• May 7, 2018: Health Canada launches consultations on palliative care framework. Read more
  • March 26, 2018: Philip Nitschke launches a campaign in Canada aimed at teaching people how to die. Read more
  • March 15, 2018: Roger Foley launches a lawsuit alleging that Ontario health officials will not provide him with the care he desires but instead offer assisted suicide. Read more
  • February 5, 2018: The Ontario Superior Court unanimously upholds a rule that physicians opposed to euthanasia must refer patients to doctors who will assist them with suicide. Read more here, here, here and here
  • February 1, 2018: 57 New Brunswickers have received assisted suicide. Read more
  • January 29, 2018: B.C. has the highest rate of assisted suicide in Canada. Read more
  • January 18, 2018: A Nova Scotian is unable to receive assisted suicide due to a lack of personnel. Read more
  • January 15, 2018: Dying with Dignity releases a new petition calling on Canada to ensure fair access to euthanasia at all health facilities. Read more
  • January 11, 2018: The transfer of a patient from Vancouver’s Saint Paul Hospital raises the question of whether religious hospitals should be forced to offer euthanasia within their walls. Read more
  • January 8, 2018: A Jewish Care Home files a complaint against a euthanasia doctor for sneaking into the institution and euthanizing a patient. Read more here and here
  • December 21, 2017: "Medical aid in dying" is considered a suicide in Saskatchewan. Read more
  • December 16, 2017: The Government of Canada publishes a draft of regulations outlining a proposed monitoring system for assisted suicide in Canada. Read more
  • December 12, 2017: The CBC airs a mini-documentary about assisted suicide that features a doctor giving a lethal injection to a patient. Read more
  • November 22, 2017: According to a survey conducted by the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS), paediatricians are already increasingly being asked by parents to euthanize disabled or dying children and infants. Read more
  • October 27, 2017: A report from the Canadian Paediatric Society indicates some Canadian paediatricians may be open to extending euthanasia to minors and teens. Read more
  • October 26, 2017: According to the Canadian Paediatric Society, parents are increasingly asking to have the option of medically assisted death for their children. Read more here and here
  • October 20, 2017: The number of cases of medically assisted suicide has risen in Manitoba. Read more
  • October 17, 2017: A court case in British Columbia is already seeking to expand Canada’s euthanasia law. Read more here and here
  • October 12, 2017: With a growing number of cases of euthanasia in Canada, the recent publication of a study showing the economic benefits of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada raises concerns. Read more here and here
  • October 9, 2017: A “2nd Interim Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada” is published by the canadian Department of Health. Read more here and here
  • October 6, 2017: According to a report published by the federal Department of Health, the number of patients who have used medical assistance in dying in Canada has jumped by nearly 50% in recent months. Read more
  • October 5, 2017: A woman files a lawsuit against the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, alleging that the medical team disconnected her husband without consent. Read more here and here
  • September 24, 2017: The Nova Scotia Health Authority reports that of 64 referrals made for medical assistance in dying, 23 were completed between Jan. 1 and Canada Day. Read more
  • September 18, 2017: According to a report by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, patients who could benefit from palliative care could not be identified, assessed, and oriented early enough in the course of the disease so that appropriate care can be integrated as soon as possible in their care plan. Read more
  • September 9, 2017: The Canadian Mental Health Association says medical assistance in dying for psychiatric patients should remain illegal. Read more
  • August 25, 2017: The Canadian Medical Association says changes need to be made within the country's health care system to meet the needs of more and more seniors. Read more
  • August 24, 2017: A survey by the Canadian Medical Association reveals that a majority of physicians surveyed are supportive of expanding access to medical aid to die. Read more
  • August 22, 2017: A new report on the Canada Pension Plan expansion shows that annual spending is expected to reach record levels in the coming decades. Read more
  • August 14, 2017: Dying With Dignity Canada is poised to challenge an Ontario law that exempts religious hospitals from offering assisted suicide. Read more here and here
  • July 28, 2017: The Ontario Palliative Care Network, an agency responsible for expanding Ontario’s network of hospice care, wants early and equitable access to assisted suicide. Read more
