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Justice

During Question Period on justice matters, a Conservative member urged support for Bill C-218, which would amend the Criminal Code to keep medical assistance in dying unavailable to people whose only condition is a mental illness, arguing that waiting for the government’s own legislation puts vulnerable people at risk. A Liberal minister replied that the current ban remains in place until March and that the government intends to pass its own legislation extending the ban before then.Written by AI from the debate. Updated .

Official text

2 statements

Tamara Jansen

Conservative
“I want the Liberals to support this bill today instead of waiting for their own bill. It stops people from getting medical assistance in dying only for a mental illness. Waiting wastes time and puts lives at risk.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, today the Liberals are taking a cynical gamble with vulnerable Canadians’ lives, asking Parliament to reject Bill C-218 for a phantom bill that has not even been written. They are playing political games at a time when lives are in the balance. The study was done. The broad consensus is there. The bill is tabled. Every minute we waste on an unwritten bill brings us closer to the deadline. Rejecting protection already before Parliament is reckless, and Canadians could pay with their lives. Will the Liberals do the right thing, work with us and support Bill C-218 today?

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Sean Fraser

Liberal

Linked statement

“Right now, people cannot get medically assisted dying only for mental illness. That ban ends next March. Before then, our government will pass a law to keep that ban in place indefinitely.”

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Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her work to advance an important conversation when it comes to mental illness as the sole underlying mental condition that would justify medical assistance in dying in this country. This is a serious conversation. However, I would like to point out one inaccuracy in her question that is very important. Today, there is no access to medical assistance in dying because it is excluded in the Criminal Code. Before that exclusion expires in March next year, we will advance and adopt legislation to, in an indeterminate way, continue the exclusion of access to medical assistance in dying when it comes to mental illness as the sole condition that would justify its use.

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