The Supreme Court of Canada’s recent declaration that our country’s prohibitions against euthanasia and assisted suicide “unjustifiably infringe” on the rights articulated in Section 7 of the Charter – those rights, ironically, to “life, liberty and security of the person”– is a flagrant affront to the will of the people. As recently as 2010, our elected officials rendered a clear and firm rejection of death’s legalization, and the High Court’s irresponsible and unseemly activism has left our current Parliament with no other choice but to reassert its democratic supremacy using the means provided by the Charter itself. The government must invoke the notwithstanding clause in defense of the rights of those menaced by the Court’s reprehensible decision: the disabled, the elderly – and Parliament’s own rights.
Of course, social liberals will howl in opposition – but why would they not? Nine imperious, ermine-robed jurists have just handed them a victory which was impossible by democratic means. And so they will talk nonsense about respecting the very same decision that they would have bitterly criticized had it not gone their way, respecting the method only when they approve of the outcome. Unfortunately, their feigned deference will sway the very politicians entrusted with enacting the people’s clear will. In an election year, they will fret about becoming the boogeymen of a loud minority’s shrill abuse. And, when they ought to be most intrepid, the Conservative government will be especially timorous. Have their long years of failing to defend the unborn taught them nothing? By conceding the terms and the tenor of the debate, the issue will not disappear; instead, it only ensures that the protracted appeasement that their cowardice invites will be more painful, complete and politically damaging.
On foreign policy issues, the Conservatives see themselves as hawks, channeling their inner Churchill – a self-image which makes their eagerness to become Neville Chamberlain on social issues all the more curious. If Stephen Harper can stand up to Vladimir Putin, he can certainly stand up to his own runaway court; and if he would only show as much concern for elderly and disabled Canadians as he has for those in Ukraine, the election-year momentum on the issue of euthanasia and assisted suicide would turn in an instant.
