• May 11, 2018: The Montreal Palliative Care Institute – an institute dedicated to palliative care – is opened. Read more
  • April 25, 2018: The number of patients who requested assisted suicide jumped by 100% in Estrie. Read more
  • March 29, 2018: Transplant Quebec wants to offer organ donation to patients requesting euthanasia. Read more
  • February 14, 2018: The Commission on End-of-Life Care will call on all institutions in the health network to draw up an accurate report on access to palliative care in Quebec. Read more
  • February 12, 2018: The number of Quebecers who received assisted suicide has jumped by 65% between 2016 and 2017 and by more than 30% in the last six months of 2017. Read more
  • February 1, 2018: In the lower Saint Laurence, no fewer than 60 people have used the “Medical Aid in Dying” Act since it came into force in June 2016. Read more
  • January 25, 2018: The number of cases of assisted suicide continue to rise. Read more herehere and here
  • January 19, 2018: The Commission on End-of-Life Care says it shares concerns about a lack of effort and resources to make quality palliative care accessible in all CHSLDs. Read more
  • January 9, 2018: Two patients who were refused assisted suicide continue their battle to remove the "end of life" and “reasonably foreseeable natural death” criteria from the Canadian and Quebec laws. Read more here and here
  • January 8, 2018: Two studies published last fall by Quebec researchers show the important implications regarding conscience rights for health care providers. Read more
  • November 28, 2017: The Elder Abuse Help Line receives an increasing number of calls. Read more
  • December 14, 2017: According to a study published by the CISSS of Laval, 77% of physicians who received a request from a patient for assisted suicide refused to participate in the process citing conscientious objection. Read more here and here
  • December 14, 2017: According to preliminary data submitted to the CIUSSS Board of Directors of the Estrie-CHUS, an additional 19 people received medical aid to die in 2017 compared to 2016. Read more
  • November 27, 2017: Véronique Hivon calls on Quebec Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée to reconsider her decision, and ask the Court of Appeal to clarify the notion of "reasonably foreseeable death" in the federal law on medical assistance in dying. Read more 
  • November 16, 2017: The Quebec government will not ask the courts to clarify the "reasonably foreseeable death concept" contained in the federal law on assisted suicide, as it had called for in March. Read more
  • October 31, 2017: The Association of Caregivers of the Capitale-Nationale (APACN) unveiled the results of a survey on the perception of caregivers of assisted suicide. Read more
  • October 26, 2017: Some Quebec patients receive assisted suicide without fulfilling the criteria. Read more
  • October 26, 2017: The Commission on end-of-life care tables its second annual report in the National Assembly. According to the report some patients were euthanaised without being entitled to it. Read more
  • October 24, 2017: Health minister Gaétan Barrette faces criticism as a growing number of Quebec doctors quit the public system. Read more
  • October 12, 2017: The Minister of Health and the Minister for Seniors will remain in place following the cabinet reshuffle. The Council for the Protection of the Patients is concerned and calls for a law on long-term care. Read more
  • October 9, 2017: Activists complain of a growing problem of a lack of mental-health services due to cuts in the Quebec health system. Read more
  • September 29, 2017: According to a study led by Sherbrooke University, 91% of caregivers believe that Quebec’s medical aid in dying law should be extended to cover incapable people who are terminally ill, have signs of distress, and have a written. Read more
  • September 28, 2017: According to the most recent report from the Quebec Ombudsman, home care services have been reduced in Quebec. Read more
  • September 21, 2017: According to a study led by Sherbrooke University, 91% of caregivers believe that Quebec’s medical aid in dying law should be extended to cover incapacitated people who are terminally ill, have signs of distress, and have a written. Read more here and here
  • September 21, 2017: Several doctors have stopped practicing in residential and long-term care centers (CHSLDs) in recent months, a consequence, according to some professionals, of the health reform of Minister Gaétan Barrette. Read more
