Thank you, and I want to thank Mr. Richards for bringing this issue before us. It's certainly been both an emotional experience and an intellectual experience going through this and all the testimony that we've received over a period of time. I've been closely connected with a number of parents in my community who have gone through similar issues and different experiences. The subjectivity that you refer to is certainly part of my experience as well.
I also appreciate Mr. Richards' sense of urgency in wanting to move this ahead. I think we all certainly feel that. Having heard the testimony again, both the experiential and the research, I share your sense of urgency. I don't want the notion of taking that away to imply in any way that there's any sense from me, and I'm sure from my colleagues, that we don't want this to move forward as quickly as we can to put in place practices, procedures and empathetic, reasoned responses to people in need.
With the procedural perspective, I keep thinking about Steven Pinker and Abraham Lincoln talking about “the better angels of our nature”. How do we find and want to reflect that? As Canadians, we want to reflect the values that you've highlighted for us as well as many of the values that have come to us through many parents talking about their experiences—and not just parents, but extended family members. As I say, it has torn me and I'm sure torn many of us in many ways, with the experiences that we have in our communities and the experiences that we have individually with these types of death.
There have been a lot of specific suggestions that have come out, and I again sense the urgency and the desire to get to a place where we have a much better responsive, caring system in our country. Some reference has been made to other countries, other jurisdictions.
Is there anything out there around the world that is helpful? Each of you has made different references to different specifics. Is there something that we can adapt, some best practices? Each of you has made different references to things. Are there some things that become...?
I guess I'm looking for the values and then the principles that roll out of those that can then be interpreted into legislation, practice and policy. I think that we need to ensure that we start to invest in some of those and some of the values that we see as Canadians and as caring people.
This is to any of you who like to respond to it.