{"id":17004,"date":"2025-03-12T13:54:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/?p=17004"},"modified":"2025-03-12T13:57:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:57:27","slug":"pr-march-12-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/pr-march-12-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Persons with disabilities have sought access to medical assistance in dying due to unmet needs: the Canadian \u201cfalse choice\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Canada under review at UN<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Montreal, March 12, 2025<\/span><\/b> \u2013 On March 10 and 11 in Geneva
\n(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.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cA false choice\u201d<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Screenshot, webtv.un.org<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The official meeting\nsummary of the United Nations Information Service includes a quote from Ms.\nRosemary Kayess, Vice-Chairperson, UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with\nDisabilities (Australia) and Leader of the Taskforce for Canada: \u00ab it was\nconcerning that persons with disabilities sought access to medical assistance\nin dying due to unmet needs, which was a systemic failure of the State\nparty.  The disproportionate impact of these failures, which included\npoverty, and a lack of access to employment and services, underpinned the\nso-called choice for seeking medical assistance in dying as an\nalternative. How was this not State-sanctioned euthanasia?  If choice\nwas the trigger, why was there not also a focus on addressing the support that\nperson needed, which would take them away from social isolation where they\nperceived dying as the only option they had? \u00bb. She also added \u00ab For me,\nit is still a false choice. \u00bb
\n
\nMs. Kayess went so far as to add during the discussions \u201cDo you not see this as\na step back into state-sanctioned eugenics programmes\u201d?<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

\n\n<\/p>

As is too often\nthe case during these reviews, the answers of the Canadian delegation were\noften prepared in advance and did not appear to satisfy the experts. \u00ab The\ndialogue would have been more fruitful if there was less reliance on prepared\nstatements which frequently did not answer the Committee\u2019s questions. \u00bb according\nto Mr. Markus Schefer, committee expert and taskforce member, who, at the start\nof the second day, had to remind the delegation to avoid “canned\nanswers”.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Recommendations from Canadian groups<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Living in\nDignity supports these recommendations made by more than 50 organizations\n(several of which were in Geneva) in the Civil Society Parallel Report for\nCanada:<\/o:p><\/b><\/span><\/p>

\u25cf      \n<\/span><\/span>Repeal Track Two MAiD;<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

\u25cf      \n<\/span><\/span>Repeal the legal provisions which will make Track Two\nMAiD available to people with a mental illness as their sole underlying medical\ncondition in March 2027.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

As Inclusion\nCanada<\/i> pointed out <\/span>in a\npress release issued on Monday<\/span><\/a>, several organizations defending\nthe rights of persons with disabilities, as well as individuals, have\nchallenged Canada\u2019s expanded MAiD laws by launching a legal Charter\nchallenge in the Ontario Superior Court.<\/o:p><\/b><\/span><\/p>

Living with\nDignity would also like to highlight this recommendation from the Canadian\nHuman Rights Commission :<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

\u201cRecommendation\n#3:<\/b> That before taking further action on its expansion, Canada conduct a\ncritical and thorough examination of what has happened since the coming into\nforce of MAiD legislation, including by collecting the evidence and testimony\nnecessary so that there is a clear understanding of who is accessing MAiD and\nwhy, and by ensuring that the experiences and concerns of those who are most\nmarginalized are listened to, valued and addressed.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

The\nrecommendations of several other groups deserve your attention, including those\nof the Assembly of First Nations<\/i>, the Environmental Health\nAssociations of Canada and Qu\u00e9bec <\/i>and the Feminist Alliance for\nInternational Action<\/i>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

All these\nrecommendations are available in the reports <\/span>posted\non this page<\/span><\/a>, as are those of the Canadian delegation, which we\ninvite you to read and analyze. The Parallel Report of Civil Society for Canada\ncan be found under the name of one of the signatories, ARCH Disability Law\nCentre<\/i>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

Next step? The\nUN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will publish its\nconcluding observations on March 21 (end of its current session).<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

To review all of\nthe Committee’s exchanges with the Canadian delegation this week (two\nthree-hour sessions):<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

– March 10, <\/span>https:\/\/webtv.un.org\/en\/asset\/k1n\/k1n09gnpy1<\/span><\/a>\n(quotes from Ms. Kayess, Vice-Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on\nthe Rights of Persons with Disabilities, are at 02:19:04 and 02:25:04); <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>

– March 11, <\/span>https:\/\/webtv.un.org\/en\/asset\/k1j\/k1jvnn43r1<\/span><\/a>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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– 30 –<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>


\nMedia contact:<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

\n\n\n\n<\/p>

Jasmin Lemieux-Lefebvre
\nCoordinator
\nLiving with Dignity citizen network
\nwww.vivredignite.org\/en<\/a>
\ninfo@vivredignite.org<\/a>
\n438-931-1233<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada under review at UN
\nMontreal, March 12, 2025 \u2013 On March 10 and 11 in Geneva
\n(Switzerland), the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities examined the report submitted …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[290],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17011,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17004\/revisions\/17011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}