Canada under review at UN
Montreal, March 12, 2025 – On March 10 and 11 in Geneva
(Switzerland), the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities examined the report submitted by Canada under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
As this review is flying under the media radar due to current events, the Living with Dignity citizen network would like to highlight some of the interventions of the United Nations experts addressing medical assistance in dying as well as recommendations from Canadian groups participating in the study.
“A false choice”
The official meeting
summary of the United Nations Information Service includes a quote from Ms.
Rosemary Kayess, Vice-Chairperson, UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (Australia) and Leader of the Taskforce for Canada: « it was
concerning that persons with disabilities sought access to medical assistance
in dying due to unmet needs, which was a systemic failure of the State
party. The disproportionate impact of these failures, which included
poverty, and a lack of access to employment and services, underpinned the
so-called choice for seeking medical assistance in dying as an
alternative. How was this not State-sanctioned euthanasia? If choice
was the trigger, why was there not also a focus on addressing the support that
person needed, which would take them away from social isolation where they
perceived dying as the only option they had? ». She also added « For me,
it is still a false choice. »
Ms. Kayess went so far as to add during the discussions “Do you not see this as
a step back into state-sanctioned eugenics programmes”?
As is too often
the case during these reviews, the answers of the Canadian delegation were
often prepared in advance and did not appear to satisfy the experts. « The
dialogue would have been more fruitful if there was less reliance on prepared
statements which frequently did not answer the Committee’s questions. » according
to Mr. Markus Schefer, committee expert and taskforce member, who, at the start
of the second day, had to remind the delegation to avoid “canned
answers”.
Recommendations from Canadian groups
Living in
Dignity supports these recommendations made by more than 50 organizations
(several of which were in Geneva) in the Civil Society Parallel Report for
Canada:
●
Repeal Track Two MAiD;
●
Repeal the legal provisions which will make Track Two
MAiD available to people with a mental illness as their sole underlying medical
condition in March 2027.
As Inclusion
Canada pointed out in a
press release issued on Monday, several organizations defending
the rights of persons with disabilities, as well as individuals, have
challenged Canada’s expanded MAiD laws by launching a legal Charter
challenge in the Ontario Superior Court.
Living with
Dignity would also like to highlight this recommendation from the Canadian
Human Rights Commission :
“Recommendation
#3: That before taking further action on its expansion, Canada conduct a
critical and thorough examination of what has happened since the coming into
force of MAiD legislation, including by collecting the evidence and testimony
necessary so that there is a clear understanding of who is accessing MAiD and
why, and by ensuring that the experiences and concerns of those who are most
marginalized are listened to, valued and addressed.”
The
recommendations of several other groups deserve your attention, including those
of the Assembly of First Nations, the Environmental Health
Associations of Canada and Québec and the Feminist Alliance for
International Action.
All these
recommendations are available in the reports posted
on this page, as are those of the Canadian delegation, which we
invite you to read and analyze. The Parallel Report of Civil Society for Canada
can be found under the name of one of the signatories, ARCH Disability Law
Centre.
Next step? The
UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will publish its
concluding observations on March 21 (end of its current session).
To review all of
the Committee’s exchanges with the Canadian delegation this week (two
three-hour sessions):
– March 10, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1n/k1n09gnpy1
(quotes from Ms. Kayess, Vice-Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, are at 02:19:04 and 02:25:04);
– March 11, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1j/k1jvnn43r1.
– 30 –
Media contact:
Jasmin Lemieux-Lefebvre
Coordinator
Living with Dignity citizen network
www.vivredignite.org/en
info@vivredignite.org
438-931-1233
MAR
2025