  • July 28, 2017: The Ontario Palliative Care Network firmly wants early and equitable access to hospice palliative care even though most hospices and the majority of doctors are opposed to it. Read more
  • July 24, 2017: A Canadian mother says doctor brought up assisted suicide option as sick daughter was within earshot. After saying she was not interested, doctor told her she was "being selfish." Read more
  • July 7, 2017: 548 people were euthananized in Ontario. Cancer was the most common underlying condition in most cases. Read more
  • July 6, 2017: In Ontario, only 74 physicians have signed up to the new phone line that pairs patients seeking medical assistance to die for health care professionals. Read more
  • July 5, 2017: A study from the B.C. Medical Journal found that there were 72 cases of medically assisted deaths on Vancouver Island from June to December 2016. Read more
  • July 3, 2017: Some Canadian doctors are no longer accepting referrals for euthanasia because of inconsistent and insufficient reimbursement for time taken to help patients die. Read more
  • June 28, 2017: In granting a 77-year-old woman with osteoarthritis permission to "receive medical aid to die", the Superior Court of Justice interpreted the law on medical aid in dying more broadly. Read more
  • June 27, 2017: In Ontario, a nurse who refused to euthanize patients under the Assisted Suicide Act was forced to resign. Read more
  • June 26, 2017: Elizabeth Wettlaufer, a nurse who confessed to killing 8 people in Ontario while on duty, is sentences to 25 years in prison. Read more here and here
  • June 15, 2017: Manitoba’s Bill 34, which would provide protections for medical professionals who do not want to participate in assisted suicide, enters its second reading in the Legislative Assembly. Read more
  • June 13, 2017: Three organizations and five doctors are challenging the Ontario College of Physicians regulations on medical aid in dying before the courts in order to protect their conscience rights. Read more
  • June 12, 2017: A court case in British Columbia begins looking into the constitutionality of the federal government’s restriction of availability of euthanasia. Read more
  • May 25, 2017: A Canadian study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that the primary reason why patients requested assisted dying was to relieve “existential distress”. Read more here and here
  • May 23, 2017: A second plaintiff has been added to the constitutional challenge to the Trudeau Government’s assisted dying legislation to request its extension to people who are not at the end of life. Read more
  • May 17, 2017: The government of Manitoba introduces a bill to protect conscientious objection to medically assisted death. Read more here and here
  • April 27, 2017: The Federal government publishes a first interim report on medical assistance in dying (euthanasia and assisted suicide), in which it states that during the first six months of the new Canadian law, from June 17 to December 31, 2016, a total of 907 people have died by euthanasia or assisted suicide. Read more
  • April 22, 2017: Pro and anti assisted suicide advocates call for Nova Scotia’s Health Authority to be more transparent in releasing stats on those who apply to end their lives. Read more
  • April 17, 2017: Mediatized suicide of young Adam Maier-Clayton, an activist for the legalization of euthanasia for people with mental illness. Read more
  • April 6, 2017: Physicians in Ontario express their concern with Bill 84 for its failure to protect the conscience rights of doctors in Ontario. Read more here and here
  • April 2, 2017: Ontario’s health minister announces that the government will establish a new service to help people get access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. Read more
  • March 30, 2017: The Ontario Government Committee excludes the Euthanasia Prevention Coalitionfrom the Bill 84 - The Medical Assistance in Dying Statute Law Amendment Act hearings. Although receiving written and oral submissions, the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs rejected the EPC request to make an oral submission to the committee concerning Bill 84. Read more
  • March 20, 2017: Doctors are already harvesting organs from Canadian patients who underwent medically assisted death,and ethicists worry it could make it harder for euthanasia patients to voice a last-minute change of heart. Read more
  • March 9, 2017: The Federal government is reviewing assisted dying eligibility. People being denied its access are the subject of a review. Read more
  • March 8, 2017: Of the $ 11.5 billion pledged to the provinces over the next 10 years, a tiny portion - less than 3% - will be channeled this year to health services. Read more
  • February 27, 2017: Some doctors who have helped people end their lives are officially backing out of assisted death as they are no longer willing to participate in assisted death because of emotional distress or fear of prosecution if their decisions are second-guessed. Read more
  • February 12, 2017: 188 physician-assisted suicides have been registered in British Columbia between June and January. Read more
