The federal government has “ignored the recommendations” of a special committee that investigated whether Canada should offer medical assistance in dying (MAiD) to people struggling solely with mental disorder, says St. Albert – Edmonton MP Michael Cooper.
Last week the government announced that it is delaying the expansion of MAiD for a second time because Canada’s medical system is still “not yet ready,” according to Health Minister Mark Holland. The expansion was originally planned for March 2023.
The choice to delay for three more years came after a special committee, made up of 15 MPs and senators including Cooper, released a report which suggested there may not be enough trained practitioners in the country to safely offer the procedure. It also highlighted “ongoing concerns,” including the difficulty of predicting long-term diagnoses for mental disorders; the challenges of distinguishing MAiD requests from suicidality; the impacts on vulnerable groups such as women, Indigenous people and people with disabilities; and the lack of professional consensus on the issue.
While the report officially concluded that “Canada is not yet ready to proceed with MAiD,” Cooper said that there should be an “indefinite pause” on the matter.
“Frankly, the government in this instance has ignored the recommendation of the committee because the recommendation of the committee was to put a pause on this expansion, not a mere three-year delay,” Cooper said.
A special joint committee will gather in 2026 to once again assess Canada’s readiness to expand MAiD.
Cooper feels that the government is simply “kicking the can down the road.”
“The issues that caused the Liberals to delay this expansion last year, remain the same this year,” he said. “There are fundamental problems, including legal and clinical issues, in which there is no evidence that these will be resolved three years from now.
“The only good news … is that there will be a federal election before three years,” he said. “Canadians will have a choice between electing Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, who want to offer MAiD to persons who are suffering from mental illness, or a common-sense Conservative government.”
Cooper said that there is a mental health crisis in Canada, and it will take “further investment” and “ongoing work between the federal government and provinces and territories” to solve the issue.
Alex Muir, Chair of the metro Vancouver chapter of Dying With Dignity Canada, said that the announcement was “disappointing.”
People who live with treatment-resistant mental disorders “continue to be excluded and stigmatized based on a diagnosis, which is a clear breach of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” Muir said.
The special committee’s report did not give enough focus to the experts who agreed Canada was ready to expand MAiD, he said.
“In our opinion, that the system is ready,” he said. However, the “ongoing concerns” highlighted in the report are “overriding the whole thing.”
Muir acknowledged that mental health professionals are divided on whether any mental health disorder is incurable or irreversible.
However, he said that the legislation is aimed at people who “have been suffering for years, or decades, who have tried all the recommended treatments and drug cocktails, and nothing has worked for them.”
“So these people continue to suffer,” he said.
People with a mental disorder who hoped to access MAiD “feel like a carrot was dangled before them,” according to Muir, and he expects the same arguments for and against the issue will be trotted out again in three years. “We’re talking six years they’ve been sitting on the sidelines,” he said.
“It’s a matter of equal rights.”
The delay signals to Muir that the federal government has lost the drive to push the legislation through.
He expects the delay will face a legal challenge, but did not know whether Dying for Dignity Canada was proceeding with one.
