- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Bloc Québécois
- Montcalm
- Quebec
- Voting Attendance: 65%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $126,025.95
- Government Page
- Feb/15/24 1:53:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, we are not talking about advance directives. That has already been settled. We are talking about advance requests.
Second of all, in my speech this morning—because this is a reply to the speech I made this morning—I never said that not enough work had been done. The Bloc Québécois's position is that one year is enough and that we will see after one year, immediately after royal assent, whether we can start to work on the mental illness issue.
The member should have sat on the committee from the get-go. He has been an MP from Quebec since 2015. It is a bit strange for him to be so uninformed on the issue of MAID.
Since June 2023, the government could have included advance requests in the bill, taking into consideration any recommendation of the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying. We never said that not enough work had been done. We said that the government was dragging its feet when it comes to committee work. The Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying was always convened at the last minute.
Does the member think that three meetings on an issue such as this were enough?
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- Feb/13/24 2:39:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec would not have to ask for an exemption if Ottawa had implemented the majority recommendations on advance requests issued a year ago by the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying.
Quebec is ready today, and patients should not have to suffer because of the government's inaction. If it does not want to condemn people to suffer needlessly, the federal government has two choices. It must either offer this exemption to the Criminal Code immediately or introduce a bill on advance requests.
Will the minister make the humane, compassionate choice?
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Madam Speaker, that is a rather accurate summary of what happened in committee. The government decided to include in legislation the committee's main recommendation on mental disorders. My colleague sat on the committee that produced the report tabled in February 2023, which recommended allowing advance requests.
Why has his government not introduced a section on advance requests after a year of waiting? I think that would have been good for people who are currently suffering and who cannot make an advance request. Why is this not included in Bill C‑62?
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- Feb/13/24 11:41:30 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to know whether my colleague thinks that, one day, it will be possible to alleviate the suffering of people struggling with an irremediable mental disorder.
I would also like to know whether he agrees that it would have been wiser for the government to implement the joint committee's leading recommendation regarding advance requests and to take advantage of the introduction of this bill to add that component.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister did not answer one aspect of my question.
Why the double standard?
The minister had a full year to implement the recommendation of the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying concerning advance requests. An Ipsos poll of 3,500 people showed 85% support across Canada. If the minister does not know that, he is not staying on top of his file.
As far as postponement is concerned, the minister has implemented the recommendation to the letter. Three years is too long. He knows that. However, he could have added another dimension to Bill C‑62. He had a year to do it. Will he introduce legislation on advance requests, yes or no?
Bill C‑14 is bad legislation.
The minister says that he worked carefully. People have been forced to go on hunger strikes to meet the reasonably foreseeable natural death criterion. Is that what he means by protecting vulnerable people?
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- Feb/13/24 10:24:58 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister's answer to the question posed by my colleague from Rivière-du-Nord is inadequate. Yes, in 2021, Quebec ruled on the issue before the report of the expert panel on mental illness was published.
However, the minister had a year to implement the most widely held recommendation of the special joint committee on medical assistance in dying concerning advance requests. Even a Conservative member from Quebec voted for it.
Why did he not introduce a bill aimed at enacting this provision, knowing full well, unless he is unaware, that Quebec was going to legislate accordingly? As for the report, we are talking about a year and he wants three years, but that is another story. He cannot possibly tell us that he did not have the time to implement the special joint committee's main recommendation.
Now it is a double standard. He accepted the special joint committee's recommendation about mental illness and made it into a bill, yet he is doing nothing about advance requests, which Canadians from coast to coast agree on.
Will the minister commit, if he does not support my amendment, to tabling a bill on advance requests as soon as possible?
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- Feb/12/24 1:20:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it would have been good if my colleague could have sat with us on the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying. I think she is confusing two things. Just because a person requests MAID does not mean that they will be eligible to receive it, and all of the experts, whether they are in favour of MAID or not, have said that a suicidal state is reversible.
I am not sure what she was talking about, but it is important not to engage in fearmongering. No one who has just been taken into care will be given that option because, first of all, it is not an option that is offered to people. People have to make a request.
I would invite my colleague to read the panel's recommendations on that.
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- Feb/9/24 11:38:11 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it has been a year since the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying recommended allowing advance requests. That was what the vast majority of the committee members wanted. We need to allow advance requests for people who are suffering from conditions like dementia and Alzheimer's.
The federal government has been dragging its feet for a year on implementing the committee's strongest recommendation. Why?
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