Â鶹´«Ã½

Politics

    • The issue of expanding assisted dying eligibility 'has already been decided': senator

    Share
    OTTAWA -

    The senator who pushed for Canada's assisted dying regime to include people whose only condition is a mental disorder says the debate about that policy is now over.

    "The issue of expansion has already been decided upon," said Stan Kutcher, who sits with the Independent Senators Group.

    As far as Kutcher is concerned, the what was determined two years ago, when his arguments in the Senate convinced the Liberal government to move forward with an expansion of eligibility.

    It's just the when that recently came into question.

    Last week, Parliament hastily passed a Liberal bill that has further delayed the expansion of assisted dying eligibility to people whose sole condition is a mental disorder.

    In an interview, Kutcher said he supported the delay until March 2024 because it will allow proper training and practice standards to be made available to provincial regulatory bodies and practitioners.

    Conservatives supported it, too. But they argue that the expansion should not happen in the first place, with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre saying he would repeal it if he became prime minister. In the meantime, British Columbia MP Ed Fast has proposed a private member's bill to do the same.

    Fast told reporters last week that he was concerned the Liberal government was "moving from a culture of life to a culture of death." Those suffering from mental disorders deserve mental health and social support and counselling, he said. "They need to find some joy and some meaning in life."

    But Kutcher, who was a leading psychiatrist before joining the Senate, urged Canadians to stop thinking about patients in this category as lacking agency.

    "Just because an individual might belong to a group that is considered to be vulnerable, doesn't mean that individual is vulnerable," he said.

    And he invited those who think it is wrong to offer assisted dying to such patients to challenge the law at the Supreme Court: "I don't know why they're not, if they have such strong feelings."

    When the Liberal government was getting ready to pass its first major update to assisted dying law in 2021, it was initially reluctant to expand eligibility to people whose only condition is a mental disorder.

    The legislation came in response to a 2019 Quebec Superior Court decision that struck down part of the original framework passed in 2016. The court found it was unconstitutional to only allow people whose death was "reasonably foreseeable" to apply for assisted dying.

    The new law expanded eligibility to those who have a serious and incurable disease, illness or disability, were in an advanced state of decline and were suffering intolerably Γüá-- even if their death was not imminently foreseeable.

    Passing the bill was already going to put the federal government in better alignment with the criteria set out in the 2015 Supreme Court decision that had originally challenged the prohibition on assisted death as counter to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

    But Kutcher recalled thinking that the government should go a step further to truly respect Charter rights.

    "If you had Lou Gehrig's disease, or if you had severe Parkinson's, you would be eligible to apply for and be treated humanely and thoughtfully, and critically, you would have an opportunity to apply for relief of your suffering," he said.

    "But if you had a mental illness, you would be excluded from such. ... I thought that that was a flagrant example of stigma and discrimination."

    Kutcher convinced senators to amend the bill in the Senate and send it back to the House of Commons, writing an 18-month delay into the law so that practitioners could get ready for what would be a major change.

    The government added another six months to the clock -- and, last week, another year -- but was otherwise persuaded. The Liberals are not expected to further delay the expansion. It will happen automatically on March 17, 2024, unless there is a change in government before then.

    That's a good thing, says Helen Long, chief executive officer of advocacy group Dying with Dignity Canada.

    Long said that some mental disorders are treatment resistant, just as some people cannot be cured of all their physical illnesses. The expansion, she said, is an equalizer, and will still require people who only have a mental disorder to meet all of the other eligibility criteria.

    She added that the ongoing political debate about the policy "continues to stigmatize those individuals," saying: "Just because you have a mental disorder does not mean you won't have capacity."

    Without the Senate's intervention, Long said it is likely a legal challenge would have been launched arguing that the regime discriminated against people whose only condition is a mental disorder.

    That legal challenge is a sure thing if the government doesn't go forward with the expansion next year, she said.

    University of Waterloo political science professor Emmett Macfarlane says the exclusion of people who only have a mental illness was "ripe" for a Charter challenge based on equality rights.

    "On its face, an exclusion would be discrimination on the basis of a disability," he said. "It's difficult to justify an absolute prohibition of people who are suffering from a mental illness."

    He said determining what counts as an irremediable condition should be left to the medical profession, adding that broader societal concerns about the availability of mental health resources, palliative care and material supports such as housing need to be addressed.

    But the Supreme Court has made it clear that access to assisted dying is in line with the Charter, and that isn't going to change, he said.

