Luc Thériault

“Mr. Speaker, there are few debates in Parliament that are more consequential and more deeply impactful than when we are called to debate life-and-death legislation. Issues of this importance require us to look beyond being partisan, and this is not the first time the chamber has had to grapple with such profound moral weight. We just have to look at our history. I am thinking of capital punishment. A private member’s bill was introduced to abolish it in 1914. For decades, in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, parliamentarians in this chamber grappled with that issue. They debated whether deterrence prevented murders, the morality of a state taking a human life, whether life imprisonment was a sufficient punishment and the irreversible possibility of making a mistake. We fast-forward to today. Medical assistance in dying is, without question, one of the most consequential public policy decisions this Parliament has ever made. It is a matter of life and death, literally, and that is precisely why we cannot afford to get this wrong. When Canada first introduced medical assistance in dying in 2016, Canadians were assured by the government that it would be a carefully controlled, exceptional measure built on very clear limitations and uncompromising safeguards. We were told it was strictly an end-of-life compassionate option for those facing a reasonably foreseeable natural death. That is what we were told, but look at where we are today. The data tells us a staggering story. In 2024 alone, 16,499 Canadians received MAID. Since its introduction, more than 76,000 Canadians have died through this program. It is approaching 100,000 now, in 2026. In 2024, MAID accounted for approximately 5.1% of all deaths across Canada. This is an extraordinary number. To put this in perspective, let us look across the border at California. It is a jurisdiction with about the same population size as Canada. Medical assistance in dying was legalized in both Canada and California at exactly the same time, yet we can look at the comparison of numbers: in Canada, 76,475 deaths, versus just 5,423 in California. In 2024, as I mentioned, there were 16,499 in this country versus 1,032 in California. I think about how dramatically our legislation has evolved. In 2021, through Bill C-7, the government expanded eligibility far beyond those whose natural deaths were reasonably foreseeable. We created two distinct tracks, including a track for individuals who are not approaching the end of life. In so doing, Canada became one of the most permissive jurisdictions in the entire world when it came to assisted dying. By removing the requirement of natural death to be reasonably foreseeable, the government extended MAID to people with disabilities and chronic illnesses who were not otherwise dying. This approach is far outside the traditional, globally recognized end-of-life care model. Mental illness was initially excluded from this expansion, but only temporarily. Ever since, Parliament has repeatedly had to step in to extend that exclusion as a matter of crisis management. Bill C-39 kicked the deadline down the road. Bill C-62 extended it again, to March 17, 2027, a date that we are now quickly approaching. We must ask ourselves why MAID for mental illness was delayed in the first place. It was delayed because committees heard testimony after testimony from the front lines stating that this was an incredibly dangerous direction to go in. There was substantial, overwhelming agreement among mental health advocates, disability advocates, psychiatric professionals and academic experts. The special joint committee’s recommendation was clear, to permanently exclude mental illness as a sole underlying condition for MAID, and Conservatives agree entirely with this. We believe that someone suffering from depression, PTSD or another severe mental illness should be met with access to treatment, support and hope, not a path to assisted death. Mental illness can be utterly devastating. It distorts how a person sees themselves, how they view their current circumstances and how they perceive the future. However, we know that circumstances can change. Treatment can work. People can recover. People who once saw absolutely no hope can go on to live incredibly meaningful, beautiful lives. I have shared this before, but it bears repeating. In my early twenties, I went through a clinical depression. It was a very dark period of time in my life. I had suicidal thoughts. Thankfully, I never made any attempts, but in that darkness I received vital support from health care professionals and those closest to me. I came out of it. Today, that dark period is a very distant memory. I feel no pain from it, but at the time I felt utterly incapacitated. With time and support, I recovered. I went on to go to university, become a teacher, an MLA in British Columbia, a member of Parliament, a father and a grandfather. I have lived a full and rich life and I am thankful. If MAID for mental illness had been legal and readily marketed for people like me at that time, how many would have gone that route? The government itself has recognized these serious concerns, which is why it repeatedly extended the exclusion. However, with the current exclusion set to expire on March 17, 2027, there is an urgent need to act, and Conservatives have acted. The member for Cloverdale—Langley City introduced a private member’s bill, Bill C-218, which would have permanently and cleanly excluded mental illness as a sole underlying condition for MAID. What happened? The Liberals voted against it. On October 7, this House had a clear opportunity to advance that protective legislation and the government voted it down. Now, just weeks later, the government has introduced its own legislation, Bill C-41, which we are debating right now as we approach midnight. What has it done? It has taken the exact permanent exclusion for mental illness and attached it to a completely separate, massive and entirely undebated element, the advance request for MAID. Let us call it what it is. The Liberals do not want to subject their new expansion of MAID to the raw public scrutiny that the mental illness expansion faced. The more the expert witnesses, physicians, psychiatrists and professional organizations spoke out about mental illness, the more the general public became concerned. They do not want to go in that direction. By chaining these two issues together in Bill C-41, it is trying to sneak a massive new policy under the radar. I say, shame. The political dynamic in this House has shifted. Following the by-elections and floor crossings earlier this year, the Liberal government now holds a majority. It no longer needs collaboration with the opposition. It no longer needs to seek multipartisan consensus on matters of life and death. Because of this, it has the raw numbers to pass legislation independently, and it is using that power to ram this through. It is rushing this bill through the House, cutting off the thorough, isolated scrutiny that each one of these profound issues desperately deserves. Conservatives are deeply concerned with the safeguards in this bill, particularly with the sudden expansion to advance directives. The cold, hard fact is that there is already widespread abuse and inappropriate promotion with our current MAID regime. Time and again, I talk with residents in my community who tell me horror stories about family members having MAID actively promoted and suggested to their loved ones. One of my own staff members was offered MAID three separate times because of the migraines he suffered from a fall a decade ago. Another man told me how his father was offered MAID because of a hip injury. The son had to step in and tell providers that his father needed exercises and stretching, not MAID. He helped his father get the proper rehabilitation and guess what. He is out of the hospital. He is not dead.”