The Quebec National Assembly recessed on Feb. 20 and will not return until March 11. Bill 52, which would legalize euthanasia as “medical aid in dying” in the province, may not come for a vote if an expected provincial election is called before the legislature returns or if the minority Parti Quebecois government falls on the budget vote expected shortly after Members of the National Assembly return. With recent polls indicating a possible majority for the PQ in the next election, the scuttling of this atrocious piece of legislation may be only temporary.
We remind Quebec readers that they still have time to lobby MNAs to defeat Bill 52 and that legislators and candidates that support euthanasia cannot be voted for on election day. Bill 52 gives doctors in Quebec the right to lethally inject their patients, does not limit euthanasia to terminally ill patients, and targets the disabled. It is unconstitutional because euthanasia is a criminal not medical matter, and is therefore properly the jurisdiction of the federal government.
If Bill 52 is eventually passed, all Canadians must urge the federal Justice Minister to challenge the law in court and insist that the prohibition on euthanasia be upheld. If euthanasia is allowed to take root in Quebec, it will spread across the country, by either enticing other provinces to take the same path to liberalizing euthanasia or creating a noxious tourism trade for death.
