Private Member’s Bill to Stop MAID Expansion Fails in House by 17 Votes

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 on March 6, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

A private member’s bill to halt the expansion of Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) regime to those whose only medical condition is mental illness was defeated in the House of Commons on Oct. 18 by 17 votes.

The vote failed 150–167, with the majority of Liberals voting against the bill.

Bill C-314, which was given its first reading on Feb. 10, would have amended the Canadian Criminal Code to state that a mental disorder “is not a grievous and irremediable medical condition for which a person could receive medical assistance in dying.”

In March 2021, Parliament passed Bill C-7, which amended the Criminal Code to allow MAID for Canadians whose natural death is not “reasonably foreseeable.” The bill included several safety guards, such as a minimum 90-day assessment period, a second eligibility assessment by a practitioner with expertise in the condition causing the person’s suffering, and two clarifications of informed consent.

The passage of Bill C-7 also temporarily pushed the expansion of MAID for cases only involving mental illness to March 2023. In February 2023, then-Justice Minister David Lametti announced the government would delay MAID’s expansion by one year in order to “ensure that we move forward on this sensitive and complex issue in a prudent and measured way.”

Canada’s MAID regime came under controversy back in 2022, after several Canadian Armed Forces veterans claimed that they had been offered the procedure unprovoked. A veteran seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury told Global News that he was offered MAID by a Veterans Affairs worker.

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A May 2023 poll by Angus Reid that found just 28 percent of Canadians favoured expanding the country’s MAID laws to the mentally ill, and a recent letter from the heads of 17 Canadian psychiatry schools that were against the law’s expansion.

On Oct. 5, Mr. Fast noted in the House of Commons that his bill would have reversed the “terrible decision” to expand MAID to those with mental illnesses, while not repealing other provisions of Canada’s assisted dying laws.

During Question Period on Oct. 18, Mr. Fast criticized Minister of Justice Arif Virani’s comments the previous day that MAID involved balancing the protection of the vulnerable and the autonomy of individuals, and that the decisions “always need to be made commensurate with the charter protections that exist.”

“Yesterday, the justice minister falsely claimed that euthanizing vulnerable Canadians was good public policy and the only way to comply with Canadian law,” Mr. Fast said. “Is this the sorry state of our mental health system? Millions of Canadians oppose this government’s fascination with assisted death. Will this government now bring a full stop to this madness?”

Minister of Health Mark Holland responded that there was “not one among us in this House that doesn’t have people that we love, that are deeply vulnerable, that have been in a state of a mental health crisis.”

Mr. Holland said every MP in the House of Commons wanted Canadians to get adequate support, which is why they are making “critical investments” in mental health. “But we also have to make sure that people who are trapped in mental illness and deep profound suffering, that we examine what’s the best way to deal with those circumstances,” he said.

The minister of health said they were looking at reconstituting the joint committee of parliamentarians “so that we can look at this process, look at how we responsibly deal with these issues in a way that respects and protects vulnerable people.”