  • August 30, 2017: A woman has filed a complaint with a Quebec agency alleging that her husband was denied antibiotics to treat an infection after doctors determined it was better to let him die because he had cancer. Read more
  • August 29, 2017: Health Minister Gaétan Barrette is not at all shaken by the reluctance of the Quebec minister of Justice and says his government must overcome this internal opposition and stand before the Court of Appeals. Read more
  • August 28, 2017: The Minister of Justice, Stéphanie Vallée, is reluctant to ask the courts to clarify the concept of "reasonably foreseeable death". Read more
  • August 23, 2017: While Quebec and Ottawa are exploring the possibility of expanding medical aid to die, the act is still very controversial for many physicians in the country. Read more
  • July 25, 2017: According to Irene Demczuk, General Coordinator of the Regroupement des Assistants Naturels du Québec, there is not enough support for caregivers in Quebec. Read more
  • July 13, 2017: After a very large increase in 2016, the number of requests for euthanasia decreases slightly in Quebec according to partial data. However, all requests for euthanasia made in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Côte-Nord were accepted. Read more here and here
  • July 10, 2017: Independent members of the Board of Directors of the McGill University Health Center (MUHC) announced their resignation, deploring Minister Barrette's refusal to "engage in dialogue" with them. Read more
  • July 7, 2017: Michel Cadotte, man accused of killing his wife, is granted bail before his trial. Read more here and here
  • June 15, 2017: Bail hearing for Michael Cadotte, alleged killer of his wife who suffered from Alzheimer's. Defense lawyers argue that his actions were carried out "in compassion". Read more here and here
  • June 13, 2017: Lawyer Jean-Pierre Ménard is challenging before the courts the cases of two people living with disabilities who were refused the assistance of a physician to kill themselves, requesting the removal of the “reasonably foreseeable death” clause of the federal law as well as the “end of life” requirement in the Quebec law. Read more
  • May 16, 2017: The secretary of the College of Physicians, Dr. Yves Robert, publishes an open letter to express his reluctance to expand assisted dying. Read more here and here
  • April 14, 2017: Quebec is the first province to consider the controversial proposal of euthanasia by advance consent. Read more
  • March 24, 2017: Gaétan Barrette announces measures designed to fuel the debate on a possible extension of the Act Respecting End-of-life Care, in particular for the incapacitated, but also potentially for people living with chronic diseases. Among other things, he amends the Commission's mandate on end-of-life care to analyze euthanasia refusals. Read more
  • March 20, 2017: The Quebec government has cut funding for educational activities that allowed future family physicians to receive specialized mental health training. Read more
  • March 17, 2017: The lawyer of the Montrealer accused of killing his Alzheimer wife believes that it will be up to society and the court to decide whether it is a murder or an aid to die. Read more
  • March 16, 2017: Requests for euthanasia have risen in Bas-Saint-Laurent. Read more
  • March 14, 2017: During the first year of the new law in Quebec, a total of 461 people have died by euthanasia.  Full statistics hereRead more
  • February 23, 2017: Health Minister Gaetan Barrette opens the door for public debate on extending assisted suicide to patients unable to give consent; such as those with Alzheimers. Read more
  • February 21, 2017: A man allegedly suffocated his 60-year-old spouse allegedly to end the suffering of his wife who was suffering from advanced stage Alzheimer’s. Read more
  • February 1, 2017: Businessman Alexander Taillefer pleads for Quebec to invest more to prevent suicide online as part of the 27th Suicide Prevention Week with the theme "Suicide is not an option". Read more
  • January 22, 2017: survey reveals that the majority of health workers are stressed out.
  • January 17, 2017: A patient’s rights advocate argues that there are harsher consequences for mistreating animals than humans in Quebec. Read more
  • January 14, 2017: Quebec bioethicists publish an article calling for organ donation after euthanasia.
