We hope you had a wonderful, long Thanksgiving weekend, with the added bonus of last Saturday being World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. Following the summer updates from the End-of-Life Care Commission (available online in French), we eagerly await their annual report for 2022-23 by the end of this month. The report was originally due to be submitted to Minister Sonia Bélanger no later than September 30th, and she now has 30 days to table it in the Quebec National Assembly. Rest assured; we will provide a prompt response as soon as it becomes public!
Don’t miss a piece of good news from Scandinavia in our press review: Denmark’s Ethics Council advises against legalising euthanasia.
Excerpt: The very existence of an offer of euthanasia will decisively change our ideas about old age, the coming of death, quality of life and what it means to take others into account,” they wrote in the full report. “If euthanasia becomes an option, there is too great a risk that it will become an expectation aimed at special groups in society.
Pleasant reading on World Mental Health Day,
Jasmin Lemieux-Lefebvre
Coordinator
Living with Dignity citizen network
MAiD and Mental Health: Debates on Bill C-314
Federal MPs voiced their opinions during the second reading of Bill
C-314, an Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying), in the House of Commons on Thursday, October 5th.
We welcome the cross-party interventions aimed at opposing the expansion
of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) for severe mental health disorders
scheduled for March 17, 2024.
Two interventions deserve particular attention:
The speech by MP Don Davies (NDP):
Mr. Speaker, in March 2023, legislation to extend by one year the temporary exclusion of eligibility for MAID where a person’s sole medical condition is a mental illness received royal assent and immediately came into force. This means that persons suffering solely from a mental illness will be eligible for MAID as of March 17, 2024. Bill C-314, the bill before the House today, would remove this eligibility at least until we have satisfactory answers and guardrails to ensure that we can extend this profoundly permanent step with confidence. In my view, we do not have that necessary confidence today, and I think the majority of Canadians and health professionals, and the data, concur.
At 18:05:20 https://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20231005/-1/39962
The speech by MP Len Webber (CPC):
Many Canadians are just not getting the mental health assistance they need. Clearly, we need to put better supports in mental health and people’s access to that help. We should be careful in asking police to be mental health professionals. We need to make sure we have the right people in
the right place at the right time. I am pleased to hear that some police forces are now using health professionals in the field, but we still have a long way to go.
We need to put vulnerable Canadians back in control of their lives. We want to see them get the help they need and provide them with the social and mental health supports they need. We must never give up on them and allow them to prematurely choose MAID over access to mental health care.
At 18:16:10 https://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20231005/-1/39962
For all speeches on Bill C-314 (shortly after 17:45) https://noscommunes.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/house/sitting-230/hansard
The vote on the second reading of the bill is now deferred to October
18, 2023.
Earlier last week, a conference organized by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition took place at the Canadian Parliament Press Gallery. Thanks to Mr. Gordon Friesen, Ms. Anike Morrison, Ms. Garifalia Milousi, and Dr. Paul Saba for their contributions:
https://cpac.ca/episode?id=6db4a016-2395-4391-95ec-4810e766e66f
Press Review (in French and English)
RRQ Penalty Deemed Discriminatory Towards Disabled Seniors: Motion Rejected
There’s a new development in the case of the Quebec Pension Plan (RRQ) penalty, which has been deemed discriminatory towards disabled seniors. MPs Joël Arseneau (PQ), Linda Caron (Lib), Haroun Bouazzi (QS), and Marie-Claude Nichols (Ind) tabled a motion in the Quebec National Assembly last Thursday to denounce the situation, but the Government refused to debate it. Here is the complete text of the motion (our translation):
“That the National Assembly take note that a decision by the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec has deemed the penalty imposed by the Quebec Pension Plan on retirement pensions of individuals who received a disability
pension between the ages of 60 and 65 to be discriminatory;
That it reminds that this penalty represents a reduction of up to 36% of the regular pension for seniors;
That it highlights that financial precarity disproportionately affects seniors in Quebec, especially those in situations of disability;
That it serves as a reminder that the Quebec Pension Plan is in excellent financial health, and its sustainability is not at risk;
Finally, that the National Assembly calls on the government to withdraw its appeal and to reform the Quebec Pension Plan Act to remove the penalty
deemed discriminatory towards disabled seniors.”
To read the complete intervention by MP Arsenault (after 11:30 AM, in French):
https://assnat.qc.ca/fr/travaux-parlementaires/assemblee-nationale/43-1/journal-debats/20231005/360583.html. Video below.
The mobilization continues, and we support the initiative “Les
Invalides au front.” (The Disabled on the Frontlines).
Here is a compilation of their numerous media appearances over the past few months:
You can join the movement through this Facebook group.
OCT
2023