moments that seem unbearable. But there is Hope!!!! I've been there before. I suffered for over 10 years, I started on antidepressants by the age of 12, and by [the] middle of high school I had lost my mind and just wanted to end it. Yet taking life is a very serious matter. I met Jesus who became my hope, I know that the name of Jesus has been frequently misrepresented but, the Jesus I met truly takes away needless pain and suffering. Then she addressed her Liberal member of Parliament and asked him to reconsider his support for this particular bill. Sadly, this is happening in Canada at the same time as we are facing a growing and serious health care crisis that has been exacerbated by years of COVID, restrictions and delays. Millions of Canadians are unable to access primary care, and wait times for doctors, appointments, surgeries, mental health support and emergency room visits are among the longest in the developed world. Since it was expanded, MAID has seen a dramatic upswing, exacerbated by COVID-19 and the inability of too many Canadians to access timely and proper health care, including a lack of mental health supports. In fact, in an Angus Reid survey that just came out today, 55% of Canadians are worried that the expansion of MAID will become a substitute for social services. An ER doctor recently told my office that prior to COVID, mental health cases accounted for one in every seven ER visits. Post-COVID and post-restrictions, that number is one in three. According research in the National Post, 2020 saw a 17% increase in MAID deaths over 2019 that disproportionately involved the elderly. I see no reason why we will not see an even more significant jump if MAID legislation is permanently expanded to include mental illness. I recognize there are many for whom every day is a struggle and for whom mental health and physical health issues are debilitating. I will not begin to pretend that I know what it is like, and I want to be sensitive to that, but I believe that every human life, whatever the contents and challenges of that life may be, holds an innate and sacred dignity. Only God can give life and only God should be able to take life. It is my deeply held conviction that from conception to natural death, life is a precious gift. It is the role of government to seek the best for all its citizens. We must adopt policies that embrace that gift, policies that uphold life and reinforce the value of every citizen. As Pope Francis put it during his recent Canadian tour, “We need to learn how to listen to the pain...of patients who, in place of affection, are administered death.” We need to be there for the elderly, the infirm, the disabled. We need to be there for those who are suffering from mental illness, not offering the needle—
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  • Feb/13/23 6:34:58 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, in light of this important bill, there is a need to push it to a place where the government and members of this House have an opportunity to hear more. We need to ensure that those who are desperate, in need and seeking the kind of support that mental health supports can provide them actually have those resources and can get them without seeking MAID. I support the member in his call for that. However, I also support the need to ensure that those who are furthest behind and need support get that support through the mental health transfer or other means, like a guaranteed livable basic income. That is an important piece to this. Can the member elaborate on the need to ensure that we support those who are living in poverty with real tools and solutions so they can live with dignity?
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  • Feb/13/23 6:35:50 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, absolutely we need to support individuals. We know that in the recent health care proposal from the federal government to the premiers of the provinces, there was no mention of mental health care support. That is very unfortunate. The Liberals had a wonderful opportunity to expand on and incorporate it into the funding they were providing to the territories and provinces and they chose not to do that. In addition, with respect to providing supports for folks suffering from a mental health crisis, we know that the cost of living has become a huge burden for individuals and has intensified their feelings of hopelessness and exasperation. Under the Liberal government, we have seen the cost of living increase significantly, and we are going to see it increase more with its proposals for additional taxes.
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  • Feb/13/23 6:36:53 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to the last answer, and I have a question on it. We have heard in many speeches today by the opposition that it is all about supporting people, yet every time our government has provided supports, whether it was the one-time income support or assistance for housing, the members opposite have voted against those initiatives. I am not certain how they can have it both ways by suggesting that we need to be there for people in their time of need. Why do opposition members continue to vote against the initiatives put forward by the government that are helping the very people they are referencing in their speeches today?
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  • Feb/13/23 6:38:34 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, in the opening part of his speech, my colleague said that he would be voting in favour of extending the deadline by another year. Is he optimistic that in that one year the government will be able to develop regulations, safeguards and guidelines to assist the medical profession in the responsible application of medical assistance in dying?
