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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 281

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 13, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 281 - Feb/13/24
Mr. Gérard Deltell (Louis-Saint-Laurent, CPC)
  • Feb/13/24 12:07:06 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Kelowna—Lake Country. Once again, I rise in the House to speak about a sensitive topic, one that is fundamental in our lives, and that is medical assistance in dying. Personally, I am in favour of medical assistance in dying. I am not here to defend my personal opinions. I am here as a legislator who has to consider all the data that support giving the green light, under certain conditions, to medical assistance in dying or, conversely, the red light urging us to not go forward. I believe this is in no way a partisan issue. People can be on the left, they can be on the right, they can be sovereignists, or they can be federalists; that is not the point. It is a matter of how we, as human beings, feel about this issue. Regardless of where we come from or where we are on the political spectrum, we are first and foremost human beings. On that basis, we must make a choice for people who need medical assistance in dying, and we must make sure this is done right, within the proper rules. We are dealing with this situation because the debate began here, at the federal level, in 2015. However, in Quebec, the debate began long before that. It just so happens that I have participated, both at the provincial and federal levels, in the early stages of this legislation that we are discussing today. I would remind hon. members that the first province to have legislated on this issue did not do so overnight, quite the opposite. Only after six years of serious, thorough, scientific and medical debates and hearings did the Quebec government and the National Assembly vote for a law that would be the first step in medically assisted dying. I would like to emphasize the importance of that process. It was done over six years, under three different governments, under three different premiers. That proves this is not a partisan issue. As much as possible, we should always take this approach. I will always remember, during the final debate on the adoption of the first steps toward medical assistance in dying in Quebec, how one of the members was very much against the bill. I can see him now, rising in the National Assembly and telling members not to vote for it. He felt so strongly on the issue and was so against the bill that he was red in the face. Once he sat down and the speech was over, I applauded him. I did not applaud him because I agreed with him. I applauded him because we live in a democracy that allows him to express an opinion that differs from my own. That is the beauty of democracy. Despite the fact that the majority of his party and his government were about to vote in favour of the bill, he was against it, and he had the opportunity to say so with all of the passion that drove him. That is how we should debate medical assistance in dying. Let us not forget that this debate started at the federal level because of the Carter decision. Without going into detail, I will remind members that happened in 2015, which was an election year. Using his good judgment, the head of the Canadian government at the time did not move forward immediately because we were on the verge of an election campaign. At the risk of repeating myself for the umpteenth time today, this is not a partisan issue, while an election campaign by definition is the epitome of political partisanship. That is fine, that is what an election campaign is. That is why the prime minister and head of the Government of Canada at the time, the Right Hon. Stephen Harper, showed good judgment and decided to hold the debate after the election campaign. Canadians made their voice heard. They elected a new government. There was then a debate on the subject. That is when the first steps toward this bill on medical assistance in dying were taken. Some may have noticed that the bill, like all other bills, was not perfect. Nevertheless, it did lead to certain specific situations. Personally, I was for medical assistance in dying, but I did not vote in favour of the bill because I found it was poorly drafted. I remember the Hon. David Lametti who, at the time, was not the minister of justice. As we know, he became minister of justice later on. The Prime Minister removed him from that office, and he decided to serve elsewhere. I remember that Mr. Lametti said that he would vote against the bill because he found that it did not go far enough. The bill was passed, but other things happened, and today we find ourselves having a debate on mental health. I would remind members that I am in favour of medical assistance in dying as long as the rules are well defined. I will give the example of Quebec. Actually, I am going to talk about Quebec's experience, because an example is something that should be followed. Instead, let us take inspiration from the experience of Quebec, which held a political debate on the issue of medical assistance in dying for six years before passing its first bill on the subject. With regard to MAID for people with mental illness, after holding hearings and consultations and thoroughly analyzing the issue, the Quebec National Assembly and the Government of Quebec decided not to move forward with MAID for people whose only underlying medical condition is a mental disorder. They felt that there was no consensus on this issue and that there was no scientific consensus. Some people were in favour of it, while others were against it. That is where we are at right now. That is why I think that we need to be careful as long as there is no strong scientific consensus. Personally, I am in favour of medical assistance in dying, but I think that it must be administered to those who want it within a very clear legal framework. In this case, the framework does not go far enough. I have a colleague from Nova Scotia, the member for Cumberland—Colchester, who is a physician. I listened carefully to what he had to say yesterday because he knows what he is talking about when it comes to his profession. He practised medicine for over a quarter of a century and continues to practise to this day. He cared for thousands of people in his community. He talked about the hardest parts of his practice. One example he shared involved a person showing up in the middle of a suicide crisis on a Saturday night and needing treatment. That is not a broken arm, it is not a growing cancer, it is not trying to get a pebble out of someone's eye. It is much more complicated than that, and it cannot be resolved immediately. That is why his perspective was so valuable. He said he is ready to challenge anybody who is not in that kind of a situation and whether they would be comfortable with that. He said that, in his practice, he had always found these situations very difficult, and that he needed time to recover from that kind of meeting. Anyone who has spoken to doctors dealing with patients who have suicidal feelings will confirm it. Mental health problems are difficult to identify and to treat. I would again remind members of Quebec's experience. After thoroughly examining this issue, Quebec decided not to go forward with medical assistance in dying for people struggling with psychiatric illnesses. The issue of medical assistance in dying can never be separated from the issue of palliative care. Palliative care is an essential part of our health care system; we should always be thinking of doing more, because, unfortunately, we will never do enough in that area. Without going into my life story, I can say that, two years ago, I had a particularly challenging year, given that both my parents died. I remember May 2022, when my mother spent the last days of her life in the hospital. She was in a wing where people were receiving palliative care, one after another. Then there were rooms with people who had requested medical assistance in dying. For the last 15 days of my mother’s rich life, I was with her in the hospital and met people who had requested MAID. They all did so in full knowledge of the facts and with the support, assistance, guidance, and, above all, the presence of their families, in the same way that we were with my mother in the last days of her life. That is how we must look at the issue. Respecting the choices of individuals, insofar as the guidelines have been well established. That is true both for people who wish to receive medical assistance in dying and for those who wish to receive palliative care.
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Context: House Hansard - 281 - Feb/13/24
Mr. Gérard Deltell (Louis-Saint-Laurent, CPC)
  • Feb/13/24 3:19:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a real pleasure for me to answer your invitation to ask a question. During his speech, the member related an issue with the fact that he considered that, on this side, we sometimes say something that is not true. Unfortunately, that is not a fact. An October 8, 2022, Global News report stated, and I quote: How poverty, not pain, is driving Canadians with disabilities to consider medically-assisted death. An article in the May 9, 2023, edition of the National Post was entitled: Canada shouldn't deny assisted suicide if social conditions made life intolerable: bioethicists. There is also a CBC News article from June 22, 2023, entitled “Quadriplegic Ontario woman considers medically assisted dying because of long ODSP wait times”. This is proof, without a shadow of a doubt, that, yes, unfortunately, in this country, there are people who have had difficulties with their social life and decided to knock at the door of MAID. I am quite sure that, in the minds of everybody here in the House, MAID was not made for that purpose. That is exactly what our colleagues said during their speeches. Does the member recognize that, yes, unfortunately, sometimes MAID could be used for a purpose that was not intended?
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