St. Albert MP Michael Cooper is speaking out against a controversial piece of legislation which would potentially allow those suffering from mental illness to access medical assistance in dying.
The House of Commons introduced new legislation on Feb. 2, announcing the option of medically assisted death for people with mental illness will be delayed by a year. As part of expanded medical assistance in dying (MAID) legislation passed in 2021, people who are suffering with only a mental illness would be allowed to seek the procedure beginning in March of this year.
The bill set a two-year deadline for the government to make sense of standards and work with medical boards to determine how to handle such cases. Justice Minister David Lametti said there were “concerns physicians and hospitals weren’t ready for the change” and he wants to ensure everything is in place before the program is expanded. “The safety of Canadians must come first. That’s why we’re taking the additional time necessary to get this right,” he said.
The local MP, however, is calling on the Liberal party to scrap the legislation entirely, in response to the recent delay. Michael Cooper, St. Albert MP and Conservative Shadow Minister of Democratic Reform, and Hon. Rob Moore, Conservative Shadow Minister for Justice and Attorney General of Canada, released a joint statement on Thursday, Feb. 2.
“Today, the Liberals introduced legislation to delay by one year their planned expansion of their medically assisted death regime. Conservatives have been united and unwavering in our opposition to expanding the Liberal government’s medically assisted death regime to Canadians whose sole underlying condition is mental illness.”
“This last-minute delay is indicative of the Liberal’s reckless and rushed approach to expanding medically assisted dying to more vulnerable Canadians. It also comes after much criticism from experts and advocates for impacted Canadians across the country. Experts have been clear that MAID for mental illness cannot be implemented safely. It is impossible to determine irremediability in individual cases of mental illness. MAID for mental illness will also create clinical challenges, blurring the line between suicide assistance and suicide prevention,” Cooper and Moore wrote.
An expert panel reviewed the issue and developed guidelines, but many mental health advocates said that safeguards were not in place and that physicians were not ready for the expansion. When MAID first became legal in 2016 it was limited to only those with a “reasonably foreseeable death.” A Quebec court ruled that restriction was unconstitutional because many people live with painful medical conditions without being able to say when they will die.
The Liberals brought in new legislation that disposed of the reasonably foreseeable death clause but explicitly prohibited people from taking their own lives if their sole reason for doing so was a mental illness. Following push-back from the Senate, the government amended the legislation to allow mental illness as a reason for MAID, but put in place a two-year delay.
Cooper further argued that delaying the implementation of MAID for mental illness by one year will not resolve the aforementioned concerns and only sets in motion “another arbitrary deadline.”
“A delay is not enough. Conservatives are calling on the Liberal government to withdraw this dangerous expansion. Conservatives do not believe that MAID is an acceptable solution to mental illness and psychological suffering. Our healthcare system should help people find the hope they need to live, not assist in their deaths,” the statement said.
Lametti said even though these changes were not the government’s original intent, he is committed to seeing them through. “Bills change over the course of that legislative process as they have to in order to take the various institutions in our government seriously,” he said.
Cooper has said he will support the extension, as it is better than the alternative, but that this "should never have happened."
“This is an admission of failure on the part of the Liberals. The need for the government to introduce legislation today, this is as a result of the Liberals putting ideology ahead of evidence ... The issues that have been identified with expanding MAID in cases of mental illness are not going to go away. They are not going to change between March of 2023 and March of 2024.”
A joint House-Senate committee is studying the legislation and discussing possible safeguards, alongside several provinces, colleges, and other parties to ensure proper guidelines are in place.