  • January 23, 2017: A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal concludes that assisted dying could save money. Read more
  • January 16, 2017: An article published in the Journal of Medical Ethics argues for permitting the collection of organs from euthanized persons. Read more
  • January 15, 2017: Far more requests for assisted suicide than anticipated in Manitoba. Read more
  • December 30, 2016: The government of Ontario proposes legislation to complement the federal law by requiring that all euthanasia and assisted suicide cases be reported to the Coroner. Read more
  • December 29, 2016: 744 cases of euthanasia occurred in Canada in 2016 and half of them were in Quebec. Read more
  • December 13, 2016: The Government of Canada announces an independent study on medically assisted suicide which will review issues related to requests by mature minors, advance requests, and requests where mental illness is the sole underlying medical condition. Read more here and here
  • December 12, 2016: Demand for medically assisted death continues to rise in Alberta. The province had been averaging 2 to 4 deaths per week from June to September, but that rate has since gone up to about 3 to 5 per week. Read more here and here
  • December 11, 2016: Nurses in Alberta are authorized to provide medically assisted suicide. Read more
  • December 6, 2016: The professional associations of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, lawyers, notaries and social workers all urge the Quebec Minister of Justice to quickly refer the federal law on assisted suicide to the court of appeals. Read more
  • December 5, 2016: According to a national report, nearly 250,000 elderly Canadians have been financially abused. Read more
  • November 21, 2016: Two hospitals in Winnipeg decide not to provide physician-assisted suicide and will transfer patients to other facilities. Read more
  • November 11, 2016: According to a qualitative study on assisted suicide, many physicians are uncomfortable with being involved in the processing requests for assisted suicide. Read more
  • September 29, 2016: The investigation concerning the possible leak of the text of the bill on euthanasia and assisted suicide to a journalist before its adoption has concluded. While the charges were dropped, the mystery has not been resolved. Read more
  • September 27, 2016: Alberta Health Services announced that the number of requests for medical aid to die (euthanasia and/or assisted suicide) is much higher than expected (more than 4 people per week), which requires it to consider recruiting more staff to manage the surprising volume of requests. Read more
  • September 7, 2016: The government of Quebec affirms that it has no intention of submitting the federal law on medical assistance to die before the Quebec Court of Appeals to obtain a review of its constitutionality, given that the law is already being challenged in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Read more
  • September 6, 2016: The federal law is already contested in court in order to extend its scope to persons who are not eligible. Read more
  • September 2, 2016: A census of the CBC reports that more than 120 people died by euthanasia or assisted suicide in Canada since the introduction of the federal bill C-14 in June, though this remains unclear because of insufficient sources. Read more
  • August 30, 2016:Alberta bishops issue directives to guide the priests in their discernment regarding the possibility of refusing funerals in some cases of euthanasia or assisted suicide. Read more
  • August 11, 2016: The Canadian Bar Association is asking the federal government to change the law to widen the range. Read more
  • August 10, 2016: The media reports hat the Justin Trudeau’s Government has made considerable efforts – and expensive – to repatriate to Ottawa the Emergency Minister of International Development an Francophonie so that she could participate in the adoption of the bill on medical aid in dying. Read more
  • August 8, 2016 : The media reports that the Federal Minister of Justice, Jody Wilson Raybould has hired a consultant who opposed the decision of the Supreme Court to lift the ban on medical aid in dying. Read more
  • June 27, 2016: A group from British Columbia launches a lawsuit to expand the federal law on assisted suicide. Read more here and here
  • June 22, 2016: A group representing more than 4700 Christian doctors challenges the obligation to refer requests for euthanasia as required by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario Read more
  • June 17, 2016: The Senate adopts the latest version of the proposed bill here here that officially becomes the newest federal legislation in receiving royal assent. Read more here, here and here
  • June 15, 2016: The Senate proposes amendments to the proposed bill C-14; the House of Commons returns the proposed bill by refusing the main amendment of the Senate that would remove the requirement of "reasonably foreseeable death".