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  • Feb/13/23 6:40:09 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, there is something very broken in Canada today. I could talk about inflation being at 40-year highs. I could talk about interest rate hikes in the last 12 months that are doubling the average mortgage payments and making residential rental rates out of reach for many workers in Canadian cities that need workers. I could talk about the housing affordability crisis and I could talk about crime. We have talked about these things. We are now learning in recent polls that two-thirds of Canadians feel that Canada is in fact broken. One of the pillars of our society they feel is broken is our health care system. Canadians used to be proud of our universal, world-class, leading-edge health care system. Now people wait for hours for emergency care and months for specialist appointments. This does not line up with the view that we as Canadians have of ourselves as a prosperous nation. There is indeed something broken, and nowhere is this more evident than in our mental health care arena. We are in the midst of a serious opioid crisis right across this country, and certainly in British Columbia, my home province. Decriminalization, safe supply and anti-stigma campaigns have had, at best, very little positive effect. At worst, they have contributed to the skyrocketing number of opioid deaths in the last eight years. Clearly, what the government has been doing has not been working. It is in this environment that we are now, as parliamentarians, talking about whether MAID, medical assistance in dying, should be made available to those whose only underlying health condition is a mental illness. Indeed, there is something broken. There was a time when those suffering a mental illness got the help they needed. I want to note an editorial that ran in last weekend's Vancouver Sun by editorial writer Douglas Todd. He writes often but not often about himself or his family. This is a very personal story. When Mr. Todd was a young man, his father Harold, a World War II vet, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He spent many stable years in metro Vancouver's Riverview Hospital, where he received three meals a day, where he was kept safe and where nurses administered and monitored his medications. He was stable. Riverview was not perfect but it kept Harold off the streets. Harold died 23 years ago, according to the story, right around the time that the provincial government started taking the view that hospitals and boarding houses for the mentally ill were inhumane and paternalistic, and that patients with mental illness should not be out of sight, out of mind, but should be allowed to live in a community. These facilities have been largely wound down and replaced with nothing, which has led to disaster. The younger Todd noted that last year alone, 2,272 British Columbia residents died of toxic street drugs. He says this: “If my dad had not had stable housing, he would have been vulnerable to such a fate.” That is where mental health is in Canada in 2023. That brings me now to the question of recovery and the incurability of mental health issues. A number of my colleagues have spoken about that. A member of my community shared with me a chilling story of how her daughter struggled with her mental health years ago. Through a proverbial turn of events, she happened upon a hospital during a serious bout of suicidality. My constituent is confident that if her daughter had been offered MAID in the hospital that day, she would have agreed to it. Instead, she found hope for a better tomorrow and access to real support. She has now recovered and is living a full life as a wife, mother and member of our community. This question of possible recovery is one that experts disagree on. What constitutes irremediability for mental illness? When is a mental illness incurable and how do we discern that? Our special joint parliamentary committee on MAID looked into these very troubling questions. One witness shared that he likely would have chosen MAID in his darkest days but now has a rich life with successful medication and therapy. Dr. Vrakas gave the opinion that for people struggling with mental illness, offering MAID to them is a “clear signal of disengagement from mental illness”. Dr. Sareen from the Association of Chairs of Psychiatry said in December 2022 to the committee that, “We're in the middle of an opioid epidemic. And we're in the middle of a mental health pandemic. Post-COVID, wait times for access to treatment are the highest ever.” We cannot pretend that patients have a free choice between MAID and treatment when treatment is simply not accessible. However, no consensus has been reached about such pivotal questions as: can this person be cured? There is a huge risk in assuming that they cannot. The reality is, providing MAID to a person suffering from mental illness is an irreversible reaction to a condition that we do not know is incurable. Dr. Maher summed this up perfectly in his testimony to the committee when said, “The rallying cry is autonomy at all costs, but the inescapable cost is people dying who would get better. What number of mistaken guesses is acceptable to you?” Dr. Mishara added that he has personally known countless people who have “convincingly explained that they wanted to die to end their suffering and are now thankful to be alive. If you proceed to allow MAID for persons with a mental illness, how many people who would later have been happy to be alive are you willing to allow to die?” There are, of course, experts on the other side of the debate who assure us that we can discern between people who apply for MAID and people who suffer from suicidal ideation; experts who believe that, when a person is depressed and can see no brighter future, we should not try to change their mind by offering care, medication and therapy. However, I am confident that this lack of consensus alone should be enough to definitively say no, that expanding MAID to those whose only underlying condition is mental health is not a responsible public policy choice. Instead, let us fix our health care system. Let us see this government deliver on its forgotten promise to fund mental health. Let us open or reopen our assisted living homes for people suffering from mental illness. Let us take care of our mentally ill people. Let us give hope for a better tomorrow and the support needed to live through today. The very narrow question that we are addressing today is whether we will vote in favour of a bill that would extend the deadline. The government has a two-year deadline. That time has come and gone. I think March 17 is the deadline, which will soon be upon us. Do we give ourselves another year to develop the guidelines, regulations and safeguards to make sure that MAID for mentally ill patients is administered in as responsible a manner as possible? To be honest, I am torn on this. I voted against MAID in the first place, but like my colleague, I will be voting in favour of this, because I am optimistic that we can at least come up with regulations that will put safeguards in place to manage this very troubling public policy question.