    "We are never (as) a country going back to an absolute prohibition on medical aid in dying," he said. "That debate is closed."

    This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 15, 2023.

    IN DEPTH

    Opinion

    opinion

    opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster

    A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?

    opinion

    opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

    When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

    CTVNews.ca Top Stories

    An Edmonton man says he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was injured by members of the Edmonton Police Service last year.

    The brother of a 27-year-old man who was fatally shot in Scarborough over the weekend has been arrested and charged in connection with his death, say police.

    The Royal Canadian Mint has introduced its latest Gold Maple Leaf bullion coin – made entirely from gold sourced from a single mine in northern Ontario

    Canada

    • The Royal Canadian Mint has introduced its latest Gold Maple Leaf bullion coin – made entirely from gold sourced from a single mine in northern Ontario

    • Ontario's police watchdog has decided there are no grounds to believe Sudbury police committed a crime during a difficult arrest in May where the suspect's neck was broken.

    • The City of Calgary ended water restrictions for the city at a Sunday morning update.

    • The brother of a 27-year-old man who was fatally shot in Scarborough over the weekend has been arrested and charged in connection with his death, say police.

    • A man is facing numerous drug trafficking charges after Dufferin OPP seized a large assortment of drugs and weapons in Orangeville earlier this week.

    • Pasquale Monaco says he’s debating whether to keep renting out the two-bedroom basement apartment of the Montreal building he owns after it was flooded — again — in August, when the remnants of tropical storm Debby sent four feet of water rushing into the space.

    World

    Politics

    Health

    Sci-Tech

    Entertainment

    Business

    Lifestyle

    Sports

    • The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have a nickname for the opposition’s end zone. They refer to it as the “chicken box.â€

    • Jonathan Aranda homered for the second consecutive game, helping Taj Bradley and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 on Saturday.

    Autos

    Local Spotlight

    Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.

    Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

    An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.

    They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

    A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

    Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

    The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

    It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

    • One man is dead and another injured after a shooting in Langley Saturday evening that homicide investigators say is gang-related.

    • Anyone needing emergency care in a city in B.C.’s southern Interior will need to seek help elsewhere until Monday, as the latest ER closure in the region has shuttered the department’s doors for 25 hours.

    • The two top contenders in British Columbia's provincial election dove deep into the various issues plaguing the Metro Vancouver area on Sunday, in some cases hearing directly from those most affected.

    • The brother of a 27-year-old man who was fatally shot in Scarborough over the weekend has been arrested and charged in connection with his death, say police.

    • A driver and a motorcyclist are receiving treatment at the hospital after colliding on Sunday evening in north Etobicoke.

    • A young person riding a dirt bike has been taken to the hospital with serious injuries following a collision in Brampton, say paramedics.

    • The City of Calgary ended water restrictions for the city at a Sunday morning update.

    • Nearly 100 Inglewood residents rallied Saturday afternoon in a continuing effort to save the Inglewood Aquatic Centre.

    • Nick Kolomyja reckons axe throwing may have saved his life.

    • Thousands participated in the 17th annual Canada Army Run Sunday in the capital's downtown.

    • Police are looking to speak with a female who was a passenger in a stolen vehicle that was recovered early Saturday morning in Kanata.

    • It's been one year since Michael Andlauer took over ownership of the Ottawa Senators and on Saturday, he spoke for the first time about the tentative deal for a new arena at LeBreton Flats.

    • Provincial police (SQ) are looking for 29-year-old Kelsey Watt, who went missing in Hemmingford, Que.

    • Nearly 15,000 runners pounded the pavement on Sunday in the 32nd edition of Montreal’s Bereva Marathon.

    • Â鶹´«Ã½ Montreal at Six for Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024 with anchor Matt Gilmour.

    • An Edmonton man says he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was injured by members of the Edmonton Police Service last year.

    • One person is dead after an early morning crash in west Edmonton.

    • Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch was happy with his team’s start to exhibition play, especially considering not a single player in his lineup on Sunday played with the club during its lengthy recent playoff run.

    • Saint John Theatre Company’s “Waiting for Godot†stars former "Corner Gas" star Eric Peterson, and R.H. Thomson, known for his role in "Anne with an E."

    • A 76-year-old man who was reported missing Saturday in Annapolis District, N.S., has been found deceased.

    • Manitoba RCMP and community members are still feverishly searching for a six-year-old boy who went missing five days ago.