  • June 8, 2016: Senate members vote an amendment to Bill C-14 to remove the reference to a "reasonably foreseeable death" (41 votes against 31).
  • June 6, 2016: Euthanasia and assisted suicide are officially decriminalized in Canada although no law regulates their practice.
  • June 1, 2016: Hundreds of people, MPs and members of the Senate gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to voice their opposition to the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada.
  • May 31, 2016: Bill C-14 on assisted suicide is approved in the House of Commons to be sent to the Senate in order to be studied and amended. Read more
  • May 17, 2016: The Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs tabled its report with suggestions for amendments regarding the content of Bill C-14.
  • May 12, 2016: The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights tabled a report with suggestions for amendments to Bill C-14.
  • May 5, 2016: MP Mark Warawa introduces as a private member Bill C-268 in the House of Commons. Bill C-268, called the Protection of Freedom of Conscience Act, seeks to protect the conscience rights of health care professionals in light of the arrival of assisted suicide and euthanasia in Canada.
  • May 4, 2016: The principle of Bill C-14 is adopted by a margin of 235 to 75, which sends it to the Committee on Justice and Human Rights where it will be studied for amendments before it is introduced in the Senate. Read more
  • April 21, 2016: The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights begins its study of Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make related amendments to other Acts (physician assisted dying). Committee's website
  • April 14, 2016: Presentation of the Bill by the Liberal government which will legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia across Canada. See Bill in detail
  • April 1, 2016: The media report a first request for euthanasia in Newfoundland. The article exemplifies a dangerous trend in the media: the promotion of assisted suicide, even calling for a second doctor willing to euthanize the person in question. Read more
  • March 30, 2016: The palliative care centers of New Brunswick announce that they do not intend to offer "medical aid in dying" to their patients. They point out that their "objectives are quality of life, pain relief and helping people live as well as possible until the end of their life" but "to hasten someone's death is not part of [their] work." Read more
  • March 18, 2016: A first Ontarian dies by euthanasia with the approval of the Court.
  • March 15, 2016: A patient in Manitoba is granted the right to die by euthanasia ("medical aid in dying").
  • March 1st, 2016: A Calgary woman receives a legal exemption to die with the intervention of two doctors. She became the first person in Canada outside of Quebec to be allowed to die that way.
  • February 25, 2016: Publication of the report of the Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted death, containing a dissenting report of Committee members who did not approve the "majority" report which prioritizes access to death rather than the protection of the living. Read our press release
  • February 19, 2016: Liberals suspend decision to whip vote on assisted-dying bill. Read more
  • February 17, 2016: Party line criticized by Liberal members. Read more
  • February 11, 2016: Liberals announce that its members will have to vote in favour of the law to be proposed on Assisted Suicide (voting the party line). Read more
  • January 18, 2016: Beginning of the work and public hearings of the Special Joint Committee on Physician Assisted Death, mandated by the Federal governement to make recommendations on euthanasia and assisted suicide.
  • January 15, 2016: The Supreme Court of Canada gives the federal government a four-month extension (until June 2016) to formulate and pass legislation to comply with the Carter decision allowing assisted suicide in Canada. Read more
  • January 11, 2016: Hearing on the request of the Federal government for an additional six months to have time to rewrite the law related to assisted suicide.
  • December 13, 2015: Publication of the report of the Provincial-Territorial Advisory Group, responsible for making recommendations to the Federal government, in which it advocates death on demand even for children.
  • December 4, 2015: The Federal Government requests from the Supreme Court of Canada a six months extension of the February 6, 2016 deadline to legislate on assisted suicide.