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  • Feb/13/23 6:49:04 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Uqaqtittiji, my question is on a topic that the member did not really speak to, but he is from British Columbia and is aware of the huge indigenous population in British Columbia. Does the member agree that there need to be provisions or regulations added to make sure that indigenous peoples are protected better, especially in the mental health care system, which does not recognize broadly enough their culture and the need for reconciliation? Mental health services need to be unique and more tailored for indigenous peoples. I wonder if the member can share his thoughts on that.
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  • Feb/13/23 6:49:54 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, yes indeed I would completely support the government doing whatever is necessary to make sure that indigenous people, and indeed all Canadians, receive the mental health care that they need. I gave the example of Mr. Todd's father, which I think is just a great example of where Canada used to do this much better, but for some ideological reason, we have abandoned that. It is a disaster. I am very sensitive to the fact that indigenous people are disproportionately represented in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. People suffering with their mental health need to have the care that is necessary for them to recover. Additionally, I have worked with the Kwantlen First Nation community in my riding to help them develop culturally sensitive seniors housing, seniors care, because I recognize that is absolutely necessary.
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  • Feb/13/23 6:52:17 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, indeed Canadians are disappointed the government has failed to deliver on its promise to fund mental health to the extent that it is necessary, and they are doubly disappointed now the government is now talking about expanding medical assistance in dying for mentally ill people. They need help; they do not need assistance in dying.
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  • Feb/13/23 6:52:53 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, I asked my Conservative colleague, who spoke just prior to this colleague of mine, the same question I will ask him. It is in relation to trying to deter one of the main contributors to the mental health crisis in Canada, and his colleagues have mentioned this all day, which is poverty. New Democrats have tabled a solution, which is a guaranteed livable basic income. I understand the Conservatives might disagree with that, but what solutions can the Conservative Party offer, and not criticisms but solutions, to ensure those who are most vulnerable, those living in poverty and those who do not have the means to survive actually have that support so they can live with dignity?
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  • Feb/13/23 6:53:33 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, what is not the solution is to allow mentally ill people to live in tent cities or in squalor in some of the single-room occupancy hotels in the Downtown Eastside. This is terrible. The government is funding those homes, but it is inadequate. It is just slightly better than living in a tent. I completely agree that—
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  • Feb/13/23 6:54:09 p.m.
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We need to resume debate. The hon. member for Fundy Royal has the floor.
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  • Feb/13/23 6:54:16 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak here today to an important bill. We have to ask ourselves: why are we here this evening debating Bill C-39? What brought us to this place? What brought us to this place was a government, once again, that had acted completely irresponsibly and with great overreach, ignoring the experts, ignoring Parliament and ignoring the most vulnerable. We will back up a little bit. Bill C-7, which expanded medical assistance in dying in this country, went through the House of Commons and went through our committee, the justice committee. Accompanying any piece of government legislation is a charter statement from the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. A charter statement is the government's certification that the legislation complies with our Canadian Charter of Rights. I want to read, just briefly, from that charter statement. The minister's charter statement stated, for Bill C-7, that it excluded individuals with mental illness from eligibility to access MAID, because of: the inherent risks and complexity that the availability of MAID would present for individuals who suffer solely from mental illness. First, evidence suggests that screening for decision-making capacity is particularly difficult, and subject to a high degree of error, in relation to persons who suffer from a mental illness serious enough to ground a request for MAID. At the time, the minister said that there was not the public support nor was the infrastructure in place to allow medical assistance in dying for individuals whose sole underlying condition is mental illness. The bill, Bill C-7, then goes to the Senate, the unelected Senate. The Senate amends the bill to include mental illness with no safeguards, no accounting for the fact that it was an extreme broadening of Canada's MAID legislation and would, in fact, lead Canada to become an outlier. That bill came back to the House and was passed by the government, with the opposition from our Conservative caucus members. Conservative parliamentarians were strongly opposed, because we knew that MAID should not be expanded to those who are suffering with mental illness. When we are reaching out to those who are struggling, for example through Bell Let's Talk, and I see members of Parliament posting that on their social media, the terrible message that it sends is that we as a Parliament think that, for those suffering with mental illness, offering them death should be an option. One may say, well, that is not what this is about. Unfortunately, that is exactly what it is about. It is already happening. Many of us were horrified to hear of bureaucrats from the Canadian government in a department to which we entrust vulnerable veterans, veterans suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder. Can