    • Winnipeg police called in the bomb unit Saturday night after a suspicious item was found in a Centennial neighbourhood back lane.

    • While slang may come and go, experts say the phenomenon behind them, which constantly churns out brand-new bon mots, is as old as language itself.

    • The Philippine Association of Saskatchewan welcomed all newcomers to Regina on Sunday during its third annual Kabayan event.

    • Fire officials are investigating after a fire completely destroyed the community fridge in the Cathedral neighbourhood.

    • The last two months after losing her daughter Bella have been extremely difficult for Kyla Thomson.

    • Brantford, Ont. residents were met with an unexpected sight on Saturday evening as a suspected funnel cloud appeared in the skies above the city.

    • Police were called to a business in the area of University Avenue East and Weber Street North at around 10:40 p.m. Saturday for a report of a man attempting to stab another man.

    • Police said the pedestrian, a 52-year-old man, was taken to an out-of-region hospital with life-threatening injuries and the driver of the vehicle failed to remain at the scene.

    • A 14-year-old girl from Flying Dust First Nation was killed after a high-speed ATV struck a ditch near Meadow Lake.

    • The 75-year-old building, formerly the Waskesiu Chamber of Commerce building, was relocated to the Parks Canada compound on the edge of the townsite.

    • A 53-year-old woman from north Vancouver, B.C. was killed after a semi and truck collided on Highway 16 near Dafoe.

    • There were no injuries reported after a fired damaged a home on Regent Street near Douglas Street in Greater Sudbury’s west end on Sunday morning.

    • Ontario’s police watchdog is investigating after an Ontario Provincial Police officer discharged his firearm at a 36-year-old man in near Moonbeam, Ont., on Friday night.

    • The identity of a motorcyclist has been revealed by loved ones on social media following Friday’s fatal south end collision in London. The London Police Service has not released anything regarding the driver’s identity.

    • video

      video

      The most popular hockey podcasters on the planet brought some major attention to the Forest City this weekend with the annual Chiclets Cup.

    • Wage increases, new paid holidays and a big signing bonus are part of the new contract for CAMI employees in Ingersoll, Ont.

    • One man is in police custody after fabricating a story to police and reporting his vehicle was stolen.

    • Fire crews worked to extinguish a fire at a tent encampment in Barrie on Sunday.

    • A year after being recognized as one of 19 ‘Bee Campuses’ by Bee City Canada, Georgian College continues to promote the importance of bees to agriculture, the economy and education.

    • As the City of Windsor celebrates the first east-end edition of its popular Open Streets event, officials say it likely won't be the last.

    • Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is reporting that it’s above the provincial target for sudden cardiac arrest response times.

    • video

      video

      The Amherstburg Uncommon Festival is living up to its name with the addition of a drone light show — a first for Essex County.

    • Work crews have been busy in the British Columbia legislature over the summer, prying apart desks in the historic chamber and piling them up in hallways as they tried to work out how to fit in six more seats.

    • The two top contenders in British Columbia's provincial election dove deep into the various issues plaguing the Metro Vancouver area on Sunday, in some cases hearing directly from those most affected.

    • A Victoria woman is now $1 million richer after winning a Maxmillions prize on a recent Lotto Max Draw.

    • A pair of runaway pigs are in the custody of an animal sanctuary in the Okanagan after evading police and volunteers for hours earlier this week.

    • The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.

    • Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls – including one that gave birth to 10 puppies – from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.

    • Despite the heavy rain, plenty of muscle turned up for United Way’s annual Pull the Bus fundraiser in Lethbridge Friday.

    • Lethbridge County has rescinded its fire restriction as a result of the recent cool, wet weathr.

    • The Lethbridge Hurricanes kicked off the 2024-25 season on a winning note Friday night, defeating the Edmonton Oil Kings 3-1 in a game played at VisitLethbridge.com Arena.

    • The Royal Canadian Mint has introduced its latest Gold Maple Leaf bullion coin – made entirely from gold sourced from a single mine in northern Ontario

    • A northern Ontario man is facing a $12,000 fine after illegally shooting a moose near the Batchawan River.

    • Following an outbreak of COVID-19 on its continuing care floor and just ahead of the flu season, St. Joseph’s General Hospital in Elliot Lake has opted to re-introduce a universal masking policy until further notice.

    N.L.

    Stay Connected
    Follow Â鶹´«Ã½