We oppose the Liberal-8 amendment as it could lead to this provision being unnecessarily restrictive. For example, it could result in the court only being able to consider the opinion of medical experts and not other experts outside the medical field. For example, psychologists may not be considered medical experts as they do not practise medicine.
Further, subsection 672.1 of the Criminal Code, defines the term medical practitioner as someone licensed to practise medicine in a province. I think the term medical expert could lead to confusion as to the meaning of each term. Further, the term medical expert is not a term known to criminal law, but the term expert has a well-understood meaning. There are tools and procedures in criminal law to determine whether someone is an expert. These tools may not be adaptable to determine if someone is a medical expert.