one imagine the family of a veteran who goes to Veterans Affairs for help and, without even mentioning the issue, is offered the opportunity to explore medical assistance in dying, when they are suffering from PTSD? Imagine how that would make one feel, for someone who is struggling and who is trying to stay motivated to stay alive. The Minister of Veterans Affairs said that this was a one-off, that this was just one problematic situation. Unfortunately, we found out that it was not a one-off and that it had happened many times, an untold number of times. We do not know how many times it happened. This is before medical assistance in dying is officially expanded to those suffering with mental illness. Why are we here today? We are here because the Minister of Justice supported this and pushed this forward in spite of, we know, the Liberal caucus members who are very uncomfortable with this, because they know it is wrong. Just today, we read an article saying that only three in 10 Canadians support the idea of allowing patients to seek MAID based purely on mental illness. Seven in 10 Canadians, the constituents that these Liberal caucus members represent, do not support this going forward. The Minister of Justice said, in the same article, “To be honest, we could have gone forward with the original date, but we want to be sure. We want to be safe. We want everybody to be on the same page.” The government is saying that it needs everyone to think like it does and that everyone needs to warm up to the idea. We do not accept that. We are going to continue to fight for the most vulnerable. This is happening right now in Canada. It is very upsetting for many of us. Then we read, in the same article, of a report that noted that an Ontario man recently made news after he requested MAID, not because he wanted to die, but because he thought it was a preferable alternative to being homeless. A disabled Ontario woman also applied for MAID after seven years of applying for affordable housing in Toronto with no luck. The abuse of this system is happening in real time. It is happening now. Because of the passage of the amended Bill C-7, we were set for next month to have, without any safeguards, those suffering from mental illness be eligible for MAID. Bill C-39 is the government's attempt to kick this down the road another year. Where have we seen these U-turns? We saw them with Bill C-75 on bail changes. The government overstepped, and now it is reversing course. On the gun legislation, the government realized there was a big overreach, and now it is time to climb down from that. Canadians suffering with mental illness deserve better. They deserve a thoughtful approach. I stood in the House not long ago, back in October 2020, and Parliament was observing mental health week. Unfortunately, at that time, parliamentarians did not know that the Liberal government would soon include mental illness in its planned expansion. The point in that speech was that one of the key foundations of Canadian society, in our collective identity, is that we are a caring and compassionate country. Canadians, many in this chamber, do not see anything caring or compassionate about making people who are living with mental illness eligible for medically assisted death. What message does it send to Canadians who live with mental illness? They are not people who are at the end of their lives. These are not people who would otherwise die. Why is the Liberal government pushing to include them in its medical assistance in dying regime? The president of the Canadian Medical Association said, “We have a responsibility, we believe, as physicians and as society, to make sure that all vulnerable Canadians have access to proper care and the support they need.” I listed two scenarios, and we all have these scenarios in our ridings of individuals in need who are not getting the help they need. If we have not succeeded to make sure that every Canadian living with mental illness has access to timely mental health care or adequate support, how is it that the government and the minister were comfortable in proceeding with broadening medical assistance in dying in such a radical way to take effect next month? All this despite the fact that this radical expansion of MAID was passed in early 2021. Conservatives have not given up the fight to do what is right and to protect vulnerable Canadians. We will not give up that fight. The government failed to conduct a mandatory review of its own MAID legislation. That was supposed to happen, and it did not happen. The minister was to complete a charter statement. He did that on Bill C-7. The Bill C-7 charter statement very clearly rationalized why individuals suffering with mental illness were not included in Bill C-7. That is how they arrived at the constitutionality of the bill. With this massive change, we do not see the updated charter statement. We do not hear the minister talking about the charter rights of those who are suffering. This is remarkable because the statement was written over two years ago. A few days ago, more than 25 legal experts signed a letter addressed to the Prime Minister and members of the cabinet, challenging them to do better on this. This expansion is wrong. Conservatives will support extending the coming into force by this year, but in that time, we will not give up the fight to protect the most vulnerable.
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  • Feb/13/23 7:04:46 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-39 
Madam Speaker, the government has said that its approach is to try to eliminate from consideration those who are suicidal. In other words, those who are suicidal cannot have MAID, but those who are not suicidal can have MAID. On the face of it, this does not make any sense, because by definition a person who is seeking suicide, facilitated through the medical system, is suicidal. The government is trying to make distinctions between concepts where no real distinctions exist. The reality of the government's policy is that people who are experiencing suicidal thoughts and mental health challenges will be able to go to the medical system, and they will be facilitated in that by the medical system. Would the member have a comment on the wordplay, the misrepresentation being used by the government to mask what is truly going to be the reality under its program?
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