Interim Staff:
Bill C-218, the private member’s bill introduced by Tamara Jansen (Cloverdale-Langley City), that if passed would prevent Medical Assistance in Dying for those whose sole criteria is mental illness, is scheduled to be voted on in the House of Commons on Oct. 7.
In March 2021, Parliament passed Bill C-7, the Help Not Harm Act, liberalizing Canada’s euthanasia law including permitting MAiD for mental illness alone, though it gave the government two years to prepare protocols to kill mentally ill patients. Bill C-7 created Track 2 for euthanasia, under which patients who are not terminally ill could be medically killed. After pressure from the Senate, the House amended the law to explicitly include mental illness as an underlying qualification for euthanasia when it is deemed “grievous and irremediable.”
Since then, the government has sought to have Parliament delay implementation of the provision three times because of concern among health care professionals about killing patients with conditions that cannot easily be deemed irremediable. Unless Parliament acts to delay that provision again or rescinds mental illness under the law, euthanasia for mental illness alone will be implemented on March 17, 2027. Earlie this year, Parliament’s special committee on MAiD recommended delaying or rescinding mental illness as a reason for euthanasia.
Jansen’s Bill C-218 had its first hour of debate last December and its second hour was on Sept. 23. The final vote is scheduled for two weeks later on Oct. 7.
Jansen said that mental health experts have attested to the fact that “it is impossible” to declare a mental illness irremediable. She says that people, especially the suicidal, deserve the care to help cope with their mental illness, not access to MAiD.
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, is urging Canadians to “help prevent euthanasia for mental illness” by signing the EPC’s petition in support of Bill C-218, share stories about living with mental illness in order to be a positive witness that such lives are worth living and send those personal stories to the EPC, and contacting MPs to urge them to vote for Bill C-218.
Schadenberg said that MPs from all parties need to hear from their constituents and he advises “only comment on MAiD for mental illness alone,” because Bill C-218 deals with that issue and “mixing issues weakens your position.”
He said everyone should also ask their family, friends, and other acquaintances to also contact their MPs to urge them to support C-218.
Schadenberg said that “the majority of Canadians do not support MAiD for mental illness.”
Jansen has posted on Facebook her call for concerned Canadians to contact their MPs to urge them to vote for C-218.
Over the summer, Jansen and Conservative MP Andrew Lawton (Elgin-St. Thomas-London South) took part in town hall meetings in London, Hamilton and St. Catharines to drum up support and knowledge about C-218. She told the Registered podcast that there is confusion over the parliamentary committee’s recommendation to delay or rescind euthanasia for mental illness alone, with many people assuming that the scheduled implementation next March has been scuttled.
Meanwhile, there is political scuttlebutt that the Liberal government will vote against Bill C-218 and introduce their own bill addressing MAiD for mental illness in response to the committee’s recommendations. Jansen and Schadenberg both say that is unnecessary when C-218 would carry out the committee’s recommendation to permanently ban mental illness to qualify for euthanasia.