  • January 10, 2017: The number of cases of euthanasia in Quebec exceeds expectations (again). Read more
  • December 9, 2016: Health minister Barrette presents Bill 130; a bill that would require doctors to perform hospital duties or risk facing a disciplinary committee. Read more
  • November 29, 2016: A report accidentally released to the National Assembly reported troubling practices in the provinces CHSLDs. Read more
  • November 29, 2016: According to the latest publicly available data, 28 requests for assisted suicide were administered in Estrie in 2016 to date. Read more
  • October 27, 2016: The Commission on end-of-life care published their first annual report of activities where it was announced that there had been 262 cases of euthanasia since September 1st. It mentioned having examined 198 cases within which 21 were problematic: Among them, 18 cases concern the independence of the second doctor, 2 cases mention a problem with the end-of-life criterion, and 1 case raises questions about whether the patient was actually suffering from a serious and incurable disease. Read more
  • October 21, 2016: The International Congress on Palliative Care was held in Montreal, where speakers voiced their concerns about the future of palliative are in Quebec. According to them, the arrival of euthanasia exposes the palliative care milieu in Quebec to a risk of “fracture and implosion,” because of the increasing pressure to “penetrate the aid to die in its environments of care. Read more
  • September 30, 2016: The annual report of The Quebec Ombudsman criticized the fact that bureaucracy has suffered less than vulnerable cutbacks in public services and that it is therefore the most vulnerable who pay the price of austerity. Read more
  • September 29, 2016: Canadian Bishops are attacked in the media for having wrongly considered the possibility to deny a religious funeral in some cases of euthanasia – even though to this day, no directive has been given in this respect. Read more
  • September 22, 2016: Unions representing the staff of the Bas-Saint-Laurent health facilities denounce the considerable deterioration of the quality of services following the health cuts. Read more
  • September 21, 2016: Confusion still surrounds the differences between the federal law and the Quebec law on euthanasia and assisted suicide. The minister Gaétan Barrette warns Quebec doctors who risk applying the federal law C-14 that they risk getting in trouble with the law. Read more 
  • September 19, 2016:Patients and unions denounce the Quebec government on conducting another consultation of nursing homes instead of making concrete efforts to improve the lives of patients. Read more
  • September 19, 2016: The commission charged with observing the application of the law on euthanasia in Quebec is accused again by the same euthanasia doctors who question its impartiality due to the presence of opponents of euthanasia within its board of directors. Read more
  • September 10, 2016: On the occasion of the 14th World Day of suicide prevention, the Association québécoise de prévention du suicide notes that 1100 Quebecers take their own lives every year, or 3 people per day, and that the situation stagnated despite prevention campaigns. Read more
  • September 9, 2016: The commission charged with observing the implementation of the law on euthanasia in Quebec is accused of being too proactive by euthanasia doctors. Read more
  • August 30, 2016: considering the increasing number of Quebecers who kill themselves by fasting because they are ineligible to euthanasia, the Collège des médecins du Québec announced that it is preparing a "practical guide" to help doctors accompany their patients who will die of hunger and thirst. Read more
  • August 17, 2016: La Maison Albatros is publicly singled out because of their refusal to euthanize a patient electing instead to transfer him to a hospital in Trois-Rivières, as provided by the law. Read more
  • July 24, 2016: Inauguration of a palliative care unit at the Verdun Hospital in Montreal. Read more
  • July 23, 2016: Quebec doctors who practice euthanasia must proceed by ignoring the directions of Health Canada which has still not approved the protocol for administration of products used in cases of euthanasia. Read more
  • July 18, 2016: The Quebec government adopts new ministerial directives to make the practice of euthanasia in Quebec in line with federal law. Read more
  • July 13, 2016: A doctor from Montreal files a lawsuit before the Superior Court of Quebec to challenge the Quebec law that legalized euthanasia. Read more
  • July 7, 2016: Six month after the law regarding end-of-life care came into effect, publicly-released data shows that requests for euthanasia exceeded estimates and that the 166 people euthanized in Quebec represents about twice the amount that experts anticipated. Read more
  • July 4, 2016: The Physicians’ Alliance against euthanasia publishes an open letter to Véronique Hivon to denounce her attack against the MUHC accusing her of wanting to impose euthanasia in palliative care. Read more
  • June 29, 2016: Véronique Hivon asks Health Minister Gaétan Barrette to intervene and force the MUHC Palliative Care Unit to perform euthanasia in their unit . Dr Barrette responds that he wants to quell the resistance .
  • February 29, 2016: A communication campaign is launched by the Government of Quebec on end of life care. Link to the message
  • February 16, 2016: The media report a dozen official euthanasia cases in Quebec since the entry into force of the law. Read more
  • January 15, 2016: The Supreme Court of Canada agrees to exempt Quebec from the four-month extension it granted the Federal government to adopt a law on assisted suicide. Thus, the Quebec euthanasia law, which came into force on December 10, 2015, is formally approved by the Supreme Court of Canada. Read more
  • January 14, 2016: Media outlets report first official case of euthanasia in Quebec
  • January 4, 2016: The Quebec Court of Appeal stated that the Criminal Code provisions that still prohibit "medical aid in dying" can not, by themselves, prevent the entry into force and implementation of euthanasia in Quebec since they were declared invalid by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Carter decision. Read more
  • December 18, 2015: Hearing of the Government of Quebec appeal regarding the incompatibility of its articles related to "medical aid in dying" with the Criminal Code of Canada. The decision of the Court of Appeal is expected soon but at this point we do not know the exact date.