Tory MP to Table Bill That Would Repeal Assisted Suicide Extension for Mental Illnesses

Conservative MP Ed Fast speaks during a news conference on his private member's bill on medical assistance in dying, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, March 6, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Conservative MP Ed Fast says he will be introducing a private member’s bill that seeks to repeal the planned extension of Canada’s medically assisted suicide laws to include individuals whose sole medical condition is mental illness.

Fast made the announcement in Ottawa on March 6 during a press conference in which he was joined by his party’s leader, Pierre Poilievre, who voiced his support for Fast’s planned Bill C-314, also called the Mental Health Protection Act.

Fast said the federal government has moved “too far and too fast” with its medical assistance in dying (MAiD) legislation and says his bill will “reverse and revoke the inclusion of the mentally ill under Canada’s MAiD regime.”

Canada’s MAiD laws were initially set to expand on March 17 to include patients whose sole underlying medical condition is mental illness, but the federal government tabled legislation in early February that aimed to delay the expansion by one year.

Bill C-39, sponsored by Justice Minister David Lametti, is currently pending Senate approval. It must pass before March 17 for the one-year delay to take effect.

Poilievre told reporters on March 6 that Ottawa should be seeking to provide additional mental health supports for patients rather than offering them MAiD.

“Experts tell us that depression and mental illness can come and go, that people can be suffering and desperate today, but a few months later be thankful that they still have their lives and their families,” Poilievre said.

He later added that, if elected, a Conservative government would repeal an expansion of MAiD eligibility that includes the mentally ill.

“We don’t believe that medical assistance in dying [is] for people whose only condition is mental health trouble,” Poilievre said.

MAiD

MAiD is currently available in Canada to those who are aged 18 years and older, who have a serious physical illness, are in an irreversible and advanced state of decline, and are experiencing “unbearable suffering.”

Lametti said the Liberal government introduced the legislation to delay the expansion of MAiD because more time was necessary to put in place proper safeguards.

“We all know that MAiD is very complex and it’s very personal, so it’s not surprising that there is a lot of debate,” he said on Feb. 2.

The expansion came about two months after the Canadian Association of Chairs of Psychiatry (CPA), which represents the leading psychiatrists at Canada’s 17 medical schools, advocated for a delay to the expansion.

“Further time is required to increase awareness of this change and establish guidelines and standards to which clinicians, patients and the public can turn to for more education and information,” said CPA head Dr. Valerie Taylor in a statement on Dec. 1, 2022.

Lametti told reporters on Feb. 1 that he’s “extremely confident” that the proposed one-year delay will be enough time to address all MAiD eligibility expansion concerns.