{"id":17027,"date":"2025-03-27T04:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T08:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/?p=17027"},"modified":"2025-03-27T04:55:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T08:55:30","slug":"pr-march-27-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/pr-march-27-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recommends to repeal Track 2 Medical Assistance in Dying"},"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 27, 2025<\/span><\/b> \u2013 Yesterday, the United Nations Committee\non the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published its concluding\nobservations following its review of the report submitted by Canada under the\nConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, on March 10 and 11.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

In its 19-page\nreport, the Committee shares positive and negative aspects concerning respect of\nthe Convention. It expresses \u201cextreme concern\u201d only once, when discussing Track\n2 Medical Assistance in Dying, which is intended for people whose natural death\nis not reasonably foreseeable.
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\nThe Committee writes: \u201cThe federal government did not challenge the Quebec\nTruchon decision which fundamentally changes the whole premise of medical\nassistance in dying when natural death is reasonably foreseeable to a new\nprogram that establishes medically assisted dying for persons with disabilities\nbased on negative, ableist perceptions of the quality and value of the life of\npersons with disabilities, including that \u2018suffering\u2019 is intrinsic to\ndisability rather than the fact that inequality and discrimination cause and\ncompound \u2018suffering\u2019 for persons with disabilities\u201d.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

Its\nrecommendations are as follows (excerpts):<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

– <\/span>Repeal\nTrack 2 Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), including the 2027 commencement of\nTrack 2 MAiD for persons whose \u201csole underlying medical condition is a mental\nillness\u201d;<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

– Not support\nproposals for the expansion of MAiD to include \u201cmature minors\u201d and advance\nrequests;<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

– Significantly\ninvest and implement comprehensive measures, at federal, provincial, and\nterritorial levels to ensure the systemic failures in relation to the social\ndeterminants of health and well-being are addressed, <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

– Strengthen\ndistinctions-based, community-led consultation processes with Indigenous\nPeoples, <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

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

– Establish and resource\na federal independent oversight mechanism to monitor, regulate and handle\ncomplaints in relation to MAiD.<\/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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A necessary impact on the federal election campaign <\/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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The Living with\nDignity citizen network invites all candidates in the upcoming federal election\nto take note of these recommendations from the UN committee. Together with\ntheir respective parties, they must take a position on these issues concerning\nmedical assistance in dying and its various extensions. These extensions have lead\nto what Ms. Rosemary Kayess, Vice-Chair of the United Nations Committee on the\nRights of Persons with Disabilities (Australia) and head of the working group\non Canada, <\/span>called\n\u201ca false choice\u201d during the review on March 10 and 11<\/span><\/a>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

\u201c<\/span>The\nconcept of \u2018choice\u2019 creates a false dichotomy by setting up the premise that if\npersons with disabilities are suffering, it is valid for the State Party to\nenable their death, with safeguards not guaranteeing the provision of support,\nand ableist assumptions deemphasising the myriad of support options for persons\nwith disabilities to live dignified lives, and the systemic failures of the\nState Party to address the social determinants of health and well-being, such\nas poverty alleviation, access to healthcare, accessible housing, prevention of\nhomelessness, prevention of gender-based violence, the provision of\ncommunity-based mental health supports and employment supports\u201d<\/span> <\/span>(see Concluding\nobservations) :<\/b><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/tbinternet.ohchr.org\/_layouts\/15\/treatybodyexternal\/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=2692&Lang=en<\/span><\/a><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

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

On this site can\nalso be found all of the interventions that lead to the Committee\u2019s\nconclusions. Living with Dignity would like to thank all the groups that made\nrepresentations to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities\nduring this analysis by the United Nations.<\/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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A perfect illustration of the Canadian \u201cfalse choice\u201d, the documentary Better off dead? won an award yesterday<\/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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The British\ndocumentary Better off dead?<\/i>, which looks at medical assistance in dying\nin Canada, won the Best Presenter award at the Royal Television Society\nAwards<\/i> on March 25. Congratulations to Ms. Liz Carr! Watching this\nremarkable 58-minute documentary rapidly shows why the Committee on the Rights\nof Persons with Disabilities reached the above-mentioned conclusions yesterday.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

On the BBC\n(using VPN)<\/span><\/p>

<\/span>https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/m001z8wc<\/span><\/a><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

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

On YouTube <\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/youtu.be\/-G_xF4dvS-U?si=zlmZpy_ewW1AxueB<\/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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<\/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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Screenshot of
this post from Liz Carr’s X account
<\/span>https:\/\/x.com\/thelizcarr\/status\/1904719530321997873<\/span><\/a><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

–<\/span> 30 –<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Media contact:<\/font>
<\/p>

Jasmin Lemieux-Lefebvre
Coordinator
Living with Dignity citizen network 
<\/span><\/font>www.vivredignite.org\/en<\/a>
info@vivredignite.org<\/span><\/a>
438 931-1233<\/span><\/o:p><\/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<\/p>\n

Montreal, March 27, 2025 \u2013 Yesterday, the United Nations Committee
\non the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published its concluding
\nobservations following its review …<\/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-17027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17027","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=17027"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17034,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17027\/revisions\/17034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivredignite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}